An idea worth talking about： mandatory national service for Canadian youth
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Summary
In this episode, I discuss the idea of introducing mandatory national service for all young people in Canada. I talk about the benefits and drawbacks of such a system and why it would be a good thing for our society moving forward.
Transcript
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there's an idea that I've been thinking about a lot lately that I think we need
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to discuss more in Canada in fact we're hardly discussing it at all no politician
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is putting it on the table and I think it's about time they do and that's the
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idea of introducing some form of mandatory national service for all
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young people in this country now right away when people hear the phrase
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national service they think military conscription but it doesn't have to be
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that there are a number of alternate versions in different countries where
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they set up service and they say it's people around this age and you've got to
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do two months or six months or whatever it is and it doesn't have to be military
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for whatever reason you're interested in something different some sort of social
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service sector some other department in the government and you can go volunteer
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there you can learn skills you can go to a different place in your country a
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different part of your country you can meet different people learn different
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things because we're hearing more and more from people from all sort of
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political backgrounds and all walks of life that they're concerned about our
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social fabric our civil society they feel things are freeing left-wing people think
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that this and that is the problem right-wing people point to these issues and say
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there's a problem there and then apolitical people just point out hey why is it the
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case that the kids are just sitting on the TV sitting on the couch watching TV all
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day and on the iPad they're not getting out and you know living life look at the
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statistics about volunteering for charities donating to charities membership and
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organizations like the Rotary Club and so forth they're all on the decline
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that's not good at all it's not good for our society moving forward and I don't
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know if national service is something that I'll completely turn all of that around but
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it's worth a shot Emmanuel Macron he actually campaigned on bringing this
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back when he when he first became president now he watered it down he
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wanted just military service and now he's changed it to allow military service and
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then alternative service so people who don't want to go in the military can do
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other things in government and I think that's fair and I think here in Canada
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people wouldn't be happy with just military service but that's okay anything
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that suggests that there are not just rights in Canada but there are
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responsibilities as well responsibilities to your country to your
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fellow citizen and so forth a greater sense of national cohesion now there's a
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lot of details to figure out there's a lot of examples of how countries have
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gotten it right and have gotten it wrong let's talk all through it form some
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committee get an exploratory team forward look at the different things we could do
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how long should it be what age should it be what should be eligible to be the
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thing that they do let's talk it out I'll have strong views on the
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particulars I guess once we get there I just want to see the conversation
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started right now and I don't think it's a political one at all I think all
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parties could campaign on having something like this and bringing it to