A Canadian Forces Leopard 2A4 tank displays it's firepower on the firing range at CFB Gagetown in Oromocto, N.B., in September, 2012.David Smith/The Canadian Press

Germany recently began updating its inventory of Second World War bunkers, and adding other underground sites to the list, as the threat of a foreign military attack moves from the realm of the improbable into that of the increasingly conceivable.

Sweden, which this year ended decades of neutrality to join NATO, is distributing a 32-page booklet to all households with updated, if sobering, instructions on what to do in the case of war. “Military threat levels are increasing,” warns the document. “We must be prepared for the worst-case scenario – an armed attack on Sweden.”

If, after more than 1,000 days of war in Ukraine, most Europeans have abandoned any notion they previously harboured about the end of history, the same cannot be said of folks on this side of the North Atlantic. The idea of preparing for armed conflict is still dismissed in liberal – and Liberal – circles as hyperbolic warmongering.

In April, Defence Minister Bill Blair conceded he had a difficult time persuading fellow cabinet ministers that it was a “worthy goal” to meet Canada’s NATO commitment to spend at least 2 per cent of gross........

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