Western Standard - Unfit for action, how the Trudeau Liberals broke the armed forces

00:00:00.000 Good evening everybody and welcome to Hannaford, a weekly politics program of the Western Standard.

00:00:21.960 It is October the 14th, 2024. Happy Thanksgiving. Underfunded, under-equipped, and in the last few years undermined by ideologies hostile to military virtue, this country's armed forces have for this liberal government been an eternal second thought, or third, or fourth.

00:00:41.740 They have also been treated as a social engineering laboratory to the detriment of operational effectiveness.

00:00:51.960 With me today is somebody who has been vocal about this issue, and cancelled as a result.

00:01:00.240 I'd like to welcome Lieutenant General Michel Mesinov. He joins me today with his wife Barbara, also a retired Canadian Armed Forces officer.

00:01:09.720 And we're going to talk about how deep is the rot, and how the Canadian Armed Forces can be put back together.

00:01:15.600 Welcome to the show, both of you.

00:01:17.960 Thank you very much. Great to be here.

00:01:19.480 You're very welcome.

00:01:21.960 Sir, Madam, you've both had stellar careers.

00:01:25.860 Let me just quote from what they say about you here.

00:01:31.920 You served for 35 years in some of the top NATO appointments available to a Canadian.

00:01:38.440 You're a soldier's soldier, and they used to love you for it.

00:01:40.940 Two years ago, they loved you so much that you received the Vimy Award, which is awarded to, and I'm quoting here,

00:01:48.340 a Canadian who has made a significant and outstanding contribution to the defense and security of Canada and the preservation of its values.

00:01:57.900 So, in Hollywood terms, when you accepted it, two years ago, you gave a speech, however, that told a few home truths about how government policy was hurting the Army, the Navy, the Air Force.

00:02:15.360 And you called out the Department of Defense, and you called out the Department of National Defense.

00:02:18.900 So, you got canceled.

00:02:21.820 They were quite cross.

00:02:23.260 Now, you've written a book about that, and we want to talk about that and what else is in the book, which I think is a reflection on the state of Canada.

00:02:31.940 But first, you were there getting this award.

00:02:35.420 What did you say that upset the establishment so much?

00:02:38.800 Well, thank you.

00:02:41.080 I mean, the first thing I would say is I talked about the state of our nation, and I had been, for many years, unhappy with the way our nation was proceeding.

00:02:51.820 And some of the things I said, I mean, they were my opinion as a Canadian.

00:02:56.300 And the fact that I was canceled for it, I mean, obviously shows that people disagreed with my views.

00:03:05.280 However, I also think that many others agreed.

00:03:07.960 And I talked about the complacency of Canadians, about the lack of leadership, the lack of courage in our leaders, in our current political leaders and other leaders.

00:03:19.280 I talked about service and the honor of service and the need for leadership.

00:03:24.600 You know, and I went through a whole bunch of different issues.

00:03:27.400 But as I say, I was speaking as a Canadian.

00:03:29.740 I was given this platform by receiving this award.

00:03:33.120 And I thought this is my chance to actually voice my opinion.

00:03:36.780 And some people did not like it.

00:03:40.000 Well, now, let's talk very specifically about the condition of the armed services.

00:03:46.560 As a newspaper person, I read what everybody else reads.

00:03:52.120 And I sometimes have access to a little more information.

00:03:54.640 But it seems that we have an establishment of 70,000, but we probably don't have anything, even 50,000 men and women available to deploy.

00:04:04.820 Meanwhile, a lot of equipment has been given away to Ukraine.

00:04:07.940 New stuff hasn't been ordered.

00:04:09.740 The airplanes are getting old.

00:04:11.080 The warships are getting old.

00:04:12.340 You know, the tanks are in Ukraine.

00:04:16.940 Can you just characterize for us the effectiveness of the armed forces as they are today compared with what you knew when you were serving?

00:04:25.720 Well, first of all, this is not a problem that just started today or since I left or whatever.

00:04:33.580 The Canadian Armed Forces have always, in my view, been underfunded and undersupported.

00:04:40.980 And you described them like that at the beginning.

00:04:43.440 The thing you didn't say was underappreciated.

00:04:46.180 And I think that is one of the things that, you know, Canadians love their armed forces when they come out during a crisis or when they're out there on the world stage doing something that Canadians appreciate.

00:04:59.840 But otherwise, the government and not only this current government, governments before have always had trouble giving them enough funding to be able to be operational.

00:05:11.460 On top of what's going on now, and I've described it before as a perfect storm.

00:05:16.400 So it's a perfect storm.

00:05:17.420 Why?

00:05:17.880 Because the world is much more dangerous today than it ever was.

00:05:22.720 You know, not only the technology advances and AI and quantum computing and all that stuff, but we've actually got state-on-state conflicts going on right now in parts of the world.

00:05:34.620 And Canada, in my view, is undefended.

00:05:37.620 So it's underfunded, underappreciated, and our country is undefended.

00:05:43.060 It truly is.

00:05:43.940 If there was any kind of attack on our country right now, we could not defend ourselves.

00:05:49.360 And it's because of all the things that you talked about, personnel, equipment, training.

00:05:55.240 And so that's kind of where we're at today.

00:05:57.200 And you also talked about the, let's say, the social experiments that are being undertaken through the armed forces.

00:06:05.100 And in my view, that has a huge impact as well.

00:06:07.560 On recruiting.

00:06:08.480 On recruiting and operational capability.

00:06:11.740 Yes.

00:06:12.020 Well, it's, obviously, you have married somebody who has also given their career to the service of their country through the armed forces.

00:06:23.520 Many of the things that I think we're talking about are aimed at the advancement of women. 0.78

00:06:29.440 So maybe, Barbara, may I ask you, how do you view some of the initiatives that are coming out of the Department of National Defense and also Department of Veteran Affairs when it comes to memory and honor that you have observed?

00:06:43.960 Well, I think that what the armed forces is doing now is they've lost their way at, you know, their objectives in recruiting, this idea that there has to be a certain percentage.

00:06:59.500 And I think it's 25 that they've been aiming for to have 25% women in the military.

00:07:04.560 We've never hit that target.

00:07:06.020 I think when I joined in the early 80s, I think it was around 10 or 11, and we managed to get it up to 17.

00:07:11.280 So this arbitrary percentage, what's its purpose?

00:07:16.300 I think your idea of a social experiment is bang on.

00:07:21.020 I mean, the military needs to have warriors.

00:07:25.060 I mean, isn't that what a military is?

00:07:26.860 And yet we seem to be hell-bent on destroying the warrior culture.

00:07:31.680 If there's one organization you want to have warriors, would it not be your military?

00:07:35.500 That would be number one.

00:07:36.440 And number two, these arbitrary quotas that we set up, whether it's women or it's, you know, LGBTQ minorities or the special interest groups,

00:07:47.460 what we do when we focus on them is we reduce the standard.

00:07:53.180 And I know that that's not going to sit well with a lot of people, but we do.

00:07:56.720 We did it even in my day when we started, and women are going to carry packs. 1.00

00:08:00.320 Well, I think the pack was 60 pounds.

00:08:02.660 Most women can't carry 60 pounds. 1.00

00:08:04.700 So immediately they reduced it to 40.

00:08:06.740 Okay, so we could carry 40.

00:08:07.840 But then who carried the other 20 pounds? 1.00

00:08:09.880 So this idea that men and women are interchangeable is stupid. 0.99

00:08:13.740 The whole idea of the military in recruiting should be meritocracy. 0.99

00:08:17.460 And if you reinforce meritocracy and get rid of these arbitrary quotas, then you're going to have a force.

00:08:23.560 And you're also a fighting force, a capable force, and you're also going to appeal to the people who want to be in the military.

00:08:31.700 Changing things so that a man or a woman can take a man's place, it's not helping us. 1.00

00:08:36.660 And you can see the recruiting numbers since we started this experiment, I don't know, two years ago or three years ago,

00:08:41.880 when we had that culture, the chief command and culture, the recruiting numbers are abysmal.

00:08:49.840 And so when are we going to say, okay, that's enough, this experiment didn't work, let's go back to building a military that we can be proud of,

00:08:57.640 and that the people who want to serve will be able to serve and not be placed, put at the bottom of the list,

00:09:02.960 because they don't fit one of those little quotas that they've established.

00:09:06.420 That doesn't mean that you have to be, you know, refuse to be inclusive.

00:09:09.800 I mean, I think anyone who wants to serve can meet the standards, should be able to serve, and, you know, should be respected,

00:09:17.020 and they should respect the others as well.

00:09:19.160 However, I think what you could call it is inclusive meritocracy, where, okay, the best, you know, you recruit the best,

00:09:25.520 you recruit in those areas that you know you can get the people.

00:09:29.440 You talked about the 70,000 people, okay, so the armed forces completely with regular and reserve is 100,000, let's say.

00:09:35.980 Right now, the word is that we're missing something like 16,500.

00:09:40.560 I believe it's more than that, but in World War II, when a unit lost 15% of its personnel, it was declared non-effective.

00:09:48.480 So you could actually say the armed forces are currently non-effective, and it's then, it's not just the people you're missing,

00:09:54.900 it's the type of people you're missing.

00:09:56.860 You're missing that middle strata there of warrant officers and sergeants, captains and majors,

00:10:01.760 who've all left because they're pissed off, by the way.

00:10:04.260 That's why they're gone, a lot of them.

00:10:07.440 They find a lack of leadership, lack of courage.

00:10:10.740 Changing the dress regulations and allowing man buns and fingernail polish and all that stuff, 1.00

00:10:17.500 that has pissed off more people, I think, than it actually has attracted.

00:10:21.060 So you're losing these middle managers, and you're recruiting at the bottom,

00:10:25.400 you're recruiting young men and women who will take 10 years, 20 years to get to that middle management.

00:10:31.200 So it's a real crisis.

00:10:33.380 And right now, as I said, it's a perfect storm.

00:10:35.360 With all the dangers we have internationally, our inability to participate, that's the impact today.

00:10:42.500 Sir, I was fortunate in my journalistic career to visit Afghanistan twice and visit the Canadian army there.

00:10:52.400 To be perfectly honest, they seemed like a pretty tough lot.

00:10:57.360 And now you are describing people who care about their fingernails and their man buns.

00:11:05.740 Afghanistan wasn't that long ago, maybe 12 years.

00:11:09.160 What happened?

00:11:09.760 Well, I think it's radical progressivism.

00:11:15.680 It's the progressive agenda that's been passed into them in the military.

00:11:22.480 And you know what?

00:11:23.760 The military responds to civilian direction.

00:11:26.900 The military is under civilian control in Canada.

00:11:29.500 That's a democracy, and it's a great thing and everything.

00:11:32.680 However, when the military is forced to have these quotas or to say, okay, we're going to do an experiment, try to get the whole diversity, equity, and inclusion program into the armed forces,

00:11:46.360 and we're going to put aside meritocracy to get more of these people from special interest groups, that's what happens.

00:11:54.660 And you know what?

00:11:55.900 The Canadian armed forces, the personnel, those that are serving now and those that have retired, they're the best that Canada can offer.

00:12:03.140 They're the best people ever.

00:12:05.120 They just don't get the means.

00:12:06.500 They don't get the equipment.

00:12:07.700 They don't get the training.

00:12:08.700 They don't get the leadership to make them the best.

00:12:11.400 And I'm sure that those you saw there, yeah, they were pretty tough guys, and they went to war, and we lost young men and women.

00:12:17.600 And so our country, you know, sent our brave men and women out there, and not only did we lose a bunch, a lot of them came back sick, injured, injured both mentally and physically, and it's, you know, we need to look after them.

00:12:34.460 And you wanted to talk about veterans.

00:12:36.580 Well, let's get into it because, you know, our veterans are being treated very poorly sometimes.

00:12:41.840 In your remarks at the Vimy Award, you spoke of the military contract, that is, the understanding that should exist between those people who put on uniform and are prepared to serve to the utmost, and the people who they serve and protect.

00:13:01.760 Could you just elaborate what that contract looks like to you, and how we are failing in that today?

00:13:10.540 I'm smiling because my wife sometimes tells me I'm pontificating, but really, I describe the moral contract as the contract between Canadians and their military.

00:13:22.280 Okay, so the Canadians are represented by their government.

00:13:25.580 The military is the men and women who decide that they're going to serve.

00:13:28.640 A contract implies an arrangement that one side agrees to do something while the other side agrees to do something.

00:13:35.540 That's the contract.

00:13:36.400 So the moral contract is that our military men and women, they accept to go off and do the things that ordinary Canadians are not doing.

00:13:43.940 They accept to go and fight for our values, fight for our country, help our country, even in Canada and domestically and everywhere.

00:13:52.160 They accept to do that at the price, if necessary, of their life.

00:13:56.720 So that's called the unlimited liability contract.

00:14:00.600 So that's their, they accept to do this on our behalf.

00:14:03.220 Now we on the other side, Canadians on the other side, their side of the contract ought to be, should be, we're going to give them everything we can to make them as successful and as protected and as safe as possible.

00:14:17.080 So what does that mean?

00:14:18.020 That means we're going to give them the best leadership, going to give them the best training, the best equipment, the best education that we can.

00:14:25.880 We're going to make them as successful as we can.

00:14:27.820 So just look at how now that contract is broken.

00:14:30.680 Our men and women still agree to go and do this, but they ain't got all the good stuff.

00:14:35.560 They don't have the best training, the best equipment, the best leadership or education to be able to do those things.

00:14:41.940 So I'm saying that moral contract is broken between Canadians and their armed forces.

00:14:46.680 Mr. Harper, the former prime minister, put it very well, as I recall, when he talked about giving the armed forces the equipment they need and the respect they deserve.

00:14:59.220 That was his understanding of the contract.

00:15:04.140 It seems to be yours.

00:15:05.380 Well, as well it is.

00:15:07.700 And the issue becomes then as a politician, are you willing, do you have the courage to actually tell Canadians, well, we are going to spend more on the armed forces.

00:15:18.440 It's going to cost more money to make them as successful as possible.

00:15:21.900 And unfortunately, when you compete against other social programs, well, you can't really have social programs if you've got somebody else's army in your backyard, right?

00:15:31.440 I mean, let's face it, so the first thing should be to protect, to enable our armed forces to be able to defend us.

00:15:39.120 And so you need to make choices, and you need to have the courage to do that.

00:15:43.380 This current government does not have the courage.

00:15:45.600 That's why I said our armed forces are underappreciated.

00:15:49.700 And frankly, it's been that way for a long, long time.

00:15:53.180 Is it a lack of courage?

00:15:55.260 I'm going to direct this one to you, ma'am.

00:15:58.000 Is this a lack of courage on the part of the government?

00:16:03.180 Or is it that they actually not only don't care about this contract, but they actually have a very different intention for the armed forces?

00:16:16.160 That they want to, well, we were talking about the social engineering aspect of it.

00:16:21.980 What's going on?

00:16:22.720 Is it that they lack courage or they don't want to?

00:16:25.440 I tend to think that they don't want to.

00:16:28.540 I tend to think that it's not important to this particular government that, and they use the military not as a force that it's meant to be to look at.

00:16:38.980 They just, they foist on it, their ideals, their radical progressive ideas.

00:16:43.180 And they, I don't know whether they just assume that we have nothing to worry about.

00:16:47.780 The Americans will look after us, which seems to be a big assumption that people have.

00:16:51.800 But they have certainly stripped the military of all its pride and its dignity.

00:16:56.540 And they almost seem hell-bent on destroying it in some ways.

00:17:02.720 You asked me about the sexual harassment side of it, Mr. Hanford, and I didn't answer you, and I apologize.

00:17:06.800 But this witch hunt that started, and I'm going to call it a witch hunt because that's what it appears to be.

00:17:12.660 And I have spoken on this before, and I've been accused of victim shaming.

00:17:17.280 And that certainly was not my intent.

00:17:19.300 I don't deny there are victims.

00:17:20.540 There are victims everywhere.

00:17:21.580 And just as I don't deny that there are predators and bad guys in uniform like there are in every other organization.

00:17:28.460 And yes, these people, these predators, we should seek them out and we should, you know, draw and quarter them, as far as I'm concerned, and get them out of there.

00:17:36.900 But this glee upon which they jump on these accusations, and if you were to have no idea of the military and you were just to watch the legacy media or mainstream media, 0.97

00:17:48.880 you would, the assumption would be that every Canadian, every male in Canada that wears an armed forces uniform is a predator, is, you know, a misogynist, is just like a horrible person.

00:18:00.620 And in my experience, that is absolutely not the case.

00:18:04.040 Like the vast majority of men that I served with were good guys.

00:18:07.760 They were decent.

00:18:08.820 They believed in what they were doing.

00:18:11.260 And, you know, people will say, well, you know, didn't something awful happen to you?

00:18:15.360 And there were comments that were made.

00:18:17.040 And I will tell you, honestly, that, you know, how did they, how did you react to that?

00:18:21.820 And I, a lot of the time, before I even decided how I was going to react to that, my buddy, my comrade beside me, male comrade, would pipe up and say, yeah, hey, that's not cool.

00:18:31.540 We don't do that.

00:18:32.300 So this idea that, that if something bad happens to you in the military as a woman, there's nowhere to turn to that every single man you work, that you're working with is as bad as the predator.

00:18:42.100 I just, I'm not buying it.

00:18:44.040 I'm sorry, but I'm not buying it.

00:18:45.380 And then part two of that is that when an accusation is made, boy, we go after the, the, the person and, and his life is over.

00:18:54.480 And even as, when it turns out that he's found not guilty or, or there's, or the charges are dropped or there's not enough evidence to, to, to prosecute or it doesn't matter.

00:19:04.820 He's already, he's done.

00:19:06.020 And you can look in the news for it, for the list of, of, of our senior leaders who are finished because an accusation was made and not proven.

00:19:13.780 And so I have a hard time with that too.

00:19:15.060 We need to look after, I mean, our charter of rights, you're supposed to look after the accused, you know, you're innocent until proven guilty.

00:19:20.920 And that just doesn't seem to be the case in the military.

00:19:23.560 And that's very sad.

00:19:25.040 Well, I'm told, ma'am, that there was a very large increase in the number of complaints after a fund was established to pay out victims who proved their case.

00:19:39.940 Could you talk a little bit about that?

00:19:41.800 I, I really don't think I can, that, that came out, that came afterward.

00:19:47.080 I, all I can tell you is that in my time in the military, there weren't very many of us and you would think I would have heard more or seen more, observed more.

00:19:57.320 And I did not, I did not, not on that scale that you see here.

00:20:00.980 And, and if there was a problem, usually that problem was dealt with.

00:20:04.320 We have, you know, military police and we have, there's a multitude of avenues you can go to for help.

00:20:10.040 So I did not see this large scale.

00:20:13.380 And, and this was when I joined, it was like a long time ago.

00:20:16.140 When I joined, it was still okay to have Miss September up in your calendar, up in your locker.

00:20:20.560 So, so things have progressed now.

00:20:22.440 When I look at, at how far the young men and women are today, I, I find it astonishing to believe that there, there are that many cases of that kind of harassment.

00:20:32.100 I, I just do.

00:20:34.400 I think for the benefit of the viewers that we should point out that you were in the military police.

00:20:40.040 You probably would have seen anything like this before anybody else saw it.

00:20:45.640 Is that a fair comment?

00:20:48.560 About a complaint?

00:20:49.860 Yes, we dealt with the complaint.

00:20:51.220 I would say that.

00:20:52.060 But again, you know, perhaps it's my memory now, but when I go back to your ladies, the complaints that we usually had were, I think what most police forces have.

00:21:00.640 They were domestic complaints, you know, the, like a, a, a couple and a domestic complaint there.

00:21:06.280 If there was, if there was a predator case like that, he, it was dealt with.

00:21:14.280 And I, I don't, I don't, I didn't, I didn't come across the, the Russell, Russell Williams case, like something like that, a predator that was sought out.

00:21:26.360 But it wasn't widespread.

00:21:27.720 If that's what you're asking, that's my answer.

00:21:29.360 It was not widespread then.

00:21:31.240 And I can't, I can't comment more on it.

00:21:35.220 There were less women there. 1.00

00:21:36.580 So you would think that perhaps it would be easier for one of us to be targeted, but I did not see it and I did not experience it.

00:21:43.540 And I mean, knowing, knowing Barbara, I mean, obviously we've been married for, for over 20 years and, and I, you know, I think she would have been the first person to, you know, go after these guys.

00:21:55.100 I mean, it would have been, you know, and, and when she says, I, I just, you know, didn't see it and, you know, and those instances where there was misbehavior, they were dealt with immediately either by her buddies or, or by the, by herself or by the women themselves who also said, Hey, you know, and most, I think most of these predators are cowards as well.

00:22:14.480 And if you kind of rebuff them quickly, most of them will back off, but I mean, it's, it's, it's horrible what's happened.

00:22:21.460 And I think the whole question of reparations as well, in terms of, you know, looking after those that are found not guilty, who, you know, we need to do a better job and the armed forces need to do a better job.

00:22:33.300 And women have to be strong too. 1.00

00:22:34.860 Like, I mean, this, I don't know, it's a phenomenon of this day and age that it's, it's almost like, you know, you want to wear a victim's cloak, like you want to be a victim.

00:22:44.120 And I, and that, that bothers me to no end.

00:22:46.760 I mean, you know, women of my generation, we made our way and we did some fighting and we got to where we were.

00:22:53.620 And now to be suddenly, I need, you know, I need trauma leave because someone said, well, you're looking hot today.

00:22:59.400 Like, come on, like we need to, we're, we're not doing the women today. 1.00

00:23:03.400 I don't think we're doing us any favors by, by jumping on the victim's bandwagon and not fighting for yourself.

00:23:10.240 I think that has to be, and it's promoted this to be a victim.

00:23:14.660 It's almost like it's, it's something that is coveted if you can prove you were a victim.

00:23:18.420 And I don't just mean in the military, but it seems to be the way it is.

00:23:21.880 And again, I blame the radical progressives for this, that they have, you know, it's, it's not an inner strength and what is, and, and it's the responsible, taking responsibility for yourself and your actions and pride and all of those things.

00:23:36.340 I think we veered off that path and we need to get back on it.

00:23:39.140 And it's today's narrative right now.

00:23:40.740 And it's, you can't go against it.

00:23:42.080 If you speak against it, you're going to be canceled.

00:23:44.220 And that's just the way it is.

00:23:45.740 Well, in the time remaining to us, I would like to have you speak about two things.

00:23:52.240 First off is what you say in the book.

00:23:56.920 It's just been published.

00:23:58.740 Look, can we, can we just, can you hold that up?

00:24:00.700 Can you just see the book?

00:24:02.700 This was only released on Wednesday.

00:24:05.300 There we are in defense of Canada.

00:24:07.700 And I think there's a subtitle.

00:24:09.480 Yes, Reflections of a Patriot.

00:24:11.820 Reflections of a Patriot in defense of Canada.

00:24:15.720 So you have, you aren't just talking about the military in the book.

00:24:20.100 So I'd like to know what else you have to, what other points you're making there. 0.86

00:24:24.220 And then the second thing would be that we can sit here and damn the darkness.

00:24:28.160 But in about a year's time, many people think, in fact, I would say many people fervently

00:24:36.420 and desperately hope that we will have a change of government.

00:24:40.720 And then it will be their problem.

00:24:42.640 But this stuff has already been embedded.

00:24:45.180 And I'm going to ask you how you un-embed that and restore some sense of military virtue

00:24:51.080 and the military contract.

00:24:53.440 But first, what's in the book?

00:24:56.400 Well, in the book, I talk about all those things that I talked in my BIMI speech.

00:25:00.660 As a Canadian, I go out there and I talk about, you know, the complacency of Canadians 1.00

00:25:05.600 who kind of very merrily go along with anything that the government does,

00:25:10.120 as opposed to having, you know, some common sense, an opinion on things, and even voting. 0.92

00:25:15.480 I mean, our voting percentages are ridiculous.

00:25:18.880 And so I think people need to get out of this complacency.

00:25:22.660 Canadians need to have an opinion.

00:25:24.540 I talk about our past.

00:25:25.940 Our past is a glorious past that we should be celebrating and not cancelling, toppling

00:25:31.380 statues, et cetera.

00:25:32.900 I'm talking about Canada's position on the world stage.

00:25:36.080 And that I have, I use it throughout the book, kind of personal experiences to illustrate

00:25:41.080 what I'm trying to say.

00:25:42.040 And, you know, Canada had a very strong voice on the international stage, which it doesn't

00:25:47.640 have today, in my view.

00:25:49.780 And then I talk about the radical agendas of the current government, but also current

00:25:55.300 society generally, DEI, democracy, meritocracy.

00:26:00.620 I wanted to talk about, pardon?

00:26:03.240 Yeah, I want immigration.

00:26:04.560 I talk about immigration.

00:26:05.700 I talk also about the climate and what this whole obsession with climate.

00:26:11.360 climate is about and the impact it's having on our resources.

00:26:17.380 I talk about our economy.

00:26:18.960 I mean, I am absolutely not an expert in any of these subjects, but I have an opinion and

00:26:22.920 I'm giving it.

00:26:23.620 That's essentially what the book is.

00:26:26.260 And then finally, I talk about the military and our veterans.

00:26:28.960 I mean, those are two areas where obviously I can speak on.

00:26:33.920 Let's go for the next story.

00:26:36.000 You know, Humpty Dumpty fell off the wall.

00:26:38.060 How do you put him back together?

00:26:39.200 Well, yeah, so then I have the final chapter is how do we fix this?

00:26:44.540 Not only the military, but our country generally.

00:26:47.180 And so, but specifically on the military, I'm going to say, first of all, a change of government,

00:26:54.980 obviously, I think will help.

00:26:56.840 There's no, it cannot hurt, certainly what's happening right now.

00:27:01.000 So a change of government will, will, will help.

00:27:03.920 The issue is getting rid of the DEI, but also is the, sorry, go ahead.

00:27:08.820 I was going to say that like, like many businesses, many companies right now have said, okay,

00:27:13.300 we tried the DEI, it didn't work, or we're going to take what's good from it and get rid of it.

00:27:17.920 The experiment's over.

00:27:18.900 And now we need to, I think the military, number one, they have to do that and then recruit

00:27:23.720 to our target market, recruit to the warriors, recruit to the, 71% of our military are young

00:27:31.340 white men with conservative values that understand hard work and they believe in, and they're proud

00:27:37.800 of their flag.

00:27:38.560 They're proud of their country.

00:27:39.480 They believe in all those sort of old world virtues, I guess you could call them.

00:27:44.800 Values, yeah.

00:27:45.520 Values, those are the people.

00:27:46.560 Everything that the liberal government doesn't believe in.

00:27:49.160 Exactly, exactly.

00:27:50.520 They, you know, post-national, like why would you put a, go fight for a post-national state?

00:27:54.960 It doesn't make sense.

00:27:55.820 So we need to go back to what we, what our strengths are and recruit to them.

00:27:59.680 And I mean, this, companies have come out and said it doesn't work.

00:28:03.280 It doesn't make sense.

00:28:04.160 And so I think if we do that, then the recruiting then will definitely go up.

00:28:09.480 And that's, and that's the first thing we need to bring in people that are, that believe

00:28:14.220 in, in what the military stands for, that are proud of their country.

00:28:17.140 And once we start doing that, I think everything will start to work itself out.

00:28:20.680 That's my.

00:28:21.540 Yeah, that's certainly on the personnel side.

00:28:23.940 The issue also is going to have to be this new government is going to have to talk about

00:28:27.320 the honor of service.

00:28:28.520 I mean, and I talk about leadership and service as the way to fix everything.

00:28:31.980 And it's true. 0.56

00:28:32.760 It is that if you look at when the government announced this defense policy update,

00:28:38.640 never once did the prime minister in his speech talk about the importance of serving your

00:28:43.600 country, service to the country.

00:28:46.020 I mean, it's, you know, it obviously shows that he doesn't really care about it.

00:28:50.200 He doesn't really think it's important, but that's how it starts.

00:28:53.200 And then you fix immigration, you fix recruiting and you fix retention.

00:28:57.480 Uh, but then you, you can also fix it through, uh, through equipment.

00:29:01.440 You bring better equipment in the young men and women will join too.

00:29:04.600 That's an exciting thing.

00:29:05.940 You, uh, you make sure that you can do the training and you have enough money to do the

00:29:10.060 training.

00:29:10.640 Then you take the budget and you make sure you, you, you put it, you make it non-discretionary,

00:29:15.380 meaning that you can't raid the budget every year, uh, because you're trying to, you know,

00:29:19.860 cut the deficit.

00:29:21.420 So there's a lot of specific issues you can do to fix this.

00:29:24.980 And my last point would be Nigel, a government will have difficulty fixing everything in

00:29:30.140 one mandate.

00:29:31.440 So a new government, we're going to have to give them the time, the, uh, the support

00:29:36.520 necessary to fix this.

00:29:37.720 And, you know, there's going to be a huge backlash by the others who are going to be,

00:29:41.840 uh, left behind and are going to say, Oh, look, we knew this.

00:29:45.300 He wasn't going to be able to fix that.

00:29:46.600 Well, we're going to need to support them.

00:29:49.480 The new government will have to, uh, ensure that, uh, that it, uh, it does the right things,

00:29:54.260 makes the courageous decisions.

00:29:55.580 And when I talked about courage, there's some courage required here to say, here's what

00:29:59.520 we're doing.

00:30:00.000 It's good for our entire country, not just for you in your area or these kinds of voters

00:30:04.840 or this special interest, this is good for the country.

00:30:07.600 And so explaining to Canadians, uh, it takes a lot of courage and, uh, and I think we need

00:30:13.160 that.

00:30:13.440 We need leadership.

00:30:14.060 We need service.

00:30:14.900 I think that last point about there's far more work to do than can be accomplished in

00:30:18.940 one term is very much one that conservatives who have high expectations of a new government

00:30:26.180 will have to keep in mind.

00:30:28.640 But this is the first one that they should be, well, maybe the second after the carbon tax.

00:30:33.660 Anyway, we're getting off.

00:30:35.440 Um, look, uh, on behalf of Western standard viewers, madam, sir, I'd like to thank you for

00:30:41.180 your service to our country.

00:30:42.380 Uh, wish you both a happy Thanksgiving, of course.

00:30:45.680 And, uh, for the Western standard, I'm Nigel Hannaford.

00:30:49.820 Thank you very much.

00:30:50.540 Thank you very much.

00:30:51.260 Happy Thanksgiving.

00:30:52.200 Happy Thanksgiving.

00:30:52.640 Remember that dear, dear.

00:30:54.060 Thank you.

00:30:56.240 Yeah.

00:30:56.540 About the best.

00:30:56.800 Yeah.

00:30:57.440 I say to you very much.

00:31:01.580 Bye for the earth and the second time.

00:31:02.180 I'm sure.

00:31:02.320 Bye for the first time.

00:31:03.260 Bye for tonight.

00:31:03.820 Bye.

00:31:04.200 Bye.

00:31:04.560 Bye.

00:31:05.160 Bye.

00:31:05.760 Bye.

00:31:06.360 Bye.

00:31:06.960 Bye.

00:31:07.460 Bye.

00:31:08.600 Bye.

00:31:10.000 Bye.

00:31:10.700 Bye.

00:31:11.580 Bye.

00:31:11.760 Bye.

00:31:12.100 Bye.

00:31:12.480 Bye.

00:31:12.780 Bye.

00:31:13.160 Bye.

00:31:13.580 Bye.

00:31:14.000 Bye.

00:31:14.020 Bye.

00:31:15.020 Bye.

00:31:15.240 Bye.

00:31:15.820 Bye.

00:31:16.560 Bye.

00:31:17.200 Bye.

00:31:17.980 Bye, happening.

00:31:18.480 fire.

00:31:18.940 Bye.

00:31:19.240 Bye.

00:31:19.980 Bye.

Western Standard - October 15, 2024

Unfit for action, how the Trudeau Liberals broke the armed forces

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