Juno News - January 18, 2020The world is changing. Is Canada prepared？
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Summary
The other day I saw the news headline: Russian government resigns, folds all the cards in Vladimir Putin's hands. What on earth does this mean about Canada? Is Canada in denial about the changing face of the world, and is Canada prepared for it?
Transcript
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the other day I saw the news headline Russian government resigns folds puts all the cards in
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Vladimir Putin's hands and I saw this headline I saw this story and I read it and I read it in
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detail and I paused and I reflected on it and then I read the headline again and then I made
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sure that that was not something under the onion or something like that Russian government resigns
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Prime Minister says okay I'm just stepping away let's fold this roadshow up what that is not the
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sort of thing that we're used to hearing happening in countries and ostensible democracies certainly
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not in the Western world in North America in Westminster parliamentary systems let's just
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say they do things a little differently over in Russia and let's just say perhaps Vladimir Putin
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played a role in the Prime Minister and pretty much everybody in the government saying all right
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we're going to close shop now what on earth does this mean well I don't know no analyst knows right
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now people are currently looking at Eastern European affairs and figuring out what will be the next steps
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in all of this but I do think it means something about what's going on here in Canada or what is not
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going on here in Canada because one of the things that was not going on last year during the federal
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election campaign there was no discussion of foreign affairs practically none now there was a debate that
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was supposed to be exclusively about that you will remember the monk debates on foreign affairs but
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Justin Trudeau said nope not doing it not going and then the whole thing collapsed and then we had this
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this election campaign which was not fought at all on foreign affairs on what to do with China say in that file
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and a whole bunch of other hot spots around the world no conversations about it at all no conversations about
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the places where our troops are stationed Mali Eastern Europe Iraq we've recently been reminded of
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that's a real shame because foreign affairs is one of the few things that is the exclusive domain of the
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federal government the world is changing is Canada prepared for that is Canada in denial Russia is clearly not
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moving towards being a more liberal capitalist democracy a western country like many people maybe hoped or thought or predicted
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right after the fall of the Berlin Wall it is clearly heading in different directions more autocratic directions
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directions not like Canada we are increasingly an outlier we look at Russia we look at Turkey we look at Iran
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and everything that's happening with them right now we look at what's happening with China we thought
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lots of people thought back in the late 1990s Jean Chrétien he still had his head in the clouds he still thinks I give
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China some time you know they'll join the world trade organization they'll become more like us that
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is not happening Xi Jinping is just as hard line as Chairman Mao he's the most hardcore leader they have had
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since then the world is heading in different directions away from Canada and we can't just go
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to the United Nations and say let's fight climate change and yay feminism as if as if the rules of the game as if the
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international board game of foreign affairs and geopolitics is kind of in our favor it is not it is
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increasingly becoming a game that we're not familiar with we don't know how to play and are we well equipped
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for it do we need to really ramp up our defense spending do we need to look at our shipbuilding
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procurements and more so that we can be traveling and traversing those rather perilous terrains that are out
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there right now we don't have the answers to that I don't have the full answers to that yet right now
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I mean we're still looking and trying to figure out what does this stuff mean in Russia what's going
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to happen in Iran and all these other countries but I do think I can say with great certainty that
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what it tells us is we need to talk about it more we need to get our heads out of the sand more and we
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need to get serious about this changing face of the world and get Canada to be a country that in
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the 2020s we can actually confront these challenges head on