True Patriot Love - Who Will Control Canada’s Billion Dollar Drone Boom？

00:00:00.000 every generation or so there's a technological innovation that comes around that changes our

00:00:09.520 lives and changes warfare that's happening in real time in ukraine right now as they fight russia

00:00:14.880 and it's called drones drones have changed how people fight war and will continue to fight war

00:00:20.240 for years to come to talk more about as always paul micucci paul how are you good jim we're all

00:00:25.040 in on drones we have to be we have to be okay yeah and you know the ukrainian the hundred year

00:00:31.440 agreement we just did jim yeah we showed it i think we doubled down on the drone mechanisms

00:00:37.040 and getting into the drone business yep we went uh you know we were taking a look before the show at

00:00:43.040 what we have put into the ukraine russia conflict and we're at 25.8 billion uh since 2022. so so

00:00:52.320 So another $350 million specifically targeted at the Jumpstart program

00:00:58.940 to look at air defense interceptors through this program.

00:01:04.460 Real quick, not to be confused with the Canadian Tire Get Kids Playing Sports program.

00:01:08.820 It just happens to be a similar thing.

00:01:11.180 Yeah, a joint Ukrainian multinational program.

00:01:14.740 Yeah, the two nations agree to jointly build millions of uncrewed systems.

00:01:18.860 and one of the reasons i believe this is a smart deal for canada is ukraine has in real time had

00:01:25.900 to invent produce and implement these systems to save their own country so canada is using

00:01:32.860 technology that's been used in the battlefield proven technology and produced in canadian soil

00:01:38.960 oh yeah no no and i've listened jim i'm you know we've done shows on uh the canada first canada go

00:01:46.180 canada strong all that stuff you know the the pr campaign the pr machine of the canadian government

00:01:52.180 right now puts these programs out and there's a lot of money in this right now so yes this this

00:01:57.140 show kind of popped up on our radar when all of a sudden the announcement so with the 100 year deal

00:02:02.500 or partnership with the ukraine came up and then next thing you know uh we saw which was uh very

00:02:09.220 interesting um the drone uh investment trust popped up and then dragonfly and then saskatoon

00:02:17.620 company the saskatoon skatchewan company uh popped up and it came on our radar because

00:02:23.780 lo and behold right after that unusual machines which has donald trump jr on the advisory board

00:02:31.780 was uh discuss investing about 10 million u.s dollars in shares so in this company this company

00:02:41.060 is traded on the canadian securities exchange and the nasdaq so this this new dragonfly company

00:02:47.860 that's popped up like a number of companies and we were we were interested because right after

00:02:52.500 right after the zelinski announcement and the partnership came up the government came out and

00:02:57.060 they called it um a defense drone initiative marketplace supply arrangement correct and this

00:03:04.740 was um for will ensure rapid reliable continuous supply of drones for canadian armed forces and

00:03:12.340 coast guard it will connect operators and end users to this canadian defense ecosystem to

00:03:19.220 accelerate the discovery acquisition and fielding of uncrewed and counter uncrewed capabilities

00:03:27.060 Enjoying the conversation on TPL? Well, sign up for our free news update and get a tailored email with the stories, topics and shows that matter most to you. Fresh conversations delivered right to your inbox. Visit tplmedia.ca and sign up today.

00:03:40.480 so which is how any country a defends himself now or fights a war i mean once upon a time of world

00:03:50.260 war ii the allies canada the usa great britain one of the reasons they won is they produce

00:03:55.540 massive amounts of jeeps and tanks and planes that were simple to build simple to service

00:04:02.260 and simple to operate and the drones are now replacing the jeeps and the tanks then when we

00:04:08.420 say drones it's not just air drones there are now robotic naval vehicles robotic ground vehicles

00:04:15.400 though the the the men and women fighting the war are behind the robots and the robots are

00:04:22.200 going in first and they realize a country like ukraine which on paper should have been wiped

00:04:26.660 out years ago are being able to a not only hold their own but to fight a lot of winning battles

00:04:32.000 because they're using the drone so effectively yeah no no i i get it and that's i understand

00:04:38.700 why they're doing like yeah the the rationale jim i'm trying to figure out here's where i'm

00:04:43.720 stuck a little bit it's not on agree on robotics agree on drones agree on all that stuff i'm trying

00:04:50.460 to figure out what the guardrails are on these investments so you know no dollar minimums so

00:04:57.080 can foreign investors come in and buy up these companies so are these companies um scalable and

00:05:03.080 are they scalable to flip are they not scalable to flip are they can they be invested in primarily

00:05:09.580 by foreign investors so because the money's coming from you know that a lot of it is in this case is

00:05:16.960 public money some of it's government money based on the program so if they if they decide if as

00:05:22.100 canadians we decide to put 350 million into the russia ukraine uh war then through the drone

00:05:29.540 program and this money gets distributed per the uh drone initiative marketplace supply arrangements

00:05:36.480 then a bunch of canadian companies or uh get funds to produce those those drones so the companies win

00:05:45.100 but more importantly the canadian armed forces win right now they don't care who is building it

00:05:51.460 and what the contract says and whether or not they may be sold to a foreign company or foreign

00:05:57.100 hedge fund down the road they just are so desperate for the kit and the equipment to

00:06:02.320 supply to the military they'll take it from wherever they can get they've been crying for

00:06:05.980 this for years okay so the kit so it's interesting so let's let's break down kind of the money then

00:06:11.940 the kit so the kit comes from around the world yeah because ukraine australia they're right and

00:06:20.560 there's you know there are different countries around the world who have spent years of research

00:06:24.320 and development for sort of perfecting all this technology and it's being assembled in canada

00:06:30.440 to canadian specs right so this uh government announcement that we got out of calgary on

00:06:35.760 september 10th tells us that dragonflies basically platform is based on proven astral australian

00:06:42.680 technology right so in this case and we have a good relationship with australia so it's it's

00:06:47.740 basically uh engineered integrated trained sustained capabilities here yes in canada i

00:06:55.720 guess in saskatoon yeah and then so and then some of it manufactured i guess i don't know

00:07:01.220 how they manufacture it maybe they produce something or form steel or whatever they do

00:07:05.300 or aluminum for weight but um some of it is formed i guess and the rest of it kind of is

00:07:11.180 shipped in and assembled but if i'm running a drone in australia right i have different

00:07:16.620 requirements with climate and the geography than i do in canada right away so that's why it's going

00:07:21.820 to be a little bit different for the canadian version of the drone of an australian drone than

00:07:25.660 it would be with the climate of australia right so they would have different things and that's why

00:07:31.100 i think it's smart that something like dragonfly or another canadian company are assembling these

00:07:36.300 here with input from the canadian military hey we need this this and this to make sure it functions

00:07:41.420 properly in the far north or in wherever in rural canada right so now the components i guess the

00:07:48.620 the components coming from other places is there a restriction i guess jim so then in my mind it

00:07:53.820 says okay now is there a restriction on where you can get your parts and where you get your

00:07:58.140 technology so so if those if the server or the brains or the the core functioning of it come

00:08:03.740 from another prop a country so then is that a challenge and should that be restricted or should

00:08:09.820 Should we be, should that be the thing we're developing here?

00:08:13.240 That's where I kind of get into, okay, now I think.

00:08:15.560 Personally, I'd be comfortable with Australia and Ukraine.

00:08:18.340 I wouldn't be comfortable if China or other countries are providing some key components of it

00:08:24.480 because of the potential of, you never know.

00:08:28.380 Right.

00:08:28.600 And that has been, there's been another drone developer who I've read about recently.

00:08:32.320 I won't bring up the name, who was getting their parts from Asia.

00:08:37.600 So quite frankly.

00:08:38.460 so that that is a challenge i think we have to be careful about um and how we want to bring the

00:08:43.980 parts in and assemble so and are we ever going to have a homegrown industry here so are we ever

00:08:49.020 going to get to the fact where you know the uh you know all the technology the microprocessors

00:08:56.140 uh all of that is made here i can't believe that we can't in this country these these fpv

00:09:04.140 first-person vehicle drones that are being used in ukraine and they're building in such huge numbers

00:09:09.100 i can't believe we can't do that in canada that doesn't seem possible to me well we can with the

00:09:14.140 brain power and the technology and the manufacturing capability that we should be able to produce them

00:09:18.940 in large quantities for the armed forces well here's here's where i think you know and not to

00:09:23.740 you know i have a lot of challenges with stuff that happens in the us right now but quite frankly

00:09:28.940 one of the things i think they are right about is that when it comes to your defense you have to go

00:09:34.460 for homegrown so you have to go for so the technologies that go into your defense cannot be

00:09:39.660 uh managed remotely and in canada for so many years we've done um we turned a blind eye to the

00:09:46.060 fact that most of our data storage most of our information gets shipped and stored in another

00:09:51.020 country for example the united states a lot of it a lot of it so you know we've we've been kind of

00:09:56.060 neglectful and thinking okay we can you know we have a neighbor and a friend there we can just

00:10:00.460 let our data go off there and no one thought anything of it no one thought anything of it so

00:10:04.460 now here we are with a chance to actually retool our military and i think it's a good opportunity

00:10:09.980 because you know and i i don't want to pick on dragonfly because no no no objects is 20 uh 2020

00:10:17.180 insights um canadian companies i i know the 20 uh 2020 insights group um their platform is designed

00:10:27.180 and manufactured in the uk with canadian service so there's and that one was on the list there's a

00:10:33.420 bunch of them on the list that actually have uk inputs and platforms yeah and then are produced

00:10:40.380 here so like i think that's fine but i think over time at the beginning it can be okay we're going

00:10:46.700 to use their technology to get started now whether they come here and open up a plant here and they

00:10:52.780 actually produce it here whether we have the ability to control it to you know that i think

00:10:57.980 that's key and any anything we do from a military perspective and think about it from an economic

00:11:04.220 and job creation perspective we're seeing a lot of dire stories about automobile manufacturing

00:11:09.580 facilities who could be shut down laid off put in furlough why not utilize the the technology

00:11:16.700 and the capability to build things here exactly jim and i look at it so the guy the guy for those

00:11:23.020 of you who i don't know how much you spend time inside your car but i grew up in an era where

00:11:28.140 quite frankly there was a carburetor we used to do our own oil yeah yeah and then one day quite

00:11:33.100 frankly we opened up our hood and we looked at it we thought we can't do anything in this car anymore

00:11:37.580 well if you do your warranties they'll avoid well no it's a computer so i can't you know

00:11:42.220 quite frankly i you know you can put windshield wiper fluid in that's it yeah i know how to put

00:11:46.300 a monitor on it and it'll tell me which chip inside the car is deficient so i get how to do

00:11:52.460 that and i know how to plug that in but but other than that quite frankly would i start trying to

00:11:57.100 get into the different control panels on my car and start pulling out modules and chips no i wouldn't

00:12:02.940 so an engineer does that so we have brilliant engineers in canada yeah they currently do that

00:12:07.340 we have men and women who have been taught to do that by the engineers so to actually sit and make

00:12:12.780 drones now to me doesn't seem now whether or not you uh get that module from another nation whether

00:12:19.180 or not you do that then it has to be checked by a bunch of engineers to make sure that it's

00:12:23.980 it can't be controlled remotely by another country or person or app or mechanism so there's all that

00:12:29.660 that has to go into it but part of all these relationship and nation-building agreements

00:12:34.780 and conferences with mark carney in the past year i thought all part of this is a for trade but all

00:12:40.300 future stuff like this that having a close personal relationship with another country

00:12:45.100 whether it be south korea or you know spain or italy or whatever we're teaming up with them to

00:12:52.140 build something that benefits both countries yeah no no i totally like listen i think you're right

00:12:57.500 on there jim and i think the the direction directionally it's the right direction yeah

00:13:02.060 now we got to kind of fine-tune what we're doing so then let's pull to the money for a minute so

00:13:06.460 then you know and listen uh trump jr the unusual machine guys listen they're doing what they're

00:13:12.940 meant to do they're investing and if it's on the the market it's on the nasdaq tell them not to

00:13:18.380 invest right well yeah and quite frankly so this is a company so we're not picking on dragonfly

00:13:23.980 is you know good on them they're trying to do something but you know they hit the press because

00:13:28.460 of the trump jr announcement but you know last year they reported 7.7 million in revenues in 2025

00:13:37.340 and with uh 23 million dollars in losses so you know there there's what appears to be a company

00:13:44.060 that's uh investing heavily in r d to try to get off the ground you know they're using hopefully

00:13:50.860 government contracts to get there all of a sudden 10 million us comes in you got to remember it so

00:13:56.300 when you're in and for any of you who have started a business you know how bleak it is for the first

00:14:01.500 three years because there's days you go home and you you're like we're not going to make it you're

00:14:05.980 pounding your head against the wall because you can't seem to surface yeah so i get and these

00:14:09.740 guys are in that case so you know will i be there tomorrow what am i going to do i have three kids

00:14:14.940 my wife you know i can't tell her how much i'm kind of in debt here you know all those things

00:14:19.820 are probably happening in saskatch absolutely these gentlemen who are doing this but then all

00:14:25.500 of a sudden pops up this white angel and the money goes in and then you're like okay now i've taken

00:14:31.500 money and they they're they're saying there's no board seat or there's no uh he's in an advisory

00:14:40.780 role trump jr right but you know it is what foreign money do we let come in to invest in

00:14:47.900 defense so that that becomes so then that's a that's a whole other i think we've never crossed

00:14:53.340 that uh bridge and had that conversation as canadians because we've never been really into

00:14:58.460 the military we've never you know we we've we've tinkered around and back in world war ii you know

00:15:05.180 we were we were uh manufacturing behemoths in canada as far as people who could build things

00:15:12.220 come from other nations they were handy you know we had women on production lines during the war

00:15:17.960 building airplane uh components like that's just the society we had we're not that society anymore

00:15:24.260 you nailed it when canadians don't know and and i think part of the reason is the government would

00:15:30.540 like not to know but think about what's coming down the pipe in the next couple years the p8

00:15:36.340 poseidon submarine patrol plane it's it's the american built patrol plane built on the boeing

00:15:44.060 737 the f-35 fighter the first canadian f-35 stealth fighter just flew the other day and

00:15:52.500 there's other american equipment coming up the pipeline and unfortunately the two countries have

00:15:57.940 been so connected with their armed forces and the equipment that both countries use it's tough to

00:16:04.060 and i know mark carney's trying to pull away from it and be more independent and have more diversity

00:16:09.580 but for a lot of the commanders in the canadian military they do so much joint work with the

00:16:15.200 american military they could they could never be allowed to say it publicly but i'm sure there's a

00:16:20.780 lot of commanders who don't want to completely divest themselves of that american connection

00:16:26.360 and quite i mean i don't know if we're ever going to get to a point of a country where we don't have

00:16:31.380 no american equipment i just don't know if that's possible i don't know if there's a country in the

00:16:35.780 world that doesn't have some part of their equipment is american our transport are all

00:16:41.860 american c-130 j super hercules and c-17 globe masters most of uh some of our top equipment is

00:16:49.460 american made so i mean that's already there right there in itself if carny can come to an agreement

00:16:56.740 and say, we're just going to buy half of the stealth fighters

00:16:59.660 and buy some grip and Swedish-made fighters in Canada,

00:17:02.660 I guess that's a part of the separation.

00:17:05.760 But, yeah, so much of what we do with the military

00:17:09.460 has got ties to America,

00:17:11.420 whether it's sensor equipment, drones, planes, whatnot.

00:17:15.640 Yeah, I know, Jim.

00:17:16.620 And, you know, there were, you know,

00:17:19.860 decades and decades where that made sense.

00:17:22.120 Right.

00:17:22.580 But frankly.

00:17:23.220 No Canadian ever thought anything of it.

00:17:25.120 No, no, we never did.

00:17:26.420 And, you know, to our chagrin, quite frankly, now we're sitting there thinking, why did

00:17:31.300 we not think of all these things?

00:17:32.740 Why did we not become more independent?

00:17:34.920 Right.

00:17:35.940 You know, we're doing a show later on kind of on the BC elections and oil.

00:17:41.660 Right.

00:17:42.160 And it's an interesting discussion because it quite frankly shows how we got so relaxed

00:17:47.720 on where we were.

00:17:48.740 Absolutely.

00:17:49.340 We just let our foot off the pedal.

00:17:51.280 you know we had lots of discussions about oil but we never went anywhere forward to move forward to

00:17:56.800 to get uh some independence and quite frankly here we are now scampering saying in 10 years we're

00:18:03.620 going to have an east-west pipeline now in this case we're back to defense and we're right we're

00:18:08.140 saying okay we want to have a um robust defense mechanism in place with domestic production with

00:18:16.780 domestic production so what does that so this is where i kind of you know where uh because when we

00:18:22.480 look before the show we're trying to find uh dollar minimums um where non-canadian uh canadians

00:18:30.260 who acquire businesses or provide inputs or uh items into military equipment were restricted or

00:18:38.080 capped or were even defined and we we had a hard time so if there's anyone out there that has that

00:18:44.460 we'd love to see it we see all kinds of filings of investors and people that are interested in

00:18:49.680 getting involved in this in canada because the money is the money's coming out so fast and furious

00:18:54.420 but we're not seeing anyone uh talking about uh ip protection software and data protection

00:19:02.640 uh foreign ownership limits firms controlling handling goods uh from programs like we we're

00:19:10.100 not seeing a lot of those so where are those jim and that's where i you know what i'd like to know

00:19:14.800 as well but that's something that's hidden deep in the recesses of the canadian inner workings of

00:19:20.500 the government and the department of national defense like right now right both with irving

00:19:24.780 shipbuilding in halifax and c-span in vancouver the majority of our major shipbuilding in the

00:19:30.200 canadian navy is all built in canada by canadians and that includes davy shipbuilding in quebec city

00:19:36.620 However, when you get to tanks, our main tanks are German-built Leopard tanks.

00:19:42.200 Our main planes were the American-made CF-18 and now the American-made F-35.

00:19:48.460 There's just some equipment that we don't have the capability right now to build or won't build.

00:19:54.880 And so we'd rather buy it from somebody else.

00:19:56.980 But the problem with the leaders, the commanders, the generals,

00:20:00.640 they've been so desperate for some sort of new technology for their the men and women they serve

00:20:07.280 and command they'll take it from anywhere but they're not in it for the politics they're in it

00:20:12.080 hopefully it'll save lives someday well this is an interesting one right because all of a sudden

00:20:16.280 and you think i was you know we were talking about pr machines before the show right so and you think

00:20:22.040 that quite frankly this is an interesting the way this came out so on the heels of the conversation

00:20:29.600 between the the ukraine and canada the 100 year partnership and then all of a sudden the drone

00:20:35.520 uh program and then all of a sudden the investment and then the investment becomes public yeah

00:20:42.640 so it's like it's a very interesting the timing on this is very interesting it's almost like

00:20:48.800 there's a message being sent that the canadian government needs to think through this before

00:20:53.840 they go forward now part of that was the americans have been very blunt to say if you're going to

00:20:59.920 deal or if you're going to build uh military uh if you're going to do anything from a defense

00:21:06.800 perspective we want you to come through us because paying a little extra money to deal with an

00:21:12.640 american firm is worth it for the security of the hemisphere so that's their but that's what

00:21:17.840 they're saying so now we're kind of gone away from that and we're now going all over and we're picking

00:21:23.280 up uh drone parts from all over the world and and is this a message to say okay if you're not going

00:21:30.240 to put any limits in it every time you're one of your companies kind of steps forward and does a

00:21:34.080 capital raise we're going to be in there and we're basically going to eventually like is it just

00:21:39.920 there are they sending a shot across the bow to tell us that we better shape up or quite frankly

00:21:46.480 they're going to start buying up as much as they can of of canadian companies and

00:21:52.880 defense companies but think about this paul in the 1950s we built our own fighters there was the

00:22:00.200 it was called the canuck yep it was a all-weather defense fighter built in canada and then we

00:22:06.520 about to build the avro arrow the most advanced fighter at the time that deal got killed and

00:22:12.640 right away we bought used surplus american fighters and then we've been flying american

00:22:19.040 fighter jets since early 1960s and when they have a tender we're going to buy new jets they always

00:22:25.420 mention other countries but they all end up buying american that's not by accident paul

00:22:29.720 that can't be by accident that every time there's a time for a new contract that they end up buying

00:22:35.220 american-made fighter jets from american companies right that we never buy something from england or

00:22:40.680 france or another country even though they're quote unquote in the bidding but they never win

00:22:45.640 the contract because the american companies are forcing the canadian government to buy their

00:22:50.100 their equipment yeah that well that's they came out again you know we talk about this quite a bit

00:22:56.080 go to the white house website and just read what they post on it quite frankly right now they're

00:23:02.020 they're very clear that that's the way this relationship they want it to go like canada

00:23:07.600 us so they're like you know if you're going to do anything that is uh uh military or defense

00:23:15.760 we want you to buy it from us because you you want we want to be good strategic partners in

00:23:21.280 the hemisphere integration and training integration in maintenance integration in supplies and armament

00:23:28.800 and missiles absolutely now we go out we go out and we do this drone announcement we get going

00:23:34.160 we actually uh we make a list of six suppliers we get the drone uh production in place and all

00:23:41.120 of a sudden right off the hop trump jr pops up and you know it's very interesting the way it goes so

00:23:48.240 there's they're saying okay you're going to do drones do drones with us do drones through the

00:23:52.400 u.s military machine i don't know it seems it's it's very interesting jim and so so even if we

00:23:59.600 don't okay let's say okay say that's just by happen chance which i that he threw money in

00:24:04.560 bot shares yeah i don't honestly i'm not i don't know if that passes the smell test yeah i don't

00:24:08.960 think that i i honestly i think quite frankly when zelinski comes to calgary or when zelinski

00:24:14.560 comes anywhere in canada i'm sure they pay close eye on what deals and where the money's going

00:24:20.640 the the americans well there's no quite frankly i'm sure that's quite of a ball they're not hiding

00:24:25.440 the fact that they're they don't like zelensky ukraine they've made it very clear their lack

00:24:29.940 of support for ukraine and zelensky oh now for sure i don't think they'd like the fact that

00:24:35.320 carney and the canadian government are still supporting them as much as humanly possible

00:24:40.280 yeah oh yeah i know so i think that's part of it but okay so now they've sent a message whether

00:24:47.240 it's happened chance or not we have an opportunity to kind of retool i guess jim the thing is where

00:24:53.900 do you go by so if you're not going to buy parts from uh the u.s you're not going to buy components

00:24:59.340 planes summary whatever you're going to buy you're not going to buy that from the u.s you're going to

00:25:03.180 go to other nations you have to in the eu where's the manufacturing here and where are the jobs so

00:25:10.860 then well frankly maybe it's dragonfly saskatoon maybe it's a quebec company that that's part of

00:25:16.260 the big so it's two things here it's what the government needs it's what the armed forces need

00:25:21.640 The armed forces just need the kit as fast as possible.

00:25:24.420 The government would like it built in this country so they can brag to everyone,

00:25:28.520 look, we're not just buying it, we're building it here in Canadian soil.

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00:25:49.480 Okay, define build it for a minute.

00:25:51.380 help me out for a minute because i'm like okay so now i go and buy the australian components to come

00:25:57.780 in to put in to the drone right okay great how long am i buying them for is it a one two year

00:26:04.660 three year agreement until quite frankly they've either on shore to plant to work with me here or

00:26:10.980 quite frankly is it something that i can get made here you know is it a chip is it a is it a body

00:26:17.940 is it a housing because you know this is where we got a little bit into i have to say a lot of

00:26:23.780 our industries in canada got into this challenge a lot quite frankly when we became dependent on

00:26:29.540 the us so we started an auto industry everything was going across the border back and forth and

00:26:34.180 one day you know the us said time out we don't like this arrangement anymore okay what are we

00:26:39.380 going to do for cars well that's your problem you figure it out yeah but now we're in this solution

00:26:43.860 so we get going back it doesn't i think we have to learn from the the lessons of what we're learning

00:26:49.060 from our our closest neighbor and quite frankly is when they say we don't want to trade anymore

00:26:55.060 what do we do so our drone you know i'm not and i'm hoping this never happens but australia is

00:27:01.380 in an odd geographical location with respect to the world so if the hemispheres do get split up

00:27:07.940 and australia gets cut off from a trading path or a trading route well hopefully by that time

00:27:13.220 there's enough technology in canada that that's not a big deal but they can pivot you know it's

00:27:18.740 it's like the oil conundrum jim and this is kind of we're going to talk about this a lot in the

00:27:23.220 next few shows but this is like our oil conumber we're like okay now we're going to build a pipeline

00:27:28.660 great 10 years late 10 years late you missed it there's you know there's no point in start building

00:27:34.660 stuff when you need it because you got to start when you don't need it and you have to have the

00:27:39.220 foresight to build it it's like when you're you know it's when your roof leaks in the middle of

00:27:44.100 the fall you can't say oh i didn't know my roof was going to leak because you know at the end of

00:27:48.900 the summer you saw little puddles of rain on your floor so if you wait we all know that we've all

00:27:55.380 gone through it in life life doesn't work that way it doesn't it's not real time it's not

00:27:59.860 generational so now you have the opportunity you've you've had this kind of shot across the bow

00:28:04.820 is to take your military procurement and say okay i want going to transition this into 100

00:28:10.900 canadian made in three years or four years or five years or seven years here's how i'm going to do it

00:28:17.620 and here's the components and the money i'm giving has hooks so the money that i'm giving

00:28:22.820 to all these people the 350 million that are the drones that are going to go here grain

00:28:27.060 they're going to be made here and shipped there quite frankly are going to have hooks and that

00:28:31.460 is a condition of um and i think the auto industry did this well uh 90 of the components in that uh

00:28:40.820 drone have to be canadian made or 80 have to be canadian made and nothing that has any mapping

00:28:46.340 geolocation and any components that can uh injure us as canadians can be inside of it we have to

00:28:54.180 to have full control from servers that are domiciled here in canada sure not over in australia or over

00:29:01.860 in the uk yeah that makes total sense yeah like but those are the things they got to put in and

00:29:05.720 they got to say it so when when they you know it was interesting when this announcement came out

00:29:11.060 and they said 10 million dollars us went into this company i said okay great he's not on the

00:29:16.140 advisory board he's just an investor all that good stuff well someone went pretty quick and found

00:29:22.660 that out someone disclosed it pretty quickly it got into the mainstream media pretty quickly

00:29:27.560 like i'm like okay well if it's that easy to do it then quite frankly aren't we missing some

00:29:34.540 safeguards here some national security issues for review there's two different conversations here

00:29:39.360 i'm thinking you talked about the 10 years in pipeline wayne air the former chief of defense

00:29:43.940 staff our top general under justin trudeau said in his new book that time and time again he was

00:29:49.660 reaching out to the inner circle of the canadian government with concern about equipment lack of

00:29:54.860 equipment equipment that was rusting out and our readiness issue and being told a time and time

00:30:00.660 again it doesn't matter be quiet do what you're told we don't care so that's part of the problem

00:30:07.140 is you had 10 years of we don't need pipelines we don't need to ship our energy and 10 years of

00:30:12.800 the military will get what they get and shut up and don't bother us so if you're a senior member

00:30:18.240 of the Canadian military or you're a senior business person in the patch oil patch looking

00:30:23.080 for you right now you just want to get back to building things and creating things and having

00:30:27.940 things to look forward to because you're right we've got 10 years to make up for now in a short

00:30:33.000 amount of time I'm with you so you know it's interesting so here's the x here's where we are

00:30:37.540 here Jim we're going to be here right and by the time we get whatever number of drone technologies

00:30:44.560 in place yeah the market's going to move so where we're going to meet that market we have no idea

00:30:49.660 it's you know i always say to people in real estate you know you're not buying what the price

00:30:53.640 is today you're buying what the price is ahead of you you know the futures of the market so right

00:30:58.740 so quite frankly that's what you're really buying and that's how you have to think of it we're

00:31:04.540 we're building military for today i get it and quite frankly we're starting from scratch so we

00:31:09.200 have to get as many components and things we can but are drones going to be all the rage in 10 years

00:31:15.740 i don't know but pretty frankly as long as they have them in two or three years their their ass

00:31:20.700 is covered because with ai nobody knows anything paul no one knows anything 10 years from now

00:31:25.980 they have them they can control them and they have the weaponry to not have them disappear or fall

00:31:32.200 down exactly i'm okay with that like i'm and and that is i think the missing link here that i think

00:31:37.880 when when the announcement came out i was great okay they're going to do drones they're going to

00:31:42.060 help the ukraine okay you know we're already in for what 20 25.8 billion yeah 25.8 billion dollars

00:31:49.260 so you know we're we're in for the full ride at this point that's a lot of money for a country

00:31:54.240 our size that's a huge amount of money so we're in we have how many troops in latvia oh a three

00:32:01.620 about three thirty five hundred three thousand three five hundred yeah and that's becoming even

00:32:05.760 more you know the president of latvia was actually uh screaming the other week about the fact that

00:32:12.080 he he does need some more uh military he needs supports he's getting very nervous and those

00:32:17.840 troops in latvia need drones well they do so whenever new technology comes it's going right

00:32:23.200 to the ford brigade group in latvia right now right and we've already made a significant investment

00:32:29.440 all of our all of our high-tech military everything we have has already went to that

00:32:33.600 yeah you know that small group of heroes that sit there on that trip line waiting you know it's it's

00:32:40.320 it's incredible what they do but you know the thing is jim now we're at the point where we're

00:32:46.400 going to make a significant investment the guard rails we got to put in place to make this happen

00:32:52.160 and then what is the and this is the canadian conundrum that we go through with everything we

00:32:57.200 go what is the longer term plan so give me then that's where i'm like give me a five-year plan

00:33:03.600 where you want to be from a Canadian perspective,

00:33:06.160 and what is the security and safety and guardrails in place

00:33:09.260 to make sure that when it gets built, we control it?

00:33:12.220 But see, and I understand you're concerned.

00:33:14.440 Rather than buying U.S. planes and buying U.S., you know,

00:33:18.100 German submarines and buying all that, it's all great, right?

00:33:21.420 But, Paul, I think you're talking about guardrails,

00:33:23.600 and every time you start investing into guardrails,

00:33:26.100 you're delaying the delivery of equipment they need yesterday.

00:33:30.080 and so the the commanders and the people in charge of the air force navy and army they just want new

00:33:36.480 stuff they want new stuff as fast they can because they're so desperate for it but and so they're

00:33:41.680 hoping that they can get the stuff built and delivered and worryable guardrails after the fact

00:33:45.860 whether or not that's right or smart they're just looking at it from a practical military standpoint

00:33:51.540 not from an economic and political standpoint right who does that sound like that that sound

00:33:58.080 honestly and it's interesting it sounds a little bit like donald trump the other day and i don't

00:34:02.080 mean you sound like donald trump but i mean that that philosophy is like okay we're gonna

00:34:06.160 we're gonna have ai we're gonna let we're gonna let them operate they're regulated self-regulated

00:34:11.200 self-regulated and we hope it's going to turn out well because it's in their best benefit to do it

00:34:15.920 well for americans and i'm like that doesn't make a lot of sense well he wants to be a world leader

00:34:21.120 in ai i i get it but you know quite frankly someone at the end of the day has to has to

00:34:26.800 control the mechanism or the switches or the input or the yeah you know that that's the way life

00:34:32.560 life's been like that since the model t right someone's gotta someone's gotta get the key to

00:34:37.280 start the ignition someone's gotta there's always gotta be someone who has that ability in this

00:34:41.920 case when this came up i think it i don't know if it wasn't the america i come back to this the more

00:34:46.720 i think about and have this conversation with you i don't know if it was wasn't the americans who

00:34:51.760 were asking the question by that investment and it was going in to say are you sure you want to

00:35:00.800 because now you're opening up the market to all these people in the drone capacity and you know

00:35:04.800 what if i'm going to invest in anyone i have no problem with an australian company though paul

00:35:09.680 well no it's not north korea i don't why would they care if it's australian no no i don't either

00:35:14.800 quite frankly if i can get components from them but right you know given given the uh

00:35:20.480 geopolitical and the geographic location of all these countries those supply chains are not easy

00:35:28.080 if the world is broken up if the world becomes a different place and that's what we're starting to

00:35:33.120 see you know we're looking you know if anyone doesn't learn the lessons of oil right now you

00:35:37.920 know i i think i mentioned to you i sent you i don't know i think i sent you another picture

00:35:42.320 uh the other day a dollar 91 right and you know if you're not learning from this and you're saying

00:35:48.240 okay and i sit there every time i'm pumping and i think to myself how the heck is the straighter

00:35:54.400 harmus impacting me yeah and i go through you know okay brand crude you know texas pricing and

00:36:02.560 a world global oil supply demand inputs and i'm thinking to myself okay i get that i'm in an oil

00:36:08.960 rich country and i see all these other uh middle eastern countries paying six cents a liter

00:36:16.480 and i'm thinking okay how did they pay such little amount for oil and gas and we don't and i'm you

00:36:24.500 know and then i'm back to the whole thing where this makes no sense to me it never will make any

00:36:28.620 sense to me i don't i don't know if there's a rational person in the world that can actually

00:36:32.880 explain why canada which you know is uh steep in oil reserves still pays you know record levels

00:36:43.060 for gas at the pumps it doesn't jim it doesn't it eludes i would never argue with you paul and no

00:36:49.520 one watching this would argue with you unfortunately this is the reality we live in this country is

00:36:53.980 we still have not figured out a way to take oil produced in alberta and ship it to other

00:36:59.740 canadian cities in eastern canada that doesn't go through the usa that is refined here and sold

00:37:05.180 why well i don't know i honestly don't know okay so i'm gonna back up a minute right we have a drone

00:37:11.780 yeah now it flies it has a motor yeah you know we've all you know the little drones when they

00:37:20.640 came out remember we were flying them around with our kids you know and they were crashing and

00:37:24.260 every time you know when i when i sold a house the guy would show up with the drone yeah and

00:37:29.400 i must admit you know they were crappy little drones but they would go up and i'd always be

00:37:35.380 amazed at the pictures they take yep i had a guy actually is interesting we were closed but one of

00:37:40.760 my businesses he actually one day came and he was uh taking a picture of it for a promo we were

00:37:46.380 doing and he flew the drone in the front door and hovered around the 16-foot ceilings for about an

00:37:53.940 hour isn't it cool taking pictures of everything it was really neat but he had such uh skill and

00:38:00.960 he had uh precision to actually move around this space at a low ceiling height yeah you know with

00:38:07.380 this thing humming all over taking pictures and everything else so we have those capabilities now

00:38:12.160 we're talking drones i understand to get started but i'm still struggling why we are thinking that

00:38:18.940 components are need to be coming from other places in a critical for the critical infrastructure

00:38:24.480 these things from foreign investments so that's all i'm saying okay we got to start we got to

00:38:31.660 start building them now i don't care where they come from and then once we figure out how to do

00:38:36.020 it properly then we can cut out foreign people and foreign investors and foreign companies and

00:38:40.560 just do it solely in Canada but we say that and you know I get you and I understand why on the

00:38:47.120 end of the on the end of the chain from the military perspective they're screaming I understand

00:38:51.320 they just want something and then I look at I look back and I think okay why don't why don't

00:38:55.540 we force like again why don't we go to different plants and businesses expand those businesses we

00:39:01.500 to engineering like you know we the other day i was looking at a show and quite frankly the

00:39:08.700 discussion came on the table of blackberry you know canadians did amazing things there were years

00:39:15.180 there were years that we were like the cell the world leaders and cell phones yeah we were we were

00:39:21.260 the bomb at one point like we were it like we were great and we did magnificent things and now we're

00:39:28.060 sitting there trying to get drones figured out from foreign nations with foreign investment

00:39:33.900 i'm like oh this is this is kind of depressing and and the funny thing or the terrible thing jim

00:39:39.340 we brought like hundreds and thousands and almost millions of students in who all they did was go

00:39:46.220 to school for i.t backgrounds right so we i'm thinking oh my goodness here we did we brought

00:39:51.820 all these kids in from foreign nations they came in paid exorbitant fees to go to school

00:39:56.860 everyone uh that i meet when i'm out and about what did you do at school oh i took uh i.t i did

00:40:02.060 it i did it so we filled up the classrooms with it people they came out and we're sitting there and

00:40:08.940 we didn't give them any background in manufacturing or production or when does that ever happen in an

00:40:16.700 it class though but but they didn't we don't do that here but think about it elon musk came to

00:40:22.860 kingston went back to america and he sits on and you know i'm using his an example i know someone

00:40:30.460 will groan on the other part of the line but like him or dislike him he went back and he sits on the

00:40:36.220 tesla production line and he sleeps under his desk and he walks up and down the airfield that

00:40:41.420 he built temporary uh production capabilities in tesla and he looks at every single part going in

00:40:48.460 that car till he gets it all worked out till the tesla's being built at mass production speed

00:40:55.900 to hit his quota productions to hit his share price right that's the that i don't care but

00:41:03.020 who but paul who in canada but even assuming they don't have the wackadoodle mind that elon

00:41:09.340 must does and is the same person who is capable of doing that i'm being honest what come what

00:41:17.100 entrepreneur could come up with an Elon Musk type manufacturing involving all the cutting edge

00:41:23.740 technology and software and IT that goes with it. I bet. So I met a guy that has a

00:41:32.220 training school here and he teaches aerospace engineering and he actually has a kids rocket

00:41:39.660 class. That's great. Right. And so, you know, I started talking to him about a month ago and I

00:41:43.980 said to him i said you know we're we're defunct of brilliant people and he said no we're not he says

00:41:49.500 you should see the kids that come through my classroom as i go through he said and these

00:41:52.940 are high school kids these are university kids and he said i'm constantly teaching them about

00:41:57.740 and they they come out with me and they go in the middle of the field and they build you know small

00:42:02.540 rocket ships and they do things he said it is your it can be done he says we just don't believe that

00:42:09.020 we can do it we don't believe that as canadians we can do it and we haven't told people we can

00:42:13.980 do it whereas in you know where it'd be america or australia or the uk they're just going and doing

00:42:19.660 it they're just going out and they're saying okay here's you know this company this company that's

00:42:23.900 losing 22 million or whatever there are a year you know okay guys you can't get components for

00:42:29.820 anywhere else in the world go find canadians and do it i bet those guys would do it i bet if you

00:42:33.820 gave them another year if you gave them one more year of capital then they could come up with the

00:42:38.140 components they would come up but you're talking about something else it's a canadian mindset

00:42:42.060 right that we need to change that other countries like we're so-and-so we're going to find a way to

00:42:48.880 do it and we're going to do it and the fallback is well we can't do that because america's next

00:42:54.820 door we can't do that i need government help we can't do that and there's always well we can't

00:42:59.660 do that because of blah blah blah we have to stop thinking like that as a nation i agree in in so

00:43:04.800 many ways so we can do that we can do that completely independently and we don't have to

00:43:10.300 worry about other countries and other investors but but it's interesting when when this company

00:43:15.980 got the u.s dollars on the exchange to get going and and all that good stuff that we just talked

00:43:21.120 about when they got it no one from canada stepped up and said okay i'm gonna triple that investment

00:43:25.680 quite frankly i'm gonna uh set up a plant for you to make the components here and i i want you to do

00:43:31.960 here and quite frankly that should have been that should have been someone uh spearheaded by

00:43:37.400 government finding someone for them to partnership for them to go to waterloo and go into a think tank

00:43:43.080 in waterloo and figure out the compost forget waterloo scott scott moll and the provincial

00:43:47.080 government saskatchewan are building a multi-billion dollar ai data center outside of regina so they

00:43:52.200 have the brain power out west already it's drones jim it's drones yeah like you know not that i'm

00:43:57.800 not that you know i i was i was at a uh function um a few weeks ago and they had these robotic

00:44:06.120 dogs security dogs running around aren't those wild yeah and it was interesting and i i was

00:44:11.560 fooling around with one you know that was following me you know the guy didn't bite you

00:44:15.960 no no it was very good and you know and i tried to tip it and everything and it wouldn't tip

00:44:21.160 wow and i said well this is amazing i said where is it from he said china

00:44:24.360 i said that's fine but i said you know why don't you do it here he said you know i just not you

00:44:30.720 know it's cheaper i said oh my goodness like that's part of the canadian mindset we're talking

00:44:35.900 about paul yeah instead of always going well it's it's easier to do this it's cheaper to do that

00:44:40.200 this is where spending government money to create it here ends up paying off in the long run and and

00:44:46.220 he actually went to school here in canada the gentleman i'm talking about went back home where

00:44:52.400 his family he wasn't from here he's canadian like i am he went back home where his family was from

00:44:56.800 and actually he built it there because he was told that that was the easiest path for him to go right

00:45:02.360 and we have to stop doing that we do and that and then with that it's it's drones it's robotics

00:45:09.720 for science and medicine it's cutting its technology it's used for transportation and

00:45:15.340 transit we could be doing all of that here designing it manufacturing it financing it all

00:45:20.860 right here do you remember the show on the we did the the show on defense when uh minister mcginty

00:45:27.340 came out and he actually announced remember he announced all the initiatives and he it was very

00:45:32.300 well done from a pr perspective but i we said to each other on the show we said it lacks detail

00:45:38.620 right we find it had you know it talked about doing things in all these different areas here

00:45:44.060 we are again back at the table we're you know six eight months later we need that detail we need to

00:45:50.060 put into this plan and this should be a wake-up call because when americans come and start to buy

00:45:54.700 up your companies that are produced and that was you know i come back to the blackberry because

00:45:59.980 what was the downfall of the blackberry well the apple it was apple and quite frankly the iphone

00:46:05.980 it killed them and the iphone and not advancing fine enough and quite frankly um basili when you

00:46:12.220 listen to him on podcasts which he does some really good podcasts i'd love to have him on

00:46:16.780 um he talks about the fact that canadians do not protect their ip do not protect their uh

00:46:23.100 inventions and quite frankly we do do a lot of inventing here we just take it abroad really

00:46:29.420 quick and we have to stop that and put more value into it especially on defense jim this is oh

00:46:33.820 absolutely this is a wake-up call to us that if we're going to jump into this big time we we need

00:46:39.180 to own it but can but the majority canadians don't think it's a problem who cares it's the

00:46:45.180 the armed forces it doesn't matter but they don't think like that and that that's somehow changing

00:46:50.960 that mindset changing that way of thinking that it's all tied into the big picture of Canada as

00:46:55.920 a country for many different ways for manufacturing and developing and promoting our own that's all

00:47:01.580 part and parcel with it it is we're just putting you look at the Ukraine just that alone should

00:47:06.880 wake people up to say we need to be part of this absolutely I couldn't agree more thanks thanks Paul

00:47:15.180 Thank you.

True Patriot Love - October 07, 2026

Who Will Control Canada’s Billion Dollar Drone Boom？

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