We should be doing more to support Ukraine with weapons, and support our European Allies with energy. But an obsession with ‘woke’ ideology and ‘green’ zealotry has left us unable and unwilling to adequately do so.
Vladimir Putin’s escalatory speech against Ukraine has been widely condemned.
Even China responded by calling for a ceasefire, as the Communist State appears increasingly unwilling to go all in on a partnership with Russia as Russia destabilizes the world.
If it somehow wasn’t clear to people before, it is clear now that Putin is intent on destroying Ukraine and destroying Ukrainian identity, and all free nations must stand against this.
And the scenes of protests in Russia against conscription again demonstrate how dictatorships inevitably end up treating their citizens as disposable tools for the whims of those in power.
History shows that aggressive and expansionist dictatorships respond only to strength, while appeasement, weakness, and submission invites further aggression.
It was a lesson many have forgotten, as most NATO members have spent years underfunding our militaries – with a few exceptions like the USA and Poland – while selling out our energy needs to dictatorships.
And Canada has been a particularly egregious example of this.
I want to point out the significant contrast between the words and the deeds of Justin Trudeau on this point.
Trudeau says all the right things about opposing Putin and supporting Ukraine.
But his actions are quite different.
While Canada gave some weapons to Ukraine, much of what we gave was relatively outdated, and overall weapon shipments were limited due to our low capacity.
For years, I and many others have been calling for Canada to build up our military, because the world can always turn in a dangerous direction without a moments notice.
But instead, the Trudeau government chose to just ‘hope for the best’ and keep our military in a state of permanent underfunding.
Our procurement system is also a pathetic joke.
There’s also a political correctness issue here, as the Trudeau government has been more concerned with quotas and superficial diversity in the military rather than turning it into an effective fighting machine.
This has left us unable to adequately provide for our own defense, and thus unable to provide large scale assistance to Ukraine in terms of the weapons shipments they desperately need to confront Russia’s war of aggression.
Now, the Liberals can at least claim that the military was underfunded when they arrived. Their refusal to strengthen it is egregious, but it is a multi-party problem.
But on the issue of providing energy to Europe, the Trudeau government is solely responsible for Canada’s failure to do so.
Germany’s Chancellor came to Canada and basically begged for Canada to sell our LNG to them.
Trudeau – who has done everything he can to weaken the LNG sector – claimed there wasn’t a good ‘business case’ for Canada to ramp up our LNG exports to Europe.
Germany’s Chancellor then travelled to other countries – most recently Qatar – where he signed a deal for increased energy shipments.
Canada thus lost out on a ton of money, and lost out on an opportunity to weaken Russia’s energy leverage over Europe.
Trudeau placed his anti-energy, green zealotry above the need to help our allies.
This thus benefits Russia, since it means they will make more money on their energy sales, money that can be used for military recruitment and weapons production.
So, the end result of Trudeau’s actions are to weaken our country, weaken our allies, and strengthen expansionist dictatorships like Russia.
For far too long, many Canadians have often been naïve and uninterested in foreign policy, allowing incompetent fools like Justin Trudeau to abandon our national interests and hurt our allied nations.
That cannot continue.
Canadians must wake up and demand serious leadership, and push our leaders to finally start making full use of our natural resources while rearming and expanding our military.
Hoping for the best in a dangerous world will only bring about the worst.
Spencer Fernando
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