Why do we need a strong, aimless, nationalistic pride to see value in having a strong military? It's a job like any other that provides a service a group of people, in this case the country. To go back to the statistics this thread is discussing, the shift from having "an emotional connection to canada" versus "being attached to Canada as long as it provides a good quality of life" doesn't reflect a population that is completely unwilling to work for the Canadian military. Just one that expects to receive good living for doing so, as they should.

Likewise, I don't think caring about if America takes over should have anything to do with national pride. I don't want to be a part of America for a long list of practical reasons, from the fact they the country doesn't at all share my values, to the complete disregard America seems to have for the fact that Canada is about as diverse as America, and the notion of governing it as one state is about as sensible as governing Florida and California as one state. I don't need to drink the nationalism Kool-aid to recognize that joining America would be a horrible thing.

We should fight tooth and nail for our existence as a country because joining America would be a fucking horrible thing for many of our peoples, not because "hoo rah, Canada!"