Yesterday, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced that he's launching a plan to more than double his country's defense budget over the next two decades -- to about C$30 billion ($30 billion) a year. As part of this, The Great White North will also increase its overall troop numbers to from 65,000 to 70,000 regular soldiers and go from 24,000 to 30,000 reservists, for an increase of 11,000 troops overall. 

Much of this money will go toward replacing the country's aging fleets of vehicles, ships and fighters:

Six of the military's core fleets, including destroyers, frigates, maritime patrol aircraft, fixed-wing and rescue aircraft, fighter aircraft and land combat vehicles, will need to be replaced over the next 20 years, Harper said. That's in addition to new and upgraded equipment purchases already announced, according to the prime minister.

Canada plans to acquire 65 fighter jets to replace its aging fleet of CF-18 planes, Defence Minister Peter MacKay said at the same press conference, according to Dimitri Soudas, a spokesman for Harper. 

The Vancouver Sun reports that "part of the plan will be the immediate allocation of money to buy six medium-lift helicopters to support troops in Afghanistan. The government is also purchasing 100 Leopard tanks, armoured vehicles and devices to protect troops from roadside bombs."

This comes at a time when Canadian forces have been taking heavy losses in Afghanistan, and after the Canadian Parliament voted in March to keep its soldiers in Afghanistan until 2011, so long as Canadian forces be reinforced by 1,000 troops from allied countries, and Canadian forces shift focus from combat to training Afghan security forces.

As Samantha Power pointed out last month, in Afghanistan, "Canada is one of only a handful of NATO countries that have embraced the task of actual war-fighting. The Canadians, who have 2,500 troops on the ground, have suffered 82 fatalities, a death rate that is higher than the U.S. military's in Iraq. In an increasingly two-tiered NATO alliance, Canada occupies the fighting tier, alongside the U.S., Britain, Denmark and the Netherlands," making it all the more important for the Canadian government to funnel more cash into its military -- if the Canadian people continue to see the fight as worth the cost in blood and treasure.