I remember... I'm Still PROUD!!! EP#387
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
156.04059
Summary
Crusty reflects on his experiences in the Canadian Forces and reflects on the sacrifices made by those who crossed the Atlantic Ocean crossing the Strait of Belleauguay, and the sacrifices of those who returned home after crossing the Atlantic.
Transcript
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a good evening ladies and gentlemen it's a beautiful 10th of november 2025 come up this
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episode of the crossing your podcast episode 387 i remember and i'm still proud regardless of all
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the strife there's only in our country with our allies and everything i'm still i still love my
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country and i'm going to reflect on this episode my experiences and some other experiences and
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try to sow some gratitude to our terrible leadership regardless of the stripes and the
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style of the way our democracy is going listener view discretion will be advised because of course
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i will swear and i will probably get emotional i don't know we'll see but uh anyhow you know how
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it goes ladies and gentlemen please stick around
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hit it sweetheart because i am hard you will not like me
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from western canada this is the crusty connect podcast a canadian veteran's point of view
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on political social economic issues and life he is crusty
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that's right ladies and gentlemen welcome to the podcast episode 387 i remember and i'm still proud
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lest we forget tomorrow is remember to stay ladies and gentlemen hi everybody i'm your host crusty
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and of course you've heard me spiel off and on throughout my inception of my videos and then
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through my podcast that i'm a 20 year veteran of the canadian army saw action in 2007
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as a radio operator as the team pronto in what we call the omelet i did my part for queen and country
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at the time queen elizabeth was the reigning monarch throughout the commonwealth and i did my duty for
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that validated a lot of careers that validated a lot of people and uh it took a lot of lives
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and this time of year i always reflect on it because
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regardless of how difficult some of those memories are to let go of
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you never will let go of them it doesn't matter where you're from doesn't matter what you do
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gone are the days where you have to suck it all up there are certain things you have to be resilient
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with day-to-day strives day-to-day stresses that you got to show some resilience you know words and
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stuff exchanged online bad articles bad books bad television bad movies yes we have to have a certain
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type of resilience to deal with that garbage um but from my experience over there
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and from the sacrifices that people have made uh two generations before uh your grandparents
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they had to carry a lot of crap with them because there wasn't the facilitation to help them
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overcome their obstacles there might have been some great decompression with some of the troops
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sitting on a boat and crossing the atlantic for a couple of weeks or sitting in certain areas for
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a couple of weeks before they returned back to their beloved homelands i.e canada britain
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our friends in the united states and in no way am i trying to glorify warfare ladies and gentlemen in
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a way am i trying to glorify battle it's an unnecessary it's a necessary evil i'll say okay i'll say that
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it is a necessary evil pending on the situation you get a little man out there from austria with a
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little mustache saying terrible things and how he wants to do this or any other dictator doesn't
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matter what political forum they stand on you know fascism communism you want to annihilate
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that ideology and you want to destroy that enemy to the best of your ability
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because freedom is allowed as far as i'm concerned now i've had people weigh in on tiktok and twitter
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and say things like crusty you don't understand what freedom is you don't want any responsibility
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and it's like well freedom is responsibility people that crave for a totalitarian state people
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that crave for big government to step in and take over they don't want freedom they want to be told
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what to do they want to be led by the septum nose ring and be dragged around and being told what they
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can eat who they can love who they can kiss what they should protest what they shouldn't protest
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what they can say what they cannot say now i got a video here of some world war ii vets regretting
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how things have become and i will get to more of my points later on the show ladies and gentlemen but
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this remembrance day i would like some of my listeners who have never worn a uniform
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and okay firstly and before anyone comments or sends me an email saying that they were in air
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cadets or they were in army cadets or they were in the sea cadets and that that doesn't count
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it gives you a taste of military life a little taste of military life it doesn't give you a
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military career it doesn't give you that sense of service it doesn't give you that sense of honor
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it doesn't give you the danger it doesn't give you the risk
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and you can sit and brag about how you did this in cadets when from the time you were 12 to you're
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18 years of age then it's time to be a man or a woman to get up and step up to the plate
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and do what's noble to do what's right whatever career you pursue but i've had a few uh yahoo's and
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i will say yahoo's who've written me some disturbing emails about their service in the air cadet league
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and their service with the cadets here and it's not service you volunteer you don't get paid to do it
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okay you get some nice skills out of it you can get some benefits from being in cadets but it's not
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serving your country big difference so those individuals that spend a couple years in sea
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cadets or air cadets or army cadets okay pay attention carefully pay attention carefully okay
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you ready fuck off it does not compare to 10 years of regular service or 20 years of reserve
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service or 20 years or 25 or 30 years of regular force service understand that difference if you
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can't understand that difference then someone's going to have to pop your bubble and wake you up to
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that fact okay honestly and what i find in canada now especially the past 10 years everybody's got
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their own little bubble they want to stay in they want to be safe they want to be secure government
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says this oh we better do it better get your jibby jab you better do it better vote this way or not
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you better agree with this or you're not canadian you better have your elbows up doing all these
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wonderful things meanwhile the the head honcho with elbows up he hasn't done shit right and yet we
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still have veterans on our streets we still have people going hungry we still have service members
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people that are serving right now waiting in line to get a place to live on any base right
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because some of these these housing units are fair market value so we've been told we were in and
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some of these housing units are that need well that need desperate renovations because there's
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just no money where's the money going a lot of rent is paid on canadian forces base ladies and
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gentlemen yes soldiers and personnel have to pay rent on that housing on base some of these didn't
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even know that and i was surprised how some didn't even know because the canadian forces housing
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association is about profit not about looking after the troops it's about profit something to think
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about there right it's just it's just a different can of worms but i'll save some of that information
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for that episode this episode is about remembering it's about dealing with the demons it's about
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honoring those people who are willing to go before us and people who are willing to go now
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right and contrary to the belief and the myth ladies and gentlemen i like to remind my audience
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too that there is no such role as peacekeeper when you join the canadian military you don't come off
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the street and recruit or sign up and say to the recruiters i want to be a peacekeeper
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you either become a crewman in the armored you either become a gunner in the artillery or an
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infantry or an engineer in the engineers and whatever other position you decide you get into
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then you become that but you don't become a peacekeeper i actually had a decent conversation
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with a person on facebook in regards to that because she was saying well i was married to a
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un peacekeeper okay great he served under the un banner and he was a peacekeeper but chances are he
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was probably an infantry or an engineer or armored or artillery who happened to go on tour to cyprus
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or happened to go on tour in the balkans okay so i want that myth ladies and gentlemen i want that myth
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dissolved right now there's more to a soldier's life than just the stereotypes especially when it comes
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from our own people right back after this stay updated and follow crusty canuck on facebook twitter
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gab telegram youtube and podbean subscribe today and donate at crustycanuck.ca
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and you're back ladies and gentlemen to episode 387 of the crustycanuck podcast i'm your host crusty canuck
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and just a reminder too folks if you like and hear what you see click like subscribe share this podcast
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all over your social media platforms if you do feel like donating please consider donating if you can
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um links will be in the description to donate what you can i'm not expecting oodles of cash it would be
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nice it would be nice if i can make a profit every time i do an episode but i also believe too in just
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getting my words out there and let you my wonderful audience decide there too just to just to get get
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another point of view out there and i want you my wonderful audience to always think for yourselves too
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so just look like subscribe give me a comment or two give me a thumbs up wherever you find this
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podcast ladies and gentlemen anyway carrying on with this episode more of the remembrance now
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i joined in 1998 because i needed a job i needed direction i couldn't afford school um i wasn't
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getting a lot of a lot of support in certain ways um i've always been a creative individual i liked
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writing i liked doing comedy i liked acting i really really enjoyed that and i was focusing on that
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but that wasn't paying the bills so i did the next best thing serve your country hey
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how have i got to lose just my sanity but that's another story but uh i did it you know basic
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training had its fundamentals as well as battle school had its fundamentals and then when i got to
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battalion it had its fundamentals too you get to see what leadership is you get to embrace what
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leadership is you get to work for some great people and you get to work for some not so great people
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and i'm sure there's lots of people out there that served with me who had an issue with me
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fine i really don't care right now i got other things to worry about but that's just the dynamic
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you have when you get in the military you've got good people you got bad people you get that in every
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job but when the mission would come up when training would come up everyone was there everyone was
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switched on who did their fucking job and there's a good few people that i still keep in touch with
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who did their fucking job and they keep in touch with me because i did my fucking job and that's
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what it comes down to ladies and gentlemen any firefighter any police officer any paramedic
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any er surgeon any er nurse does their job because on the front line to make sure that you come out
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safe and you come out alive that's what we did as soldiers looked after our buddies looked after our
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friends engage and destroy the enemy regards weather season and or terrain that is what we did
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and i'm still proud to say that i am a canadian and that i was a canadian soldier
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regardless of the little flashbacks i get regardless of little reminders little taps
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in the shoulder i might get where some of those visions and some of those nightmares come back to
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visit me i'm still here i'm still around i'm still capable i'm still durable i'm still dedicated
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i've got a wonderful wife who stood by me through the thick and thin we've had our problems yeah
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but she's still here and i'm still here so that means something we have a home
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and i am grateful to the fact that i still live in a country where i can speak this to you
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you my wonderful audience and it doesn't matter where you're watching or listening from
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it doesn't matter at all i i encourage everyone around the globe who listens to my show
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to give me a comment i don't care where you're from
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okay i won't listen to any wokeism but i'll listen what you have to say nonetheless
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because you've taken the time to listen to me that's the least i can do right right now they're
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talking about cop 30 that's going on in brazil so of course our important politicians are in brazil
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right now worrying about the whole climate scheme climate scam right how they're going to try to
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divide the wealth between us minions to give to them and their little schemes
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yet tomorrow i'm going to reflect on people that i've known and some of the lads we buried back in
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06 and 07 on some of the people i grew to know and some of the people that left prematurely
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i'm not going to say how you just i just gestured how but there's a few lads i think of once in a
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while that hope they're looking down and i hope they see better things because there's not so so much
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great things going on here in canada and around the globe when it comes to being proud of your country
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being proud of your history being proud of your accomplishments i'm going to queue up this video
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as i mentioned too it comes from the daily wire now there isn't a canadian point of view on there
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but i'll give you mine shortly thereafter ladies and gentlemen i'll give you mine and i'm going to keep
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the uh uh subtitles on too in case you have trouble hearing but uh this has gone viral uh here's a british
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vet a royal navy vet and those lads saw a lot of action towards the end of the war uh they didn't they
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didn't mess around and a lot of our canucks saw a lot of action too towards the end of that war as
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well but uh you know here's a guy about 100 years old and just listen to how he how impassioned
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he is when he's when he's speaking about this and listen to the broadcasters afterwards you know i
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just it's all contrast but uh like i said ladies and gentlemen please listen and uh think for yourselves
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british veteran went viral after he expressed that the fight in world war ii was not worth the
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result of the modern world what does remembrance sunday mean for you what is your message all the
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hundreds of my friends and everybody else that gave their lives for what a country of today no i'm sorry
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but the sacrifice wasn't worth the result that it is now oh well i'm sorry what do you what do you
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mean by that though at this point well gee i don't know where would you like to start tv man perhaps
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there's no video more emblematic of what he's talking about than this an assumingly great man of another
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generation walking through clown world and the rubble of the world he thought he fought for
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what we fought for and what we fought for was our freedom we find that even now it's
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darn sight worse than what it was when i fought for it oh alec i'm sorry you feel like that because i
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want you to know that all the generations that have come since including me and my children are so
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grateful for your bravery and all that for service personnel and it's our job now isn't it to make
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it the country that you fought for i'm sure that's going to make him feel a lot better in 2022 this 100
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year old american veteran tearfully expressed similar sentiments it's all gone down the drain
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our country's gone to hell in a hand basket we haven't got the country we had when i was raised not at all
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nobody will have the fun i had nobody will have the opportunity i had this is just not the same
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that's not what that's not what that's not what they died for that's not what they died for
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is that just not it god i'm so sorry i'll be all right it just takes me time to get over it
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why why me sitting here like this see all this going on it's just emily it's just just not it's just not
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oh well i should be worried about it i guess i'm honored years old they say
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and in 2024 this veteran also went viral when he said this what do you think about the state of our
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country today how do you feel about the the country that you worked so hard to to stay free to keep free
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the real truth yeah i i feel like a foreigner in my own country lots of times and i don't like it
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makes my heart real heavy and uh i just hope we can pull out of this do you think 16 year olds would
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would fake their age as you did in order to go off and fight for the country today 16 year olds today no
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i don't think so it was a different generation each generation is a little bit different
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and i i think that the all the generations are great but i think some of the ones they got now
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are a little lazy and i i think they gotta show more pride in their country than they do i'm just
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hoping i never run into anything when somebody's trying to burn the flag because i'll stop them right now
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now you see where they're coming from funny how there's no canadian vets
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that our mainstream media has talked to funny how our mainstream media hasn't talked to a lot of
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of canadian vets now i watched ctv today and yet there was a few air force veterans that were on
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talking about their time in right but they're never prompted any questions about the plight of canada
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now right those guys who sat in the lancasters and did night bombings those individuals that did diep
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those individuals that fought in normandy that penetrated further into europe than any allied service
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right those people that took on the germans at the battle of the scheldt during swampy and through
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through swampy conditions to push the germans out of holland how come our mainstream media cannot
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research and find those guys how about our mainstream media and the powers that be cannot
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look at our korean vets and talk to them about cap young right about the adventures they had with
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some of the australians and some of the kiwis and some of the brits fighting the chinese communists
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how come our mainstream media does not talk to canadians that crossed the border and serve
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with the american services during the vietnam war how come they don't do that
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see canada has never been a warring nation okay but when a call-up come up canada was there
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canada was there 1812 farmers militiamen signing up to push the americans back
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nothing venture nothing gained but it was a war nonetheless
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canadians stepping up against the phidian raids canada stepping up during the red river rebellion
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to see anything like the family compact rise again even though there's similarities to the family compact to
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our modern government there are people that serve this country right
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in afghanistan i had the honor of actually having some good conversations
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with two individuals that served in the midak pocket in september of 1993 where canada engaged
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in a firefight with croatians but we didn't hear about that in the mainstream media did we
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so when it comes to canada celebrating our war dead and when it comes to canada saying elbows up
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maybe some of you is better smarten up and uh smell the coffee
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because there's going to come a time you're going to need the troops for something either
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flood or a disaster or having rid of war and we can't do it because you're too busy spending money
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over here and over there rather than looking at what's going on right here stay updated and follow
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crusty canuck on facebook twitter gab telegram youtube and podbean subscribe today and donate at crustycanuck.ca
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and you're back ladies and gentlemen episode 387 i remember and i'm still proud i'm remembered
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today's special the crusting your podcast just a reminder too ladies and gentlemen if you like
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and hear what you see click like subscribe i share this podcast all your social media platforms too
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do not be shy uh just look at the rotating button of the screen there you can find my podcast
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on rumble podbean tiktok spotify amazon supercast i heart radio player fm podchaser and apple
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check it out you know anywhere you want to find podcasts just look for crusty canuck
00:23:40.060
and you'll see whatever link and it will host my podcast and if you feel like donating please
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consider donating every little bit helps ladies and gentlemen things are tight i know for everybody
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i'm not going to demand cash demand currency but every little bit helps if you can't too so and don't
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forget to give me a thumbs up subscribe and give me a comment or two you know good or bad
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i think i can handle it now what say you anyway carrying on with all the somber stuff too i'm proud that i
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served regardless of the adventures and the endeavors and the toll it has had on my psyche
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the big maple leaf and it was worth it some of the missions some of the efforts i don't think it was
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but i'm not going to be a hundred year old veteran one day and be as disappointed as those gentlemen were
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those gentlemen spent anywhere from four to six years on the front line or waiting for something
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they gave a lot of time and a lot of those men americans brits canadians a lot of allies alike
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gave a hell of a lot that we could ever fucking imagine more so than my meager six and a half months
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more so than my meager three weeks training more so than everyone's training
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and somewhere in this country especially in this country we have forgotten about it
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why because it's not politically correct right it promotes the whole colonial model
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yet everyone who bitches about this country and the colonialism you love going to school here
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you love working here as don cherry said you love the milk and honey
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but you fail to fucking realize what kind of work it took to maintain that milk and honey
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the sacrifices that were given to keep that milk and honey
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so let's start showing some gratitude folks shall we can we do that or is that path day or
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is that too aggressive it's a microaggression up yours if you think it is but see that's the
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thing with freedom of speech i can say up yours to you and you can call me whatever dirty name you
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want that's mine that's freedom of speech absolute right and that's what those men and women fought
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for and don't you forget it because we're living in a day and age now too where certain brits are
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being hauled to jail because of comments they make online right and now we have a government that wants
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to do that to us too in the name of c8 and c9 and c63 because they want to be safe
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see the idea of safety is taking away guns from people like me and other people
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but they'll let you know other individuals acquire them and then release them on bail
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so i can see where those that brit and that american have been frustrated
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our justice system has been compromised because of activism not because of actual
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priorities and respecting the law is that what i fought for is that what my brothers
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in 2007 fought for is that what the men and women on the front line right now are willing to fight for
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as long as they can get the proper equipment to do their job but even that is becoming a fiasco right
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now too we have leaders in our military that are worried about the so-called systemic racism that
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happened okay so they're pandering to pander to the pandering where they're not looking at the actual
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problem is that the military is failing the leadership is failing not the troops not the warrant officers
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not the lieutenants not the captains not the majors not the buck young privates
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not the one hook privates not the corporals it's way up here it's the big brass and it's the other
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politicians slapping and tickling for the pickling getting their piece of the pie dog
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fucking that's what we used to call it screwing the pooch when things got to get done but it's not
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getting done but regardless of what their fallacies are i am still proud ladies and gentlemen as a canuck
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as a canadian just weekend yeah don't my payee my country your country it's still worth fighting for
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and i don't regret one goddamn minute of it ladies and gentlemen so to my brothers in arms to my brothers
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brother brother veterans sister veterans let us remember tomorrow for what it is remembrance of the
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fallen and to keep fighting the good fight any ladies gentlemen i've been crusty canuck in this
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beautiful 10th of november 2025 i still wish good things for you all i wish the best take watch each
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other's back in these trying times let us find the light and shine the light in this manufactured
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darkness i'm gonna have a few songs added to this podcast too john mcdermott fields of france
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amy doon i forget the artist and because it's the 50th anniversary of the gordon lightfoot song
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uh edmund fitzgerald i'm gonna put that on there too for uh gordon gordon lightfoot's probably one of
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the best singer songwriters that ever walked the earth and uh it's just a decent tune it's got nothing
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to do with remembrance day but it's still a day of remembering a fellow canadian nonetheless
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and i highly suggest ladies and gentlemen that you make an appearance and give yourself a minute
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of silence at 11 o'clock tomorrow canada wide just remember those those young men
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and some of my brothers and sisters during the afghanian war and the peacekeeping operations and
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during the balkans and every operation that canada has been on remember us and never forget
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it because i won't like i say ladies and gentlemen i've been crusty canuck i wish his good things
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and like i always say humanity and merit wins the day take care and i'll see you next time bye for now
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this has been another episode of the crusty canuck podcast stay safe and thank you for listening
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from western canada this is the crusty canuck podcast
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to everyone that fought and served and did their duty pro patria to my brothers and sisters i will