Justin Trudeau is back in Washington D.C. to attend a NATO summit, but Canada is still spending less than 1.3% of its GDP on defense. Is this a problem, or is it a symptom of a larger problem?
00:05:29.000The United States has become involved in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, throughout the Middle East.
00:05:37.000And is increasingly getting involved in the war in Ukraine.
00:05:42.000And that's high stakes poker, my friend, because that could mean nuclear war with Russia.
00:05:48.000Let's have a look at where Canada actually stands in defense spending against other NATO members.
00:05:55.000Now, you might look at this and you remember the oft repeated phrase from Jonathan Higgins, the character in the first and best Magnum PI series, who used to say, my God, there's Canada, the red bar at the very bottom of the page.
00:06:19.000Here we are spending 1.29% of our GDP on national defense, just ahead of Spain, Belgium and Luxembourg.
00:06:46.000Now, I've shown you this slide before.
00:06:48.000This is former Lieutenant General Andrew Leslie, who was briefly in the Trudeau cabinet as the government whip.
00:06:57.000He was supposed to be, he thought, the defense minister.
00:07:00.000But Trudeau gave that in the interest of identity politics to Harjit Sajjan, one of the worst examples of political decrepitude I've ever seen in the House of Commons.
00:07:13.000So he gave it to Sajjan in the interest of identity politics.
00:07:17.000And this man made an absolute disaster of his office.
00:07:21.000But we'll talk more about that at another time.
00:07:24.000But General Leslie has pointed out, Canada has given away all of its ammo to Ukraine.
00:17:49.000The American strength in ensuring that people are stepping up in terms of their military investments is certainly something we recognize in Canada.
00:17:59.000We're increasing our defense investments by 70% over these 10 years because we know that making sure that everyone is there to step up.
00:18:53.000We have an intense forward battle group in Latvia.
00:18:58.000We're leading the command mission in Baghdad.
00:19:01.000Canadians are a strong part of this alliance and will continue to be.
00:19:05.000But this is just a great opportunity for me to sit down with the president and talk about the many issues in which we align and we work together.
00:19:14.000So we've Donald Trump is actually mused in the past about the viability of NATO.
00:19:25.000When he was president, he demanded other countries pay their fair share.
00:19:31.000But he was saying it's time for the United States to demand the other member states pay a larger portion to remain members of this club.
00:19:42.000But it's become a club of fools, hasn't it?
00:19:46.000It's no longer a viable military alliance.
00:19:48.000It doesn't know what its objectives are, except to foment war with Russia and to interfere in every conflict around the world.
00:19:55.000It used to have, as I said at the beginning of the broadcast, a clear objective to contain the Soviet Union, to maintain peace, prosperity and stability in Western Europe.
00:20:38.000So Canada, no, shouldn't be a member of NATO anymore because NATO needs to be dissolved.
00:20:45.000Canada needs to start building up its defense forces in a credible way, not to become a part of NATO in its foreign wars, not to give tens of billion dollars away to Ukraine, not to sacrifice the lives of its sons and daughters in stupid foreign wars that mean nothing,
00:21:05.000that have no relevance to Canadian security.
00:21:09.000But we need to be a country with a strong, viable defense.
00:21:13.000Yes, but outside of NATO, which is yesterday's organization.
00:21:18.000It's an organization without any relevance or meaning today.
00:21:22.000And like I said, I used to write the talking points.
00:21:25.000I used to try to explain to people how NATO's mission had changed.
00:21:59.000The military industrial complex identified by President Dwight Eisenhower in his closing words to the American people in 1961 as president.
00:22:09.000He said, beware of the military industrial complex, which will inevitably seek to encroach on democratic freedoms and seek to take more and more power away from the American people and from the American Congress.
00:22:28.000Because it seeks to establish endless wars for its own purpose, and it seeks to become completely indispensable to the American economic scheme.
00:22:43.000Did you know there was a time in America when defense spending was seen as a negative phenomenon?
00:22:50.000Something that detracted from the economy?
00:23:23.000I'm not suggesting Canada should spend 10% of that.
00:23:27.000But yes, we do need a viable military.
00:23:30.000But no, it cannot be part of NATO anymore.
00:23:37.000Here's an interesting little get-together between Trudeau and Zelensky.
00:23:44.000And this shows you exactly what's at play here in NATO.
00:23:49.000It seems like we're seeing each other every few weeks now from Japan at the G7 to when I visited Kiev a few weeks ago to now here.
00:24:03.000But it's a really important time for us to be always making sure that we're giving you all the best support we can.
00:24:10.000It's been an important time to come together to have you at NATO.
00:24:14.000There's a path forward and we're continuing to work on getting all the support that Ukraine needs during this incredibly pivotal time.
00:24:23.000As collectively, we stand not just for Ukraine but against Russia and everything that's trying to destabilize in your country and around the world.
00:24:33.000As you know, Canada will always be there for Ukraine with everything you need.
00:24:37.000And we will continue to. It's great to see you.
00:24:41.000Again, thanks for your visit to Ukraine.
00:24:43.000And thanks for the real feeling of all of us.
00:24:47.000All of our feelings that really Canadians helped Ukraine and helped from the very beginning of full-scale war.
00:24:54.000We really count on you people and we are the same and we fight for the same values.
00:25:02.000And my appreciation for all your support and your government.
00:25:21.000And the problem in Canada right now is that we have a uniparty on supporting Ukraine and supporting NATO and supporting the encroachment and the slow sleepwalk towards a nuclear war with Russia.
00:25:43.000We need to have more discussion, more debate, because I can tell you that most of the conservative grassroots in this country are opposed to continued military assistance to Ukraine.
00:25:59.000They want the war to end and they want the military assistance to end.
00:26:04.000They want Canada to focus on military needs that are relevant to Canada and to stop interfering in foreign wars, stop getting involved in foreign wars.
00:26:16.000That's what the conservative grassroots in this country.
00:26:19.000That's what small C conservatives want.
00:26:21.000That's what small L libertarians want, a focus on Canadian defense needs, not NATO defense needs, not what the U.S. wants us to do, not what Europe thinks we should do, not what Ukraine thinks we should do.
00:26:37.000It's time to move beyond that, because NATO has demonstrated it has no raison d'etre anymore, at least one that is viable, comprehensible, understandable, or valid.
00:26:53.000It has clearly moved beyond the comprehensible or any kind of mission statement that makes sense to anybody watching.
00:27:06.000It's an organization trying to justify its existence because a lot of people make a lot of money out of NATO.
00:27:14.000From those who get jobs with the organization and from all of those arms merchants who make arms to supply to the wars that NATO creates and sustains around the world.
00:27:28.000Not easy for me to take this position.
00:27:31.000I wore the uniform proudly and I still believe strongly in national defense.
00:27:38.000However, even though I used to write the talking points for NATO and why it was so unnecessary for NATO to get involved in wars in Bosnia and Afghanistan, I have completely refocused my attention on what is actual, what is real, and what is necessary.
00:28:13.000And we need to move away from NATO's outmoded desire to simply justify its existence.
00:28:22.000It used to have one, it doesn't anymore.
00:28:25.000So, to sum up, yes, fine, let Canada have a viable national defense, we need it.
00:28:32.000But no, that viable national defense is not one that should be and remain a part of NATO.
00:28:40.000NATO as an organization needs to stand down after 75 years.
00:28:45.000And Trudeau needs to stop being two-faced about running around the world telling people how to vote, how to live, how to live democratically while he shuts down free speech in Canada and hasn't got the decency to support Canada's military, Canada's men and women in uniform, Canada's national defense, the Canadian Armed Forces.
00:29:10.000He once again is the complete hypocrite, the unalloyed narcissist who thinks it's all about Justin Trudeau walking on the world stage and telling everyone else how to live, how to vote, how to operate.
00:29:25.000And he's not prepared to put the money where it should be.
00:29:30.000And all he wants to do is talk about Ukraine.
00:30:52.000And if you become a subscriber, if you're a supporter of this station or a member through Substack, through YouTube, and now you can be a local as well, that's so important to us.
00:31:05.000Because I couldn't do this without you.
00:31:08.000I made a decision to become an independent journalist about a year ago because I wanted to bring all of my experience in the military, in journalism, to you.
00:31:22.000I don't promise anything I can't deliver.