If we can’t defend ourselves, can’t defend our interests, and can’t meaningfully help our allies, how can we expect to be worthy or capable of success?
It’s probably safe to say Canada is among the most – if not the most – naïve country in the world.
And here’s just one example.
In a story about how China is increasingly seeking to intimidate people on Canadian soil, it was noted how Canada doesn’t have laws against it:
“Callers can also sometimes find their tip passed along to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS). But while there’s multiple national security agencies available to help, Wong said very few can actually do anything to stop the intimidation.
This is because Canada doesn’t have laws against “clandestine foreign influence,” according to Stephanie Carvin, a Carleton University professor and former CSIS analyst.
Clandestine foreign influence refers to secretive efforts by a foreign government to influence policy or action abroad — in layman’s terms, spy missions.”
When I read that the first time, I was taken aback.
I had to read it again.
But yes, it’s correct.
Canada doesn’t have a law protecting Canadians from foreign spy missions.
That speaks to an inherent weakness and naivety in the Canadian government, but also among Canadians overall, because if we wanted tougher measures we would have had a government bring them in at some point.
We are so ‘nice’ that simply can’t comprehend ruthless regimes acting in a brutal fashion.
The unfortunate fact is far too many people in this country believe that ‘being nice’ is all we need to get by in the world.
Simply put, that is absurdity.
It may feel like a good thing to put ‘being nice’ ahead of practical considerations, but we can’t afford to do it.
Ruthless governments couldn’t care less about how ‘nice’ Canadians think we are.
In fact, they’ll target our country and our people even more because of it.
It doesn’t generate respect either, as you can see how little esteem or regard foreign countries have for our government.
And why would they?
Do we make a big contribution militarily to our alliances?
Not any more.
Are we the ‘strongest link’ in our security partnerships?
Nope, just the opposite.
Our unwillingness to ban Huawei or defend our national interests also causes our allies to doubt if we can be part of advancing our common allied interests.
And economically, our greatest area of potential influence is our immense energy reserves, but we are currently in the process of crippling our energy sector to hit absurd green targets most of our allies pay mere lip-service to without even trying to achieve.
Canada is currently the equivalent of an entire country run with the attitude of a university student council: Lots of nice platitudes and wokeness on steroids’, without the ability to understand true human nature or respond to the world as it really is.
The fundamentals of power haven’t changed
Here’s the reality:
Money and military power are the foundations of power in this world.
Those without it suffer, and those with it thrive.
And no, I’m not talking about some gigantic mass army – something Canada couldn’t build anyway.
What I’m talking about is the fact that the ability to fund and maintain a credible military force is something that a nation needs to truly be taken seriously.
For much of our history, Canada had a strong military. And despite our small population, we are a technologically advanced society, so building a small but highly advanced force is well-within our means.
However, our armed forces have been deteriorating for decades, and now the only time we see the military in the news is when there’s a new sex scandal against a top military official.
Recruitment is down, morale is low, political correctness is everywhere, the equipment is terrible, procurement is a joke, and much of the nation seems to simply not give a crap about it.
Meanwhile, China is rapidly building up their armed forces in what is a now undeniable effort to challenge and surpass the military dominance of NATO.
Russia has built up their forces in the arctic and continues to do so.
Our allies can’t take us seriously, given that we can’t even really defend our own territory. So how could they trust we would help them if necessary?
And in an absolutely disgraceful strategic error, Canada, the US, and many of our allies are dependent upon China for Rare Earth Minerals, which just so happen to be essential components of many high-tech military platforms – despite Canada having a large amount of potential rare earth minerals if we bothered to build up the industry to mine them.
Our dependence on potentially hostile foreign nations also grows the more we cripple the Western Canadian Energy Sector.
What could be a key source of both immense wealth and energy security is being torn apart by a bunch of foolish virtue-signalling politicians and groups that will do nothing but hurt Canadians and enrich our competitors.
And I won’t even begin to mention how we are endangering the country through the pursuit of immense deficit spending and excessive money creation, plus our increasing reliance on foreign millionaires and billionaires to prop up our overheated housing market that pushes Canadian Citizens increasingly out of our own cities.
No, I won’t even mention that.
Reality will intrude on Canada
Now, we know that the naive attitudes of Canadians can’t last forever.
But the real question is how it will end.
Will it end through our country starting to wake up to the need to address reality and act in our national interests by unleashing our energy sector, reducing our reliance on foreign countries, and rebuilding our military and respect for the military?
Or will it end through some sort of crisis, a yet unforeseen event in which our inability to actually defend our territory is exposed in horrifying fashion by a hostile foreign power?
Unfortunately, I would say the latter is more likely at this point.
This country seems determined to fall further and further into the mental trap of believing weakness and passivity is somehow a virtue, and so many people are so invested in their ‘nice’ identity that only a severe external shock would wake them up.
That said, those of us who recognize that Canada can be, and must, a much tougher and more realistic country, still need to speak up and speak out in the hopes of waking up as many of our fellow Citizens as we can.
Canada’s success and even survival are not guaranteed. History shows that nations break up, fall apart, and decline.
Keeping a country strong is a choice, and it remains to be seen if Canada will make that choice or not.
Spencer Fernando
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