So apparently, the U.S. (through he CDC) and the province of Quebec have Zombie contingency plans. NDP MP Pat Martin brings up the idea that Canada as a whole should have a Zombie contingency plan in place, as zombies do not respect borders, and it seems (to him) that zombies would originate in America.

What do you think?
Should countries have zombie contingency plans or is this a colossal waste of time and money?

Also, he must have caught the recent Spring season opener of "The Walking Dead"...

http://www.cdc.gov/phpr/zombies.htm

Wonder why Zombies, Zombie Apocalypse, and Zombie Preparedness continue to live or walk dead on a CDC web site? As it turns out what first began as a tongue in cheek campaign to engage new audiences with preparedness messages has proven to be a very effective platform. We continue to reach and engage a wide variety of audiences on all hazards preparedness via Zombie Preparedness; and as our own director, Dr. Ali Khan, notes, "If you are generally well equipped to deal with a zombie apocalypse you will be prepared for a hurricane, pandemic, earthquake, or terrorist attack." So please log on, get a kit, make a plan, and be prepared!

I can't watch the video on this network, but in short, no, I don't think it's a waste of money. A rather brilliant marketing/awareness campaign imo.

s69-5:
So apparently, the U.S. (through he CDC) and the province of Quebec have Zombie contingency plans. NDP MP Pat Martin brings up the idea that Canada as a whole should have a Zombie contingency plan in place, as zombies do not respect borders, and it seems (to him) that zombies would originate in America.

What do you think?
Should countries have zombie contingency plans or is this a colossal waste of time and money?

Also, he must have caught the recent Spring season opener of "The Walking Dead"...

Since 'Zombie' is largely interchangeable with 'epidemic' or 'insurrection' or any number of catastrophes which pits many foes against a smaller number, I'd say it's a bright move.

Realitycrash:
...
Since 'Zombie' is largely interchangeable with 'epidemic' or 'insurrection' or any number of catastrophes which pits many foes against a smaller number, I'd say it's a bright move.

It's undoubtedly a good way of sneaking "behead them" and "burn them to ash with flamethrowers" in as the primary tactics when dealing with insurrection...

Eh, lots of people won't bother taking precautions against things that might happen, but taking the same precautions against things that can't is sometimes fun.

Imperator_DK:

Realitycrash:
...
Since 'Zombie' is largely interchangeable with 'epidemic' or 'insurrection' or any number of catastrophes which pits many foes against a smaller number, I'd say it's a bright move.

It's undoubtedly a good way of sneaking "behead them" and "burn them to ash with flamethrowers" in as the primary tactics when dealing with insurrection...

And honestly, when hasn't 'terminate with extreme prejudice' worked against insurrection?

Honestly I think it's great that lots of governments are doing this, it appeals to a much wider audience than would otherwise think about disaster planning. Definitely not a waste of money as long as the planning isn't very detailed.

My survival plan is based on zombies...it's much easier that way to adapt it to the most likely scenarios (epidemic and floods) as zombies are very generic.

Canada is already in a pretty good situation in the event of a zombie apocalypse. Like Russia we have a large mass of land with a proportionally small population. The majority of it is focused in major cities but those places are also commonly located in areas with extreme temperatures that would hinder the walking dead. Canada would make for a pretty safe haven against the Hordes. The biggest problem would be defending our borders from Americans.

Any measures meant to defeat and/or contain rabid infected will work just as well for quarantine procedure or mob suppression. So why not? It's not like it's a fruitless endevour.

I always wondered what the biological mechanism was that kept zombies from completely rotting away. I suppose it would also matter what type of zombies we're talking about. But generally they're considered t be animated dead flesh?

Jux:
I always wondered what the biological mechanism was that kept zombies from completely rotting away. I suppose it would also matter what type of zombies we're talking about. But generally they're considered t be animated dead flesh?

It really, really depends on the story and setting.
Originally, zombies where people under Voodoo magic and control if I remember correctly, so they are actually alive, seemingly-dead or even dead but brought back to life with magic.
Then there are the styles of zombies that don't explain anything about their origins, they just appear. Sometimes there are some mentions of an epidemic, but things are unclear. That's the most common modern day zombie-type, I'd wager.
And then there is the 28 Days Later version where the zombies are actually infected but living people.
In some instances, zombies will basically exist forever, but lose more and more of their bodily integrity as they stumble around and get hurt. Considering movement requires chemical reactions to take place, this absolutely makes the least amount of sense. They can't just be "frozen" in their state yet still move around and attack people. But I guess it can simply be magic.
In others, they do rot away (think World War Z), but since decomposition is a pretty slow process, it takes months or even years, so "starving them out" is extremely difficult. But it works eventually.
And if we take the "living infected" route, it takes about as long as a person takes to starve to death (4+ weeks, large individual differences) for the zombies to die out. Which is odd, because we never see any of the infected drink anything, so you'd think they'd die much more quickly (a number of days to around 1 week or so).
So the imaginery mechanism behind zombies really, really differs depending on the story and setting. No matter which one, though, don't expect it to make that much sense when you really question it.

its Canada, they dont need a plan. The zombies will freeze. This is about as useful as a zombie plan for the space station.

Why don't ya just put maple syrup along the border aye? The zombies will get stuck in it dont'cha know? They won't be able to do anything aboot it./ all said with a hilarious over the top Canadian accent in mind.

dmase:
Why don't ya just put maple syrup along the border aye? The zombies will get stuck in it dont'cha know? They won't be able to do anything aboot it./ all said with a hilarious over the top Canadian accent in mind.

Aboot that maple syrup, I'd like to make pancakes later...

I bet their is already military contigency plans to deal with this. I know the US military has people that do nothing but write plans for potential, one of which is a plan to deal with an attempted coup by the girl scouts.

Kind of null and void though: http://www.cracked.com/article_18683_7-scientific-reasons-zombie-outbreak-would-fail-quickly.html

That is story is all wrong. What happened in Quebec is that the civil security had design a convention to discuss about security measure in crisis time. The event was suppose to last three days. They used zombies as a setting but the real discussion was supposed to be something like that : first, zombies attacked, lots of dead, infrastructures are collapsing. Second the aftermath, how to organize the citizens still alive, what's the first things that are needed, etc. and third rebuilding of infrastructures.

The thing is that zombies could have been replaced by anything, the general discussion and plan is the same thing for any major catastrophe.

Anyway, yesterday they apparently ditch the Zombies idea because of reactions of the population and replace them by a flood.

I would love to know what Canada's zombie plan is, because part of my zombie plan is going to Canada in the first place. Specifically northern Canada. Everyone knows zombies have no body heat. They'll freeze like corpse-sicles!