Western Standard - June 08, 2023


Canada’s poor treatment of its own military troops

Topics
national defense and military equipment underfunding Canadian military military attitudes in Canada
Mentioned
Spencer David Plylarioui Oh Justin Trudeau Cabela Jane
Gloves off between Trudeau & Poilievre Premier Danielle Smith’s new cabinet

Episode Stats


Length

10 minutes

Words per minute

236.46

Word count

2,425

Sentence count

146

Harmful content

Hate speech

4

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In this episode, we discuss the lack of equipment for Canadian soldiers, and why it's a symptom of a deeper, deeper problem than a lack of support from the government. We also talk about the impact of demonizing Canada's history, and the role of the military, and what we should do about it.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 Hey, Spencer, how you doing?
00:00:01.380 Not too bad, yourself?
00:00:02.640 Oh, very good, you know, ranting, raving,
00:00:04.460 but that actually makes me happy.
00:00:05.600 People think I'm angry all the time,
00:00:06.820 but I'm actually in my best state
00:00:08.460 while I'm frothing like this.
00:00:09.780 Yeah, it's good to get the negativity out somehow.
00:00:12.040 Well, that's right, you know,
00:00:12.900 Jane doesn't have to deal with it as much out of me then.
00:00:15.880 Smart move.
00:00:17.120 So, I mean, I'm always reading your stories
00:00:19.280 and then just to remind everybody at spencerfernando.com,
00:00:21.660 there's lots of them you're putting out all the time,
00:00:23.940 but just one that caught my eye,
00:00:25.040 it kind of coupled a bit with a column I did
00:00:28.380 in a sense of what the, you know,
00:00:29.960 the almost apologetic statement from the government
00:00:33.080 on the RCMP's 150th anniversary.
00:00:35.600 And you talking, putting out how the lack of equipment
00:00:37.820 for Canadian troops, it signifies a deeper decline
00:00:40.520 for Canada as a nation.
00:00:41.760 Like this is symbolizing much more
00:00:43.280 than just the immediate problem
00:00:44.680 that we're leaving our troops in the lurch.
00:00:47.840 Yeah, you know, I mean, if you, you know,
00:00:50.540 tell a whole generation of people that Canada's history
00:00:53.000 is, you know, nothing but evil and colonialism
00:00:55.420 and, you know, terrible mistreating people,
00:00:57.200 and, you know, all our values are bad
00:00:58.660 and we should feel guilty and sad about everything.
00:01:01.620 You know, then at the same time, you're saying, oh, well,
00:01:04.320 you know, sign up, join the military and, you know,
00:01:06.160 go overseas to, you know, defend our national interest.
00:01:08.700 Well, how can you really have national interest if you're,
00:01:11.080 if you take such a negative view of the nation
00:01:13.160 and the history of the country?
00:01:14.960 And so I do see those things as linked.
00:01:17.100 You know, you have a government that manages.
00:01:18.600 I mean, I think we just saw that they just asked
00:01:20.700 for the authority to spend 20 billion extra dollars this year
00:01:24.420 over what they'd already budgeted, which itself was a massive increase
00:01:27.720 over the previous year.
00:01:29.720 So they're, they spend money on everything.
00:01:31.620 I mean, massive deficits, you know,
00:01:33.000 the debt's gone up dramatically.
00:01:34.800 The only place where it seems they don't spend much money
00:01:36.800 is equipping our soldiers.
00:01:37.920 I mean, they sent people over, I think it was to Latvia,
00:01:40.720 and, you know, they're having to buy their own helmets.
00:01:42.920 I mean, so, you know, it's, it's, we'll, I'm sure we'll get
00:01:46.420 to the moral aspect of, you know, sending people to harm's way
00:01:48.920 without equipping them and how bad that is.
00:01:50.420 But I, I do think we are seeing a deeper problem with just the fact
00:01:53.620 that we've, you know, demonized our history.
00:01:55.420 We've made people think Canada's, you know, based on bad values,
00:01:59.220 you know, Western civilization is, it's no better
00:02:02.020 than any other civilization.
00:02:03.220 You know, it's terrible.
00:02:04.220 It's, it's got all these problems.
00:02:05.520 And so when you kind of depress a country like that and depress
00:02:08.520 a whole generation about their past and their history, then, you know,
00:02:11.720 how do you expect people to, to join the military?
00:02:13.920 And how do you expect to have a government that sees the value
00:02:15.720 of the military or have citizens that see the value of the military?
00:02:18.920 Because, you know, it's not just, it's easy to blame the politicians,
00:02:21.920 but, you know, most Canadians don't vote on whether the military
00:02:24.720 is, you know, effective or not.
00:02:26.220 And most people don't seem to care that much.
00:02:27.920 So I think it's a serious problem, especially in a world
00:02:30.220 that's becoming a lot more dangerous.
00:02:32.220 Well, that's it.
00:02:32.720 I mean, the military is a calling.
00:02:34.320 I mean, it's not a route to easy money.
00:02:36.020 It's not a good time.
00:02:38.420 It's, it's dangerous sometimes and difficult career path
00:02:41.620 to take the people who join typically are feeling that
00:02:44.320 they're going to do a service for the nation.
00:02:46.320 They love that's what would help them, I guess, overlook
00:02:48.520 shortcomings.
00:02:49.120 They're getting back from the military, such as perhaps not
00:02:52.020 being as well equipped or, or, you know, what not as they
00:02:55.920 should be.
00:02:56.520 But if they're at the same time being told they should be ashamed
00:02:59.020 of the nation and being under equipped, this is a terrible
00:03:02.120 formula for these people serving right now.
00:03:03.820 David Plylari Yeah.
00:03:05.120 And, you know, it's, you know, one of the ironies,
00:03:07.320 it was some of the soldiers, the other NATO troops that were
00:03:10.520 over there, I think from the Netherlands, had better equipment
00:03:13.820 than the Canadians, and much of the equipment was actually Canadian.
00:03:16.020 You know, they've been buying Canadian equipment for some time.
00:03:18.120 So we make good equipment.
00:03:19.120 We just don't buy it for our own soldiers and we don't equip them.
00:03:21.620 And so, and then there's, of course, the aspect of, you know,
00:03:24.520 Justin Trudeau postures is a, you know, big defender of NATO
00:03:27.420 and the rules-based international order.
00:03:29.120 He talks about it all the time, but, you know, it's just words
00:03:32.920 if you don't back it up, right?
00:03:33.920 So he says all the, all the nice words about, you know,
00:03:35.920 supporting NATO and freedom and democracy and all that stuff.
00:03:38.420 But you send people overseas, you know, into the idea is that
00:03:43.120 if there's a big war, they're going to be involved in it.
00:03:44.920 That's the reason we're sending people over there is a deterrent,
00:03:47.120 but obviously they'd be on the front line if a massive war broke out.
00:03:50.320 So how can you justify sending them over there if you're not
00:03:52.820 equipping them well, right?
00:03:53.820 You're basically saying, yeah, well, we just hope nothing bad happens
00:03:56.120 because if it does, you'll be under equipped and your chances of dying.
00:03:58.820 We'll go up.
00:04:00.120 So again, you know, I don't see how, you know, it's sad that Canadians
00:04:04.120 are not more outraged about this because we're sending people
00:04:06.320 to harm's way without equipping them.
00:04:08.120 We're spending massive amounts of money every year,
00:04:10.120 but somehow not, you know, prioritizing our national defense.
00:04:13.320 So, you know, I see, you know, all these people who posture as,
00:04:16.120 you know, they're supporters of NATO and, you know, oppose Russia.
00:04:19.520 That's fine, but, you know, we live in the real world,
00:04:21.620 and that means if you want to really oppose Russia and stand up for NATO,
00:04:24.820 then you need to equip our military.
00:04:26.120 We need to have a credible military force.
00:04:27.720 We need to be able to, if necessary, fight and succeed in a major war.
00:04:31.520 And so, you know, I think there's a lot of talk in this country
00:04:33.720 about what our values are supposedly, but we undermine those values
00:04:37.420 both by, of course, demonizing our history, and then we undermine
00:04:40.520 those values by not living up to our military commitments
00:04:42.820 or our commitments to our allies.
00:04:44.020 So, you know, I don't know why people would really take our country
00:04:47.220 seriously at this point.
00:04:48.920 And this has been going on, actually, for a long, long time.
00:04:52.020 I remember during one of the Gulf Wars, for one, we had to take a gun
00:04:56.820 out of surplus because they didn't actually have a gun for their boat
00:04:59.820 to serve in the Gulf.
00:05:01.420 And a bunch of our soldiers went overseas and they showed up in the desert
00:05:05.520 and they had olive green uniforms.
00:05:07.520 And of course, they stood out like sore thumbs.
00:05:09.320 They didn't have desert camouflage.
00:05:11.320 There's different types.
00:05:12.020 They're not in the jungle.
00:05:13.120 So other soldiers lent them ponchos to cover their olive green uniforms.
00:05:18.320 This was decades ago.
00:05:19.620 And how humiliating that must have been for them.
00:05:21.820 You know, when you're serving overseas in these other countries
00:05:23.920 that they're lending you these things out of a sense of goodwill
00:05:26.920 and to keep you safe, of course.
00:05:28.820 But if this hasn't been solved after decades of underfunding the military,
00:05:32.820 do you think we ever will turn it around?
00:05:34.320 And as you said, Canadians don't seem to get upset enough about this. 0.99
00:05:38.220 Yeah, I mean, you know, I'm doing the best I can to try to wake
00:05:40.420 more people up about it, but it's certainly a tough task.
00:05:42.720 And, you know, one of the strange things about it is if you look
00:05:45.520 at the country that Canada most resembles, you know,
00:05:48.520 militarily in terms of our attitude towards the military
00:05:50.820 and underfunding, ironically, it's Germany, right?
00:05:53.120 I mean, Germany has the same thing.
00:05:54.320 I mean, they promised recently they were going to boost their military funding
00:05:57.020 and that turned out to be mostly hot air.
00:05:58.620 They haven't really done that much.
00:06:00.320 But it's a lot because Germany, you can understand why they'd be a little reticent 1.00
00:06:04.020 to build up their military again, right?
00:06:05.520 I mean, they've got a history where certainly the idea of saying, you know,
00:06:08.520 we're pretty ashamed of what we did in the past.
00:06:10.720 That makes a lot of sense for Germany.
00:06:12.320 Canada, of course, is fighting on the opposite side of that.
00:06:14.620 So we have a lot to be proud of militarily.
00:06:16.320 But we seem to have the same kind of almost ashamed attitude of all the military.
00:06:20.120 Oh, we don't want to really talk about it.
00:06:21.420 We don't want a big military.
00:06:22.520 We don't want to be too strong.
00:06:23.520 It's too scary and too mean.
00:06:25.920 And so, you know, I don't know if it will change.
00:06:28.820 It's an attitude that obviously comes, I think, from, you know,
00:06:31.820 very deep with a lot of Canadians.
00:06:33.420 You know, I see people say, oh, we don't need a military
00:06:35.720 or America will protect us or, you know, who needs a big military today's day
00:06:39.720 and age and again, you know, a big military is something
00:06:42.320 that certainly looks like a waste of money most of the time.
00:06:44.420 But when you need it, you know, it better be there
00:06:46.420 because you can't just build it up instantly, right?
00:06:48.120 And so, you know, I think all the people who claim that they, you know,
00:06:52.420 support NATO and claim that Canada, you know, should be a part of defending,
00:06:55.920 you know, our values against, you know, countries like Russia, 1.00
00:06:59.420 against countries like China, that's only credible 0.90
00:07:02.020 if you support building up the military.
00:07:03.720 There's no magical, you know, way around that.
00:07:05.520 You know, you have to have a strong military to be able
00:07:07.820 to defend yourself and help your allies.
00:07:09.320 So, you know, I think maybe it's because Canada hasn't had any,
00:07:13.020 you know, internal military conflicts for a long time.
00:07:15.120 You know, we didn't fight a major war of independence.
00:07:17.820 That's not how we became a nation.
00:07:19.320 So maybe people just don't appreciate it.
00:07:21.520 But, you know, I think it's something that we don't want
00:07:24.120 to overlook because it's, you know, you don't want to be in a situation
00:07:26.920 where you're desperately trying to build up a military
00:07:28.720 when your country is being attacked.
00:07:30.420 I would think it doesn't have to be a large military,
00:07:32.520 but we could at least equip them better.
00:07:34.720 The current military is using, they're using sidearms from World War II.
00:07:38.620 I remember a series of columns on the National Post.
00:07:42.520 They've been spending decades naval gazing
00:07:44.420 and talking about getting new sidearms.
00:07:46.420 You could go to Cabela's with a couple million dollars
00:07:48.520 and get them updated sidearms in a week if you really wanted to,
00:07:51.920 and they still can't even manage to get this done.
00:07:55.620 I mean, it seems almost if it's that bad that it's purposeful
00:07:58.420 that maybe they're trying to starve this military out of existence.
00:08:02.220 Yeah, there certainly does seem to be part of that attitude at play here.
00:08:06.720 You know, and as you say, it doesn't need to be a massive military.
00:08:09.120 We're not a big country in terms of population,
00:08:10.920 but certainly we could have a very advanced air force.
00:08:13.120 You know, we could be a leader in drone technology, missile technology,
00:08:15.820 and then have a small but very well-equipped, you know, military.
00:08:18.820 And, you know, even in terms of cost, I mean, it's not really that expensive.
00:08:23.220 I mean, NATO's asking us to spend 2% of GDP on our military.
00:08:26.720 That's not really excessive.
00:08:27.820 I mean, you look at a lot of other countries.
00:08:29.120 They're spending 4%, 5%, 6%, way more militaries, even the U.S.
00:08:32.420 I mean, everyone talks about the U.S.
00:08:33.720 supposedly being some big, you know, imperial military power.
00:08:37.320 They spend, you know, about average, you know, as the world goes
00:08:40.120 on their military per capita or as a percentage of their GDP.
00:08:44.720 They just have a huge GDP, so it looks like big spending.
00:08:47.520 So we don't need to be, you know, it's not like we're going
00:08:49.320 to be a super militarized country.
00:08:50.720 It's just basically doing the bare minimum, basically saying, look,
00:08:53.920 we're going to have advanced equipment.
00:08:55.120 We're going to have good planes.
00:08:56.020 We're going to have a few good ships.
00:08:57.320 We're going to have soldiers who are well-trained and well-equipped.
00:08:59.620 And if we need to help our allies, then we can do so.
00:09:02.120 And so that really shouldn't be too much to ask.
00:09:04.420 I mean, the flip side is you look at it from the American perspective.
00:09:08.420 By not funding our own military and then by saying, oh, America will protect us.
00:09:11.720 We're basically saying, oh, Americans will die to protect Canadians
00:09:14.420 because we're not choosing to do our part.
00:09:16.620 And an alliance has to go both ways.
00:09:18.320 You know, if we expect the Americans to help us if we're in trouble,
00:09:21.020 we should be able to at least do a little bit to help them if they get in trouble.
00:09:24.320 And so I think just, you know, strategically, morally, ethically, you know,
00:09:28.220 having a decent military is certainly not something we can overlook in today's world.
00:09:32.620 Well, we'll keep debating anyways and keep pushing and shoving
00:09:36.220 and trying to keep a balance in the nation, I would hope.
00:09:39.120 I appreciate your contributions and your columns going out there.
00:09:43.820 Just to kind of remind everybody one more time before I let you go,
00:09:46.220 where can we find where you're writing and where your presence is out there, Spencer?
00:09:51.020 Yeah, you can go to SpencerFernando.com.
00:09:52.620 That's where most of my articles are.
00:09:54.220 And then I publish one column about once a week for the National Citizens Coalition.
00:09:58.920 So you can find that on nationalcitizens.ca.
00:10:01.720 Great.
00:10:02.720 Well, I appreciate you joining the show again, Spencer.
00:10:05.320 It's always a good conversation.
00:10:06.620 I hope we get to talk again soon.
00:10:07.920 Sounds good.
00:10:08.920 Great.
00:10:09.420 Thanks.
00:10:09.920 You can become a Western Standard member for just $10 a month or $99 a year for unlimited access.