The biggest scandal facing Canada’s military is the fact that it is so weak and underfunded.
Why do we have a military?
Seriously.
Let’s ask that question.
Why do we have a military?
The answer of course is simple:
Defend Canada.
Provide a strong national defence for our nation.
Yet, that has seemingly been forgotten.
Lately, it seems the only issue our military has is that the military is mired in endless sex scandals.
Of course, if top officials have abused their power, that is a serious problem.
Another serious problem is the political correctness that has been imposed on the military, as progressive ‘wokeism’ is completely incompatible with a strong military.
Efforts to recruit more women – something the government has spent a lot of money on – hasn’t worked, in large part because men are simply far more likely to want to join up.
This intuitively makes sense, since – on average – men are more aggressive, and more interested in physical combat.
Human history shows men far more likely to engage in violence (including state-directed violence), and far more likely to join the military.
So, trying to push against human nature and expend resources trying to recruit more and more women doesn’t make much sense.
That said, there are of course outliers and exceptions, and there are women who serve Canada with distinction.
The problem the military has in this regard isn’t a lack of women joining up (since there will never be 50/50 gender parity there no matter how much money is spent), but on the fact that women who may want to sign up of their own accord are watching endless scandals and stories about commanders abusing power. Of course – and something few are willing to say in the media – is that there is responsibility on both sides in the case of consensual relationship between men and women in the armed forces.
We are caught in a strange holding pattern, where we both seek to integrate men and women in the military, while trying to suppress relationships between men and women, despite the inevitability of that taking place.
But all of this – despite all the attention it’s getting – isn’t the biggest issue facing the military.
Not even close.
The biggest issue by far is that our military is basically incapable of doing its actual job.
When was the last time you saw something positive about the Canadian Armed Forces as it pertains to protecting the country?
Our military lacks funding.
Recruitment is failing.
The equipment is outdated.
And – while individual soldiers are quite effective – we simply don’t have enough of them.
Our Air Force uses old planes.
Our Navy is small and procurement is a disaster.
And our ground forces lack both numbers and enough modern equipment.
Canada is a massive landmass without the ability to defend our own territory.
Just consider the North, where we have almost zero military presence, aside from about 4 ancient propeller planes – that can’t even land in the water – and some lightly-armed Canadian Rangers numbering in the thousands at best.
Meanwhile, Russia and China are rapidly building up in the North.
If we were invaded, or even if there was a ‘mild’ territorial incursion, we would be defenseless.
That is the real scandal:
Our hold over our own territory relies simply on potential adversaries not asserting themselves, and the hope that our allies would bail us out.
It’s pathetic.
And while it may not be politically correct to say so, every other military scandal – regardless of what it is – pales in comparison to the scandal that is the weakness of our national defense.
Does this country have the willpower necessary to defend itself?
We must now ask ourselves a tough question:
Do Canadians have what it takes to support a strong national defense?
Our military is stuck running around in circles, seemingly doing nothing but being mired in sex scandals and political correctness.
All parties – even the Conservatives – are only talking about that issue as it pertains to the military – with the actual big problems being unaddressed.
And, there is clearly an internal leadership problem:
It seems Jonathan Vance had quite a lot of arrogance and entitlement, but what did he have to be arrogant about?
It’s not like he led a massive, well-equipped force.
It’s not like he had advocated well for the military.
What had he actually achieved in his time running the Canadian Armed Forces?
You could imagine the head of the US Military being arrogant and confident, but the head of the Canadian Armed Forces?
Not at all.
Mindset
This all comes down to the mindset of our country.
As I wrote about on the impact of large-scale immigration on Canada’s housing market, this country increasingly resembles an international hotel, rather than a nation.
An international hotel wouldn’t be able to summon the mindset and the willpower to defend itself, since it can’t even really conceive of the idea of insiders and outsiders and the importance of defending those inside borders.
By contrast, a nation understands that it has interests, goals, and a group of people – Citizens – who the nation identifies as the priority for being protected and defended from outside forces.
That kind of thinking often seems to ‘closed’ or ‘harsh’ to some Canadians, but that makes us very vulnerable, since nearly every other country is willing to think in those terms, and will take advantage of us if we don’t.
To just blame politicians, or to blame those in charge of the military, would be to miss the reality that our military is in it’s current state because a critical mass of Canadian prioritize being ‘nice’ and politically correct above having a military that is strong and capable of defending the country.
So long as that mindset remains in place, politicians and military commanders will keep giving Canadians what they want – a military that that is used as a proving ground for social experiments, listlessness, ineffectiveness, and chaos, rather.
The harsh truth is that a military exists to train people to kill other human beings if necessary in defense of their nation, and we forget that reality at our own peril.
Spencer Fernando
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