Shaun Newman Podcast - #994 - David Redman

Episode Date: February 3, 2026

David Redman is a retired Lieutenant-Colonel from the Canadian Armed Forces, where he served for 27 years with deployments across Canada, the United States, Europe, the Middle East, and peacekeeping missions in the Former Republic of Yugoslavia. After retiring from the military around 2000–2001, he joined the Government of Alberta in November 2000, initially as Director of Community Programs in Emergency Management Alberta (now the Alberta Emergency Management Agency). Following 9/11, he led the development and implementation of Alberta's Crisis Management Counter-Terrorism Plan, which integrated public and private sector responses. In January 2004, he became Executive Director of the agency, overseeing provincial emergency management for natural and human-induced hazards, including directing the response to the devastating 2005 Alberta floods and developing the 2005 Provincial Pandemic Influenza Plan. We discuss leaders needing to have a vision of where we are going, his thoughts on Alberta Independence and 6 national interests. Tickets to Cornerstone Forum 26’: https://www.showpass.com/cornerstone26/Silver Gold Bull Links:Website: https://silvergoldbull.ca/Email: [e-mail] Grahame: [phone]Bow Valley Credit UnionBitcoin: www.bowvalleycu.com/en/personal/investing-wealth/bitcoin-gatewayEmail: [e-mail] Get your voice heard: Text Shaun 587-217-8500

This is Viva Fry. I'm Dr. Peter McCullough. This is Tom Lomago. This is Chuck Pradnik. This is Alex Krenner. Hey, this is Brad Wall. This is J.P. Sears. Hi, this is Frank Paredi.

This is Tammy Peterson. This is Danielle Smith. This is James Lindsay. Hey, this is Brett Kessel, and you're listening to the Sean Newman podcast. Welcome to the podcast, folks. Happy Tuesday. How's everybody doing today? Well, holding physical gold and silver in your registered accounts,

Silver Gold Bull can help unlock the potential of your RRS, TFSA, RIF, or Kids RISP, or Kids RESP by adding physical gold and silver to your accounts. The deadline for doing those is March 2nd. Once the contribution is made, you can invest in in physical precious metals at any time. I've been keeping you up to date on what the silver price is doing day by day. I'm not going to stop now. It has dropped here today, 6.49% where I sit right now, 109.17 cents Canadian. And I always point back to when we first started giving out the silver coin, it was 38.

roughly. So it's way up since then, but it has dropped. You know, we were talking about it, what was that? A week ago, it was 158, so to see it drop $50, that's been an interesting thing to pay attention to. And when it comes to, you know, gold,

silver, buying those things, putting in your RRSs, the deadline March 2nd once again, you can text or email for, or text your email Graham for details around this or any questions you have around investing in precious metals. It's all down on the show notes. Gold Bull.ca, folks.

And tomorrow we're going to be introducing the latest addition to the SMP crew. That's Integrated Wealth Management. So that should be interesting. They deal with people's money. They're here in Alberta and they're like us. So I'm excited to team up with them and hopefully give some more insights when you're investing in the markets. You're buying physical gold and silver.

I think they're going to offer some insights that will be useful to all of us. RECTech for over 20 years, Rectec Power Sports has been, or Rect Tech Power Products, that is, has been committed to excellence in the power sports industry. And if you stop in here on the west side of Lloyd Minster, they've got everything from Alberta built aluminum trailers to lawnmowers to some of the more fun things. Although, you know, my age and stage of life,

a good lawnmower goes a long way, I might say. But, you know, snowmobiles, I don't know, it's spring. I feel like spring is right around. It isn't spring yet. It's close to spring, you know. the weather we've been having, you know, side by sides, quads, those fun things, maybe a sea do or two, and some fun things out there. They also got Lund fishing boats.

I know to the fishermen out there, fishing season, you're probably out on the ice, but, you know, the sun is shining more and more as we go along. The days are getting longer, and if you're looking for something to do, maybe something to enjoy some time with the family, head over to rechtech power products.com. at their full lineup. You can also stop in store. They're open Monday through Saturday and they've got a whole lot of things sitting there. Stop in, say

hello to Ryan and the crew over there. They've also had the Alberta petition being signed there. I'll maybe update you on that if I find out when and where you can do that here in Lloydminster. Planetcom when you're busy

but a grow, holy man, Tuesday. It's a Tuesday. It's not the Monday. When you're busy running a growing business trying to stay on the ever-changing world of information technology. It can be overwhelming to say the least. And that is why I lean on Planetcom because they take care of that for me,

leaving me to do my thing. While they do theirs, they can do the same thing for you. You can check out the shan-newmanpodcast.com. We're working on a couple things with Planetcom this year, including merchandise. I sat in the meeting, and Carl and his team were like, what's one thing you want to try and do with your website this year? I was like, man, I got a ton of people wanting to buy

SMP merch, or the gunslinger or mashup or everything in between. And so I'm actively working on that with PlanetCom. They can do a lot of cool stuff, including security online for you. If you know my story, the Sean, or Shaw Newman podcast is now Chinese gambling website. We want to make sure none of that ever happens again. I know that was confusing for this guy and probably a lot of you out there. So PlanetCom can help you with all that.

You can find them at planetcom. com. The Cornerstone Forum returns March 28th at the West. Calgary Airport. We just announced Mark Cohodas as our last speaker. So there is, I tell you what, March 28th is going to be really, really interesting. You've got Premier Daniel Smith speaking, along with, you know, Martin Armstrong, Tom Longo, Alex Kramer, Vince Lanchi, Matt Erritt, Chad Prater, Karen Kotowski, Sam Cooper, Tom Bodrovics, 222 minutes, Larry C. Johnson, Neil Oliver.

I mean, the lineup is, I think, excellent. I'm excited to see all of you. I think, you know, the one thing that I never state on this show near enough is how important all of you showing up is. That is the fun part of it. And we're, you know, I just send it off to the boys this morning. We're now at 114 tickets left. So if you're sitting there on the fence going, am I going to get a ticket for this?

you should get a ticket for this. They're going, and I always point to the week in Christmas, not Christmas, before Christmas, where we sold 150 in a week, so 114 could go by just like that, and you want to make sure you grab your ticket today. That's down on the show notes. Substack, substack, man, alive.

I am all over the place today. What am I doing? I don't know what I'm doing here in this ad read. Showpass.com backslash cornerstone, 26 for tickets. Aye, aye, aye. Okay. Some signing opportunities, Lloyd Minster,

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make sure to leave a review. And if you want to support the podcast, consider becoming a paid subscriber on Substack. Yeah, that's the one way you can support what I do on this side. All right, let's get out of this ad read, because it has been an awful Tuesday of all over the place for Sean and get on to that tail of the tape. Today's guest's retired Lieutenant Colonel from the Canadian Armed Forces

and former senior official in Alberta's emergency management system. I'm talking about David Redmond. So buckle up, here we go. Welcome to the Sean Newman podcast. Today I'm joined by David Redmond. And sir, thanks for hopping on. Thank you very much for having me, interested for the discussion. Well, first before we go anywhere into the discussion, for the audience member, who maybe hasn't heard of you before, just a little bit of your story, David, before we get into any of the subject matter at hand.

Sure. I'm in my 70s now. And I did 27 years in the Army. I loved the Canadian Army. I joined in 1972. And I left in a rage in 1999 against the government of Canada, the time under Jean-Cretchen that was destroying our national defense. But 27 years got to serve three tours in Europe during the Cold War. So saw what the Cold War really was.

Served in Bosnia during the 1995 War and saw what a civil war looks like. And it's horrendous. Just don't want to ever have to revisit that. But also served in Egypt right up. after the 73 war, so saw exactly what went on in the Middle East during that era. So the Army basically taught me many, many things, but the biggest thing it taught me was process. And when you're in an emergency situation, how you use process to lead soldiers in horrible situations. When I left the Army, very quickly I ended up working in emergency management, Alberta.

And my first job was as the Director of Community Programs, which in Alberta means helping the 430 municipalities respond to emergencies when they crash into their communities. But after that, very quickly, nine months into my tenure with EMA, September the 11th happened. And by September 12th, I was leading the task force on security writing of the counterterrorism plan for the province of Alberta and using process to bring together the entire private sector, all 10 sectors that make up the private sector in Alberta, plus the government, plus all of the other agencies required to work counterterrorism in our province and then ultimately to become the hit of all of the MA, looking after fires, floods, terrorism, and tornadoes across the province.

I stayed in emergency management, not in the government, but working across both sides of the border until 2013 when I retired in full and planned to stay totally retired and help my children with the grandchildren until, unfortunately, COVID hit and many people know me from COVID because starting in April of 2020, I was extremely outspoken against use of non-pharmaceutical interventions, which we now call lockdowns. There's 15 of them and we knew we should not have used them, but we did. And it was a complete failure of the elected officials in our country. Other countries chose not to follow that path. But regardless, That's my nutshell background, 27 years army, then 13 years emergency management, and then the unfortunate COVID story. Well, certainly, as I told you before we got started, I think if I'm being honest with you, the first time I heard about you was in the middle of COVID.

You came across my desk and I was telling you, I was literally chatting about having you on today. And I was like, it's funny to me, I never sat down with you during that time because you were in Alberta specifically. a very recognizable name, I think would be the easy way to put it. And I think a lot of people listen to every word you had to say back then and it's maintained that way. It's they hold you in high regard, David.

Thank you, sir. Now, you have used a word that I haven't heard in Canada very, or a whole lot. And that is vision. And a vision of where we want to go. Now, here in Alberta, I'm sure you're not immune to all the things happening today with the signatures for a petition to leave Canada and where that ever heads. But regardless, your vision is on Canada, a better country. I'm oversimplifying that.

I'll let you put it in your words. The thing that I was saying before he started is vision, that word doesn't seem to fall in with politicians. specifically on the federal level. Your thoughts, and then if you want to walk us through, you know, the paper you wrote back in 2024, we can do that as well. That's a great place to start. Let's start with Word Vision because, and let me take you back. In 1967, the 100th anniversary of our country, I was a teenager.

And I remember a lot of it like it was yesterday. Canada was inspired. Canadians were inspired. They were looking to the future with massive optimism, confidence in their country, confidence in where the country was going, because there was a clear defined vision to go forward. And by vision, I mean, people looked 25 years out. They didn't look one election out. They didn't look one year out. They didn't look this month what's going to get me clicks or press time or whatever. They were looking 25 years out and talking about the future of Canada. And you'll remember back in that in 1967, we were hewers of wood and hollers of o'er. And we were extremely proud to do that. But the vision for Canada in 1967 was to go far beyond that, to get into refinery, manufacturing in a much bigger way than we had. And we were making cars then and doing lots of other things. But to really expand that. And people were constantly talking about a vision

that would lead all the decisions in our country into the future. So that's sort of the first piece. I joined the Army in 1972, and one of the things that we were taught as young officers in third year at the Royal Military College of Canada was a thing called one half semester on national interests and a second half on the National Defense Policy White Paper, which fell from one of the national interests. So national interests are the things which a country defines their vision on. And there's six of them. We'll talk about them as we go through unity, national security, good governance, rights and freedoms, economic prosperity and growth, and societal well-being, which includes our education system, our health care system, and so much more. But those six national interests were very clearly

defined back in the 60s, 70s, early 70s. Then it faded away. But we were taught those as a young officer. And why were we taught those? Before we were allowed to command troops and go out into the world and we discussed off camera a little bit that I had the pleasure of living all over the world a number of times with my family and on missions alone. But when you wore that Canadian flag on your shoulder, wherever you went, it was incumbent on an officer. to be able to meet with locals, to discuss with other armed forces, to discuss with other security professionals about who Canada was and what it meant to be a Canadian. And the conversation always focused around the six national interests.

Now, I really struggled about right after COVID, you know, by 2023, looking at the last decade in our country and watching people talk about a post-nationalist state, and all that kind of stuff, which meant that the country of Canada no longer was important to the very senior leaders of our country. Because in a post-national state, the whole idea is that the local government, i.e., the federal government, had no say in world affairs. We just did what other people in the global community thought was important. And so the vote that a citizen had to elect an official, either at the municipal order of government,

the provincial order of government, or the federal order of the government, wasn't important anymore. And that really bothered me. So that's when I sat down and wrote the paper to try and help Canadian citizens understand what our national interests. But more importantly, how that links to a 25-year vision for our country

to lift the conversation out of the muck and into a confident and very, very positive future. And why 25 years? because it transcends four-year terms, five-year terms. And what's important then for federal, provincial and municipal leaders is to describe to citizens how what they're doing would fit into that long-range picture. And anything that doesn't fit into that long-range picture doesn't belong in politics of the day. It should all lead to that vision.

But 25 years is long enough to look out to do big things, to do really important things, and to try and take a concept like the oil sands, I'll take you back. The oil sands from an idea to reality took 25 years. It didn't happen in a day. So if you want economic investment, if you want people to come into your country and believe in your country, you need to define your six national interests very clearly. And then that will inspire people to invest in the country internally and externally. But more importantly, the real reason behind the paper was to give Canadians every citizen in our country the words to talk to their politicians and their political leaders.

When people say we're taking national security seriously and we're going to invest 2% of our GDP in the military, they've just missed nine pieces of national security and they did it on purpose because they don't want to talk about intelligence services. They don't want to talk about border services. They don't want to talk about immigration services, the big three at the top. Why? Because they've destroyed them. So let's just throw a number out and talk about 2% of the GDP for the military, when the military is completely broken, but far more importantly, unity. So maybe it's time to switch gears a little bit,

but I just want to look at a 25-year vision pulls you forward to the future and you don't make decisions on a daily, monthly, weekly, yearly basis without seeing how it attaches to a vision. If you have no vision, you can make any decision every day that has nothing to do with the future of your country, but might get you politically reelected. Forgive me for a second. I'm looking at up to quote. My brother has this picture that hangs above his desk, okay? and I believe it is where there is no vision that people will perish.

Roughly, that is what it is. Are you absolutely correct. So when you talk about the idea, I'm like, yeah, it makes complete sense. I think, you know, I can't speak to the audience. I can just speak to myself since starting the podcast. You know, I used to thinking maybe I thought in a year term, and I don't even mean for like larger things than just myself, my family, maybe a year. and as I've been doing the show, my thought process has gone further and further out.

So like creating a vision on where you want to go and then go, does that fit into where I'm going? No, it doesn't. Let's just leave that off to the side. Oh, it does. Let's add that in. And it doesn't mean you're not going to have meanderings. For sure you are. But as long as you're pointing in the right direction you want to go, you're off to the races.

That's why the word vision to me, when I heard it come out of your mouth, I'm like, that's an interesting idea. The problem we got, David, is we got no politician talking. like that. Or maybe I'm wrong. Maybe we do. I agree. And so that's why, if you look at the paper, that's exactly the purpose of the paper, is demand of our political leadership that they go back to the way our nation used to believe in itself and write that 25-year vision. But then to, first of all, build it with the citizens of our country, then present it to the citizens of our country, and then debate it with the citizens of our country and thereby start to re-engage the people of Canada with a politician who sees the future and it becomes an expectation then over time.

Rome wasn't built in the day. This takes an iterative process to re-energize Canadians to only choose leaders that will go forward. Now, a 25-year vision isn't frozen in time. I love 25 years in my mind. Okay, I'm an engineer by back. And so I think in logical progressive steps, all right? But every five years, you sit back down with Canadians and you adjust, but a vision isn't something that you need your left, right, forward, back up, down.

A vision stands the test of time. So what you're doing every five years is adjusting to new realities of the whole world and seeing Canada's part of it. And when we get to things like national security and talk about geopolitics, Those are some of the nudges that move you along the path, but they're nudges. A 25-year vision written correctly based on all six national interests stands the test of time. And citizens then can engage in it with a belief that if you're starting a family today, let's say you're 20 years old and you're talking about having children with your partner. and you look out 25 years.

Where are you going to be in 25 years? Well, you're going to be at the peak of your career. So you're building a career in 25 years to go from 20 to 45 to be the top of your game at the age of 45 and really a huge contributor. But all along the way, you've been pulling your family and teaching your children and raising your children with a gold in mind that they can clearly see it and become part of. And so you're inspired while you raise your family. And as you know, I'm a big family man. I strongly believe that family is the center. It certainly saved my life a number of times emotionally as I went through a career in some very dangerous and horrible places that I went to.

But I always knew I had my family to ground me. And I always wanted to be that grounding for my children by giving them hope for the future and a belief that the world would be better than I got it. and hand it to them better. So family to me is a huge centerpiece of all of this. But that's why a 25-year vision, you nudge it every five years. You don't auto-completely correct it. There's no such thing as a left and right 180 degrees. It's a step-by-step.

And people, industry, everyone, then sees where it's going and can either buy-in or choose a different country. Right? Yeah. I'm not going to sit here and go, I don't like the idea. I do like the idea. I think one of the things we've been lacking in society is a bit of structure and something to aim towards. And when I go through the six things, unity, well, that's fractured. National security, everything I talk to when it comes to national security from a whole host of different people that are in the know, that seems like it's fractured.

Good governance. Yeah. I, yeah, do I even need to say that, folks? Rights and freedoms. Yeah, they haven't been there. Economic prosperity and growth. That ain't happening. And personal and community well-being.

Well, I think there is a revival happening there, but certainly that was under attack during COVID as well. And, you know, like when you talk about a 25-year vision, clear plan, we got to push on our government. That builds it with the citizens. I'm like, holy man, we haven't been, you know, like. Do they interact with their citizens, David? I mean, don't get me wrong. You go to some of the smaller avenues of politics.

They certainly do. But at the same time, they certainly don't seem to on the whole. That is a cataclysmic shift from what we've been living for sure the last five years, probably longer than that. I agree. And so I always talk about the last decade and for people that do read the paper, you'll see that I walk the first quarter of the paper is is what canada was the next quarter of the paper is how did we get here and then the last half of the paper is how to fix it and and the big thing about talking about the six national interest is it gives citizens the words to hold their politicians accountable to so the

citizens are well-informed what unity means so so maybe just just on the six national interest and And I definitely want to talk with you about each one of them in far more detail. But out of the six national interests, let's start with the basic definition of a country. And in my mind, the simplest definition, which is in Oxford and many other places, is when a group of people come together who share like values and beliefs and live in a defined piece of geography with clearly defined borders, which they are ready to defend, you have a country. So people with shared values and beliefs

prepared to defend a piece of geography which they call theirs. So that's the simplest definition. So when you look at the six national interests that define any country in the world, you can talk about democracies, you can talk about totalitarian regimes, you can talk about any country in the world,

the six national interests are all still there. The first two, unity and national security. are paramount. Without them, you don't have a country. That's the definition of a country. Then you talk about what type of governance do you want? Do you believe in rights and freedoms? How are you going to fund your beliefs and your security to have clearly defined borders that you are prepared to defend? And what kind of a society do you want to live inside? But without the first two, you can might as well forget the other four, because they will tumble and switch and change, and we've certainly seen that for the last decade.

And the second I heard Trudeau Jr. say, we are a post-national state with no defined culture. I knew he was on a path to destroy unity number one. Because unity, a culture that is clearly defined that is so different than any other culture in the world, Canada, was about to come under a And it was okay, we could just throw it away because it wasn't important. Well, without unity, there is no such thing as a country. So whenever I have these discussions, I always start with those two and drill perhaps a little deeper into them. But then I'm really like to talk about governance in Canada because it's made up of seven major components. And so we need to tear them apart.

And the reason we need to is so that citizens can see where Canada is now, where it could, be and how to hold with their words and their vote a Canada that rebuilds to a much better vision and I always come back to vision and I always come back to I didn't write this really for politicians other than to say if one of you really wants to step up and define a 25-year vision for our country here's the six national interests here's how to do it here's how to pull it forward But it's also equally written for every citizen in Canada to say, I'm not voting for you unless you can define for me what your 25-year vision. And no, I don't want to talk about today issues.

I will, and those are important. But I want to know how today's issues are going to get me there to that better place that we can work forward together. So when I went to write this paper, the first thing I did is I sat down and I did an extensive search to try and find a definition of the six national interests of the first. Canada starting in 1970 and I'll tell you right now there isn't and never has been one and I tried to find a very clearly defined vision written by any of our politicians and the closest I came was Jean Crechen in his red book back in 1993 and it was hodgepodge it was all over the place but at least he did a little bit of a discussion around some of the national interests

I tried to find a white paper on national defense after 1994, and I couldn't, so I knew part of the security, the canary and the coal mine there, national defense was missing. So I was able to find a definition of national interests of other countries, which they still publish and still talk about. and one of them very clearly was articulated in much detail in India, the country of India, and taught still, just like I was taught in 1975, and our Royal Military College of Canada, still taught in their college to every young officer candidate about to become an officer in their military, defining the national interests of India very clearly. And I would put it to that if anyone was smart,

enough to read the December 5th publication of the U.S. National Security Strategy. It's not about national security. The first thing that paper does is defines the national interests of the United States and how they're going to proceed forward. So if you want to know what's going to happen for the next three years in the Trump administration, the documents there, it's the national security strategy for the United States and it defines their national interests in all six categories. So that's what I want Canadians to be able to do. I want Canadians to understand what are the six national interests that define a country. What are the six national interests and how do they want to define them for Canada? And how do we get our politicians to re-engage with

their citizens to get there? And that's what the second half of the papers about giving Canadian citizens the words, the knowledge, and then the last piece of it, how to re-engage their politicians and demand better of every order of government, municipal, provincial territorial, and federal. I'm just going to answer or get you to answer the question. I'm sure a ton of people listening or thinking. Where can they find the paper? Okay. It's on the Frontier Center for Public Policy.

It's called Canada, 2024, a fearful, fractured country or a confident, resilient nation. And it lays it all out. It's not huge. It's not massive. It's not long. It's an easy read. I wrote it conversationally based on starting from a teenager in 1967 and what my grandchildren see today. And so the paper has this arc about a teenager starting out in the world and the world in Canada. And so it's on Frontier Center for Public Policy. And I've done many discussion groups and presentations around other organizations.

But so if they just type in Redmond Frontier Center for Public Policy Canada, 2024, it'll be the first thing that pops up. And it's in PDF. You can download it and walk away with it. You don't have to read it online. The engaging politicians, I'm curious your thoughts on the solutions on that. Because, I mean, you went through COVID. I know a ton of people here went through COVID,

and they've been trying their best to try and activate or get in front of their representatives. and there's a lot of, I don't know the word to put to it, but a lot of people very frustrated with that. Frustration, yep, that's a good word. So I know you probably know Eva Chippeach, and she wrote an excellent book, Reconnected to Canada, and she has done lots of discussions about how to re-engage at the grassroots level and all the way up with Paul. So I strongly recommend people search out Eva Chippeuk on X or whatever, whatever social media platform you use. And I'm sure you probably talk to her. She's really passionate about re-engaging Canadians with their politicians. You know I was extremely frustrated during COVID, trying to get any politician in Canada to engage.

It's possible. It can be done. If it can't, then we might as well just walk away and realize we'll be part of China or the United States very soon. I'm not prepared to do that. I've never been, my wife, from the time I first met her well over 50, well over 50, we've been married for almost 51 years now. We were hanging around for a couple of years before that because the army wouldn't let us get married until I was finished third year in Mill College. But she always calls me Pollyanna. because I refuse to believe that things can't be better.

And the only way to make things better is by engaging, by talking, by having the conversations that are hard, but by helping give people the tools they need. And I hope if I've done nothing else, at least I spurred a conversation and perhaps gave some people some words that they might use in the future when we talk national interest, but it's not about me. I'm about to be 72 years old. I won't be around much longer. I know my family history. I won't be here in a decade. I want to make sure that it's better for my grandchildren. I want to make sure it's better for your children and your grandchildren by engaging them in a way that they find meaningful and letting them go. I've had people. I've had people

say, why don't I become more involved in politics or something else? That's for someone. Remember that 45-year-old I talked about who was at the top of their game? That's where I was, unfortunately, when I left the Army in anger and when September the 11th happened, and I built the counterterrorism program to defend Albertans against terrorist attacks in our province. I was a doer then. Now I'm the old advisor, and I will help wherever I can with whatever I can, but I used to be able to work on two hours sleep and I have to have eight now. And my body isn't what it used to be when I was 20, 30, 40, 50. So I want the young people of our country and I think we're seeing it. Don't you think we're seeing it? Don't you see the 20 to 25 year olds

right now looking and grasping to find something better? They're not happy with these. They're not happy with the state of our democracy. They're looking for something better. So why don't we give them the words and the tools to rebuild a country the way they would hope it would be when they're 45, when they're now 20? And I think we can do that. I think there are movements. I think there are even political parties in this country that would like to re-energize the youth, maybe for personal gain, but still to lead us out of the quagmire work. in because I'm telling you what I saw as a teenager in 1967 going from coast to coast in our country was an exhibition of hope confidence and pride and I can tell you as a soldier wearing the maple leaf

on my shoulder all over Europe all through the Middle East all through the Far East our country was respected and people would come up to me and tell me about Canada they were so proud to be talking to a Canadian because they saw us in a way. I put it to you, people don't see that in the same light anymore. They certainly don't. I would say in my time being like driving with the Freedom Convoy, getting to ride in one of the, short-out-to-Pretty boy because I got to sit in his co-pilot's chair

and like witness it firsthand. And that's the first time I felt very, well, across a country, right? So is it there? Well, we only have to look back a few years and know it's there. But then look at it, but then look at how the government has done things then and now. And you're like, well, it's sitting there. So why aren't they engaging the citizens? Why aren't they talking to the citizens? Why aren't they trying to fix some of the problems or get some of the feedback from them? And that's a very interesting question and rabbit hole to go down because I think if you are honest with yourself, we did see it.

For a very short window, we saw how United Canada could be. And then they shut that down. And then they put, you know, they went across the country and brought Tamara Leach back and chains and, you know, and Chris Barber. And now they got them in house arrest and they got other things going on and everything else. And you can see how the government can do the shadiest of things and nothing sticks to them, you know, elbows up. They're back in. and everybody's going, what is happening? So then you get the Alberta independence movement.

It's just tired. They're tired of what's going on. They're not mad at Canada, I don't think. I think they're just tired of dealing with not being heard. Is that oversimplifying it? No, it's not, but it's got to be bigger. And let me tell you something that I learned the hard way as an officer in the Army. 5% of people are evil.

They just are. 15% of people sit wondering what they want to do, and 80% of people are really good. They want to be left alone. They want to raise their families. They want to have a house. They just want to live their lives. This, for me, was soldiers. That's how I broke down.

I started as a platoon commander with 104 soldiers, 85 soldiers, then 104, then 114, then 114, then 220, then thousands. Okay, I ended up well over thousands under my command. But there was always that 5%, there was always that 80%. It's that 15%. And that 15% will slide with the 5% if they don't see leadership deal with the 5%. So the job of a leader every day is to deal with the 5%. That 15% then slides back with the 85% and in an army unit,

that meant you had a unit with high morale. The 5% were routinely dealt with. They were put in jail. They were thrown out of the army. They were a whole bunch of things, right? But if the leadership failed to do their job and find and fix the problems, then the 15% moved with it. Now, the 80% were still where they are, waiting for leadership, right? Not everyone wants to be the leader.

It's a really shitty job most of the time. But the 80% are waiting to see a spark, to see something come out of real positive leadership in our country. Positive. The challenge I put it to you, and I'll be very blunt, I believe the 5% are in charge of Canada right now. Okay. And they've pulled 15% along with them that are equally encouraged by short-term gains and by self-gain rather than the country of Canada. It's time for the 80% to say enough and to find or themselves become the hard job of becoming an inspirational leader to lead us out of the morass. Now, I'll state it very clearly, as I've stated to every group that's ever asked me.

Most people don't, but some do. I am not a separatist. I am exactly the opposite, and I have my reasons for it. My reasons are that I have seen the world through my eyes, and my determination is separation never turns out well. It always starts with good intentions, but within the separation movement, there's already groups trying to fight amongst themselves. Outside of the separation movement, there's some really angry people. And inside the province of Alberta, there is 40% of the province that don't want it at all, and maybe 40% who do, and 20% in the middle who are undecided.

So what do you do with the 40% that really don't want it? Do you tell them to leave? I'm telling you I lived through the 1995 war in Bosnia. And I watched as Croatia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Serbia duked it out, murdering families in the night as we drove into villages that were burnt to the ground with people dead in the ditches where they had been forced to carry all the belongings to one of the other three sides to be transported away and then shot in the head. I've watched and seen people burn to death. I don't want to see a civil war in my country. Now, lots of people think that will never happen,

and I'm glad they think that. I'm positive that so many people believe that logic pervays in emotional situations, that's not my reality. I was in the Middle East, I was in the Far East, and I was in central Bosnia, and I have seen when emotion wins and logic loses too many times. So let's just set that aside. Let's talk about George Freeman's book on the next 100 years and why it is so important for a nation

to have access to the Atlantic and the Pacific for the next 100 years in order to have a, thriving, not surviving, a thriving economy. There's lots of people have written about this. George Freeman's book, The Next Hundred Years, I recommend it to anyone. He wrote it back in the late 1990s. And you might be a little tired of the pro-US rhetoric, but it defines that if you don't dominate both oceans,

you can't be a massive power. Most people don't want to be a massive power. But this whole conversation about, you know, will we ever get to tidewater? The country of Canada already is. I would rather fix Canada. I really would. Now, maybe I'm old-fashioned, maybe I'm archaic,

but I strongly believe that we can make Canada a 25-year vision based on all six national interests. That's not only achievable, but that will make our country thrive. You talk about those little sparks that you see, the highway of heroes. When we were in Afghanistan and our soldiers came home for their final rest, Canadians from Trenton, Ontario to Toronto and then to wherever in Canada those soldiers returned home to, and it makes me sad even talking about it, Canadians showed

up in massive numbers. They honored and respected the sacrifice, but far more it gave them that feeling that it was, they had to be there to support our whole country. And those soldiers didn't come from one place. They came from every little village across from Newfoundland to Victoria to Nunavut. Okay. They came from everywhere in our country. I want Canadians to feel what they felt in a positive way, not to. that sad negative way. But with the joy and love of what Canada was and how we were able to

come together in horrible situations. And, you know, my time in counterterrorism taught me all through the private sector and all through the public sector, that tremendous ability to work together in some really scary times. Nobody knew what was going to happen on September 13, 2001. And people came together and bonded together and were able to work through it. And I think Canada is at that point as a whole country again, where we need to find the spark to believe that we can be together, but in a fair and firm way, not in a pitting against each other way. So if we go to the six national interests and go unity and national security and the other four,

The unity part clearly is one of the key. And sorry, just one more side story. Don't apologize, David. I can tell you exactly where I was on October 30th, 1995. Do you know where you were? Do you know why that day is important? Probably has come and gone out of most Canadian's memories, and a lot of Canadians weren't even born.

But October 30th, 1995 was the second independence race. referendum in Quebec. I can tell you exactly where I was. I was sitting on a concrete floor in the middle of a giant warehouse in the middle of the 1995 war in the former Republic of Yugoslavia with my battalion. And my battalion was made up of hundreds and hundreds of soldiers, 25% of which came from the province of Quebec. Okay, it was a Western Canadian battalion, but 25% of my Italian were Quebecers. And we all sat together on the floor. We had rigged a TV. This was long before the time of cell phones and massive internet. We had rigged a giant antenna on top of that bombed out warehouse that we were working out of. And we had a 26-inch black and white stupid

TV that we had been able to find a channel coming out of Europe that was actually broadcasting the vote in Quebec. And it took to 4.30 in the morning, Bosnia time, to realize that it was going to be really close, but it was going to go 49.5 to 50.5 for staying in Canada. Now, we're sitting in the middle of a bloody, horrible civil war, and 25% of my battalion didn't even know if they were going to be wearing the Canadian flag the next morning. And everybody wondered if we were going home to a Canada that looked like Bosnia. Okay?

So maybe it's things like that that made me determined not to let my country go through that. I've lived in these countries. I've seen what happens. I've seen as countries fracture, it never turns out the way the well-intentioned mean it to because there's always a brutal strong man standing in the background somewhere, waiting for just this opportunity. So folks, do what you want to do. I'm a huge believer in democracy.

I believe that Alberta should have its vote. I believe Quebec should have its vote after the PQ win the next election if they do. Because I believe citizens have to decide, but I want them to decide knowing what they're giving up and knowing what the possibilities are going forward in a clear and articulate manner. not in a logical manner, but one that includes all the emotion too. And so to me, those things form me.

And that's how I talk to my children and to my grandchildren, but they will all make their minds up because trust me, my kids don't see the world through the same lens their dad does, and my grandchildren definitely don't. So if we just start with unity, Canada is a very distinct society. It is like no other country on the face of this earth. We were born out of our history. And one of the terrible things I've seen happen in the last decade in particular.

So starting with Trudeau Jr. Remember, I lived all through Trudeau, Sr., and he did exactly the same thing. The whole concept of multiculturalism, a fracturing society, of paying citizens to stay in their enclaves and not become a, greater part of a greater whole started with the belief that the society in China was better than the society in Canada back in 1968 when Trudeau the senior won as Prime Minister. But Trudeau the junior constantly said Canada has no defining culture. And I started writing right then in very clear terms that that was simply not true. The ethics and values, the defined

fine beliefs of our country are based on our history. So when people try and destroy your history, they are intentionally trying to make you forget where you came from and what your ethics and values are. So to me, the number one is respect. Canadian values are based on the Judeo-Christian values of respect. And it's this old simple term, right? Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Not get as much as you can before they do it to you. Okay. And Canadians, believe that. Whether they like, the reason we say sorry all the time, and it used to drive me crazy. But the first thing in another country would say, oh, you're the country that always says, sorry. Well, that's based out of a basic respect. I respect you. I respect where you're coming from.

You can be totally different than me. And that respect also comes partly from the fact that starting from the very formation of Canada in 1867, we recognized that we had two defining cultures. And while we were significantly different, our ethics and values were the same. The core ethics and values of the Judeo-Christian belief system. So we decided in 1867 that we weren't going to continue on the French-English wars that had been going on in Europe for hundreds of years, right? We chose a different path. And it was a hard path. It wasn't an easy path.

and I hate the speech Carney gave in Quebec City last week. It was absolutely ridiculous. It was a brutally hard path. But respect being one of those basic cornerstones. Canada is also built on the basic idea of individual responsibility, not collective responsibility, that the individual is responsible for themselves and to take care of themselves until it's absolutely,

impossible. I remember my grandfather refusing to take any form of welfare. I don't remember it. I remember being told about it. During the 1930s, they lost everything. They had a huge cattle ranch. They lost everything. And he wouldn't take government assistance until the government gave the opportunity to work on railroads or roads as a way to earn the pittance that was being given to make it so. They had seven children and they ate potatoes for two straight months because that's all that they could grow themselves. He wouldn't take charity. This requirement to be individual responsible

goes all the way back to our pioneer heritage. And it's still there. It's still right beneath the surface all across our country, not just in Alberta, all across Canada, because my grandfather who lost that came originally from Ontario, settled in BC and the cattle ranch he lost

was down near Okotokes. So the whole idea of individual response and self-resilience. You do it. Don't expect someone else to do it. And we can talk about helicopter parenting and bulldozer parenting in a minute. So that's a belief and a basic value. Rights and freedoms. People came to this country. All of the immigrants that came to our country were coming here because Canada was a beacon for rights and freedoms. And I mean from before we became a nation and all the way through. And the people that settled here, came here to have things that they could not get in Europe. And it might sound funny, but my other grandfather came because the Church of England, in the late 1800s, demanded that you be an Anglican High Church of England,

or you could not be a principal or a teacher in a school. It was a school act that happened in the late 1800s, and he was Wesleyan, so a Christian, and a principal of a school, and they took a school away because they combined church and state. So he came to Canada to escape church and state, not running from communism, not running for basic religious freedoms, right? Basic ones that we forgot even were a concern, right?

But so many people came to Canada, and that's part of our defining culture. They wanted the rights and freedoms of a newly growing nation where you could actually touch and feel those rights and freedoms, and they were part of your life every single day. A unique pride in our democracy. Canadians are unique. Our democracy is unique. We take traditions from many other systems into our government,

but we're totally unique. And I found that time after time as I traveled through the world. So many people told me about Canada, again, over and over and over. Because they saw our democracy as not like Norway, not like Sweden, not like Germany, not like China, not like any other country in the world, and definitely not like the U.S. We were our own thing. And it was something to be really proud of and to talk to people about. And the warts on it, because democracy is messy.

And I said this so many times to Eva, democracy is messy. It's never perfect. But if you can get an 80% solution and hold it for a while, that's really great. Try always to get it to 81. But it'll never be 100% for everybody. It just can't be. Compassion. Compassion, another basic value of Canadians.

So when bad things happen, we reach out and help each other. Again, probably part of our pioneer heritage, but the whole idea of helping others when they can't help themselves, not when they choose not to, but when they can't. And the compassion to be able to be there to help them through. And Canadians are known for that. It's part of our ingrown society. but one of the cornerstone ones is equality. Canada was one of the first countries in the world to give the right to vote to women. So when I see people saying all cultures are equal,

my first defining question to them is, does that country respect the right of women? And as soon as I hear no, then they're not part of a Canadian culture and a Canadian moral beliefs and ethics. We believe that both sexes are, equal and that they can do things and that some can do some things better and some can do other things but i put at you that that's not defined by gender that's based on the upbringing the the physical characteristics the mental characteristics of an individual and canada for so long has represented

that complete belief in equality i had soldiers under my command in egypt in 1978 15 of which out of my 104 were female people don't realize we've had women in uniform since my mother was a sergeant in the RCAF in World War II. All right? This isn't new, folks. We have a different attitude towards the world than almost every country in the world. And finally, Canadians have, as one of their core values, an international standing that they're proud of,

that we never interfere in another country. We offer assistance, and if it's accepted, we go, until it's no longer requested or required. But we never impose our will on others. That makes us different than a whole bunch of countries, also countries in Europe, also countries with socialist backgrounds like Norway, Sweden, and others, were really different. So when I had a prime minister tell me he couldn't define the basic values and beliefs of Canadians and what made a Canadian and that we were a post-national state because we we didn't have that. I knew right away he was trying to destroy unity. So I've gone on too long,

but I just want to get how different we as a core peoples are. And when we get to the next discussion about national security, why those core beliefs in unity have to be upheld or national security falls to pieces. And without those first two national interests clearly defined, you cease to be a country. You know, I liked what you called yourself. You're in the stage of being the old advisor, right? So people can hate what you're saying right now. Absolutely.

They can agree wholeheartedly, and they can fall somewhere in between. And all of it's fine, right? I think what you remind me of is I did this series of 49 archive interviews when I first started with basically the community pillars of where I'm from. I was hired to do it. I got to go sit with people that were as old as 90, I think it was 98 was the oldest.

And a time of where there was no money. And they remember being a kid and it was just, there was just no money. And hear the stories from there all the way down. And one of the things they left on me was, how old are your kids? And I'd tell them and they'd be like, don't you dare miss a second of it? Because it flies by and all of a sudden it's gone. And so that's one of the things I've really instilled. And, you know, when you talk about a vision of where you want to go, I always go.

is it taking me away from my family? Because if it does, it ain't worth it. And so I sit here and you go, I'm dragging on too long. And I'm chuckling on this side because I'm like, I don't think you're dragging on. It's a podcast A. That's why I brought you on is to talk, David. And you come from a time that I was not around.

And I think a lot of Albertans are wanting not only to hear about different ways it could go for Alberta, but as a general, like they want more information. They want to hear the different sides and the different topics. And there's probably a handful going, why isn't David one of our politicians? Like, I mean, we could use a politician that could speak to where we need to go and push back on some of what you've so eloquently pointed out

with Trudeau and Trudeau Senior and how they've tried to destroy and have done a very good job of it, I might add, in their times. Now, that's my thought. Carry on. I'm sitting here and I'm curious what you have to say on national security. I'm going to go there and just a sec. You spurred me to remember one more story. I'm sorry.

The first tour in Germany, I went with my family. My children were four, two, and three months. And I spent a ton of time on the inter-German Czech border. So I was away from my family a ton. And it started immediately. I had to fly over in advance to take command of my group. It was an organization, 114 soldiers. And we were deployed off to the border.

So I drove back, nine hours back, to pick my wife up in the airport with my three little kids, get her established. I had five days to get her into a little apartment and then back to the border. And I came home seven weeks later. So my wife is resilient. You know that. We've been kicking around for over 50 years. And she brought those children on a red eye to Germany. Okay?

She's a keeper. Regardless, one of the things in that five days. we did is we set up a bank account. I won't name the German bank because we did all our, we lived on the economy, so everything was done with the Germans. Two weeks in, we've been out, we're out there on the border and I get this text message, a written, teletype message, said, you have to come back, getting your Jeep, get your ass back here. So my driver and I jumped in the vehicle and we roared back because the bank manager refused to allow my wife to draw a penny out of our joint bank account.

Women in Germany in 1981 were not allowed to take money out of the bank without a note from a competent male adult. Think about that. 1981, here in Canada, women had bank accounts. They lived. So when I try and tell people that Canada is different and that we've been different for a long time, that was a Western democracy that we were helping to defend. Now, the funny part of the story is I walked in, in my full uniform with my pistol under my arm,

pissed off, still all cammed up. I just, we drove straight back, I went right to the bank. I met my wife there. I demanded to see the manager immediately. They were all a little worried because I was armed. And we sorted out right then and there what I had to sign. And he looked at me with absolute astonishment. He said, do you mean to tell me that Frow Redmond can take every penny out of your bank account and just walk away with it?

I said, yes, she's my wife. She's raising my children. I said, what do I have to sign? So we signed it. Now, we went back two more tours, and we always went banked at the same bank. And every time I would walk back in, promoted, higher and rank, the manager, same guy, would come out and said, same rules as last time? Oh, you've been promoted. Congratulations.

Well done. Same rules of last time? I said, yes, what do I need to? I still have the paperwork, Haltman, overspoken. I still have the paperwork. Don't worry about it. Frau Redmond can do whatever she wants with your money. I tell you that story to show how different Canada was for a long, long time, folks, and how we still can be.

Anyhow, so let's go to national security. And just living in different places, always taught you why Canada was different and why it was great to be a Canadian. Not that you could ram it down to anyone's throat, but just, that thank goodness I was born where I was born. I was born in Whitehorse, right? And that I didn't get born somewhere else in the world. So let's talk about national security. And people when they talk national security, there's all this discussion about 12 submarines and all the rest of this gnaws. National security is based on a number of bell in this. Let me just list them and then we can talk about them. It starts with geopolitics.

understanding where your nation is in the world and how it connects to other nations in the world. And until you do that, you can't do all the pieces that follow. So understanding where you sit in the world. And that's why I give you George Friedman's book in the next 100 years, because he's a geopolitician. Not a politician, a geopolitician. Important read. The next thing is intelligence services. Because in national security, first you have to learn.

look out. You look out at the threats because even in emergency management, step one is what is the hazards? What are the threats to my country? And intelligence gives you that outward look. You can also give you an inward look if the enemy is within, but it starts with that outward look. Geopolitically, I'm here. This is where I sit on the landmass, but now how does everything touch me? Intelligence, Critical. So important being part of the five eyes, which were not anymore. Okay, intelligence. The second step, border services. So remember when I define the country, a group of people with shared values who live in a defined area that they're prepared to defend in Colorado. Border services. So now intelligence services has told you what's in there. Border services say what can come in. And it's not just people I'm talking about. It's goods. It's services is whatever comes. in that may be a damage to the ethics and values of your country. Okay. So border services, number two.

Number three, immigration services, and I'm putting them in order specifically for a reason. Immigration services say our intelligence services looked at all the challengers to our nation, our ethics, beliefs, and values. And we only want to allow people three. our border services who reflect and want to be part if they want to be a Canadian, not a visitor, but if they want to be a Canadian, that reflect those ethics, morals, and values. We don't want Canadians who don't reflect them because they will try to destroy from within. So first, intelligence services to find what the challenges are, border services to give you the shield,

and then immigration services to only permit in in a controlled manner those who will support and help build our society, not overwhelm our society. So those are the first overarching three. Then you have to have policing, which is your internal national security to make sure that those who are within do not become a hazard to your national security. After policing is the judiciary who actually have to up uphold the laws which we as a society have chosen to put in place to protect our ethics, beliefs, and values. Okay. So, and they have to do it in a manner that enforces the laws chosen by the citizens, not interpret, not make up, but to enforce what the citizenry has stated they want. So policing linked to judiciary to hold accountable those who do.

not follow and become a threat to our national security, which is to defend our unity. Critical infrastructure protection, and that's a real thing. And everyone says, oh, everything's critical. Well, no, it's not. I ran counterterrorism. We define building by building, that which was vital, necessary, significant, and not critical. And less than 3% of any system is critical in one of those three categories and vital meant federal government had to become involved necessary provincial government was the lead and significant municipal government so we linked it directly to orders of government right and all the rest of it is important to the people that live and work in it but it won't bring down your country okay so critical infrastructure's protection knowing what's critical

pre-establishing how you're going to secure it knowing what the level of threat is as it goes up and down and having a system to instantly put in place the security measures which are pre-planned. That's critical infrastructure protection. Emergency management services, equally critical in national security, which handles the fires, the floods, the tornadoes, the unexpected power failure, human-induced, non-intentional, and the human-induced intentional. All right? So the emergency management things that you see every single day which fall under the provincial order of government. So EMOs. Then roles in global stability. This is still all part of national security. Canada plays a role in global stability. Why? Not just for fun, not just so that we can puff our chests out and say we've got somebody here and somebody there.

the only roles in global stability we should play is when it directly affects the potential for the national security of Canada to be compromised. So we have alliances. Why do we have alliances? Because we live in the second largest geographic landmass and we're the 18th largest in population. There's no way Canada can defend the sovereignty of our entire continent, piece of North America that we define as Canada without allies. We just can't do it. It's not physically possible. That's why we enter into alliances and then support those alliances in like-minded world stability operations that can directly impact Canada. And we can have a real

discussion about that. And I've had serious discussions about that. I spent a lot of time in the last year focusing on that. That's why I wrote a paper on C2C, unfit for duty, the Canadian Armed Forces, but I start with all of national security with intelligence and working down. Okay. And so the very last bullet, we've gone through geopolitics, intelligence services, border services, immigration services, policing, judiciary, critical infrastructure protection, emergency management services, roles in global stability. And we finally, at the very bottom, get to the Canadian Armed Forces. And it's the force of last resort must always be the force of last resort, not first resort to go fight a wildfire. Absolutely insane.

And maybe if I can just give you a little sideways here, as a soldier, the very first thing I was taught, before you can lead soldiers, you have to be a soldier. So I was taught the very basic skill after you get through all the basic crap. The very first thing you're taught is you're under effective enemy fire, what do you do? Someone's shooting at you, okay? And they want to kill you. So the very first thing you're taught is called dash downcrawl, absurd sights, fire. Every soldier knows it. It's drilled into them over and over and over again.

But it's not something that you learn in a day or a week or even a year. because in order to dash, you have to be massively physically fit. You have to be able to react in an instant without hesitation or you're dead. And you have to have the physical strength with all that kit on your body. You're fighting order weighs 24 pounds. You've got a 10 pound rifle and ammunition in your hand. And the first thing you have to do is run. Run where?

So that first dash, you have to know where you're going, while you're going there, you have to be able to use all that kit. And all that took a whole shitload of training to get you ready for dash. Down. So how do you get down? The first time the sergeant who taught me down, he was an airborne sergeant, and he threw himself, through the air, onto the ground, took the rifle, which was then an FMC1, big, clon rifle, switched it to his left hand while he was flying through the air.

hit this ground on his right shoulder and rolled never knocking his teeth out with his rifle none of his kit smashing him is over it took me three weeks to emulate down but when you're going down you're going down with a reason you're looking for cover and you're trying to dash and throw yourself as close as you can get to cover but you'll never get there in time crawl or roll is the third step and so you're crawling and you have to be taught the six different forms of crawl, and you have to do it over and over again to build that physical strength, to be able to do it and to do it correctly,

and to do it without getting your ass shot off or your head kicked in, and get to where you want to go, dash down, crawl, or roll, and you're trying to get to a position where you can do the next step, which is observe. Somebody shot at you, you've got to find them. You don't have a clue where it came from. Now, there's a command sequence here

about how you observe, and all the rest of it. But part of it is that guy's still trying to kill you. Crack thump. Crack thump is the ability. Crack is when the bullet goes over your head. You hear this crack in the air. And once you've been under fire, you learn real quick. So what do we do? We take soldiers into the butts on a rifle range and we shoot over their head until they understand exactly what crack means. First they got it identified that it's different than all the other sounds on the battlefield, and then they've got to be able to know when they hear that crack to instantly start counting, and it's got to be automatic. So when the thump comes, what is the thump? That's the

blast of the rifle. So when the guy pulls the trigger on the rifle, it goes, bang, but that sound travels slower than the bullet. So the thump gets to you after the bullet's long gone. And that tells you how far away the enemy is that's shooting at you. Okay? So you have to teach a soldier So you put people at different ranges on the range to shoot over the head of this soldier and they have to yell out range to the shooter. And they have to do it over and over and over until they get really, really good at it. And it's not one day. Observe sites. That's setting your sight so you know exactly where you're going to look and telling the other people where you're going to shoot so that they can follow your fire to bring effective fire.

So dash down crawl, observe sites, fire. So anyone that thinks that you teach a soldier how to do that in a week, like the Prime Minister of Canada said, that he was going to take the civil service of Canada and teach soldiers how to do that. And at the same time, teach them how to drive trucks, how to stop forest fires. And oh, yeah, we're going to teach them this basic stuff that an infantry soldier knows how to do. It takes three years to build an infantry private to be capable of being a corporal to teach others what I just told you. So when you take that soldier and you say you're going to go for three months to fight forest fires in northern B.C., you've just destroyed their training period for the most basic thing, because that's the first thing they're taught. And then they're taught heavy weapons, medium weapons, any tank weapons, how to drive a tank.

How to, so when I say the Armed Forces of Canada is the last resort, I want people to understand it has to be only used when you have no other choice. And that means the provincial order of governments have to start doing their job in the second, the third to last thing, emergency management operations. I ran an EMO. I know the resources that are within a province. They're massive. We never once called the Armed Forces of Canada for anything when I ran the EMO. Why? I knew what it did to the Army, and I didn't need them.

I had the private sector at my disposal. I had the municipal order of government and all of the resources they have. So national security is made up of all of those pieces. And so when I hear someone say, oh, national security, we just throw some more money at the Armed Forces. It's great. They forgot that you throw a little bit more money. it takes 10 years to make a sergeant. You don't just throw money at the armed forces and it's all fixed.

You have to, that's why I wrote in the paper. Purpose, combat equipment capability, combat equipment capability, strategic deployment capability to take it where you need it, wherever you need it in Canada or around the world, and then a replenishment system to reload it all. That's going to take us a minimum of three years to rebuild, but only when we have a government who doesn't hold the armed forces in distinct. So national security is made up of all those pieces we've just talked about.

And now we've only talked about two of the national interests of our country. And we need to have Canadians understand those words so that when a politician says something like we're a post-national state, or there is a new world order, and we just got to throw away everything that we believe before, they're lying to you. There is no new world order. a nation, if it's a nation, still needs every one of those pieces of national security. And without it, the next series of four national interests follow the pieces. What would you say to the people listening? Not only do they think Canada's broken, it's worse than that. Correct.

It's been corrupted. And everything you've listed off, I think there's a lot of head nodding of like, David should be a politician. He should go fix this, right? Something along that lines, I can't speak for everybody. But they think it's worse than that. It is, it's not that it's just broken, and it's one leader saying and fracturing a country.

It's that all these different parts of our society have been corrupted. And to try and fix that might be impossible. What would you say to that? Number one, remember my wife calls me Pollyan. You're an eternal. I hope that made people watching laugh. It's definitely not impossible.

Nothing is impossible. Look at Argentina. Okay? One year. There's a shitload more to do in Argentina. But the change in a leader in Argentina took it from one of the worst countries in South America to one of the leaders in South America in a year. year. All you need is a leader with a clear vision and courage. So I'll give you another little

story. My last command in the army, I commanded a very large school training young men and women to be soldiers in the Canadian Army, the Remy School and board. One of the things I talked about was the epic process. And this is for citizens as well as leaders, but particularly important for leaders because I taught the next generation of young lieutenants going out into my core. I use an acronym because people love acronyms and it helps you remember. So it's called the epic process because it lasts your whole life. It's epic, right? Something that's easy isn't epic.

Epic means it's going to last forever and you have to do it forever. So what does epic stand for? The first letter E means you must be ethically fit every day. day of your life. You cannot break your ethics. And Canada has defined ethical values, right? I went through the things that make up a Canadian. You have to be ethically fit. You have to stand for every one of those values and beliefs that I listed. So you have to be ethically fit, and you have to look yourself in the mirror every morning and say, am I still there? And if you faltered, you have to get back, right? It means you have to constantly read. You have to

watch what's happening in society, you have to shift to society ships a little bit, but you have to stay ethically fit. So epic, ethically fit. Number two, physically fit. Now in the army, we were a physical group, right? We had to be. We had to be able to keep our body in the best possible condition, and I say that to every Canadian. You have to be physically fit. Why? Because if you're not, your brain ceases to function and be capable of contributing. So I don't mean you have to be a five-star athlete. You have to, within the limitations of your body, you have to do everything you can to stay as fit as you can.

Okay. So you need to keep whole of body fit. And that means preventative and corrective when those things happened to you. I broke my body a couple of times and had to rebuild it from scratch. physically fit, as physically fit as you can be, and if you're not physically fit, you can't be a leader. You lead from the front. You don't lead from the back. If you can't lead from the front, if you can't do the long hours and the physical tasks required for the mission you're given, it's time to quit. Stop being the leader.

Start being an advisor or a follower or a contributor in whatever way your body will let you. but you can't be the leader anymore. Epically fit, physically fit, intellectually fit is the I. You have to be the best in your trade, your craft. So, you know, if you're an electrician or if you're a politician, in your craft, you must be the best, an engineer, or whatever you are, be the best you can be. Never stop lifelong learning.

Ralph Klein always said that and I worked directly for Ralph Klein for five years. You have to be up to date. You have to keep learning. You have to move along as intellectually fit as you possibly can be. So ethically fit, physically fit, intellectually fit. And the first three are totally useless unless you have the fourth, which is courage. Okay. You must be courageous every day.

Sometimes courage means keeping your mouth shut. Most of the time it means being the example. Living your ethics. Living your intellectual capability. Don't hide it under a basket. Get out there and help people who might not have seen what you've seen. And then have the courage to sit back and listen when somebody's telling you really important stuff and then incorporate it into your first three. But if you don't have the

courage, you have no integrity. One of the things said way back in ancient time, I think it was Thucydides, but somebody will correct me if it wasn't. Thucydides said something to the effect, not the exact words. Self-discipline is the first step to self-respect. Self-respect is the first step to courage. You can't have courage unless you have self-discipline. If you aren't proud of who you are and every day, keep yourself ethically fit, intellectually fit, and physically fit by doing everything, you have no self-discipline. So self-discipline is the key to self-respect. And without self-respect, your courage is zero. You can stand and scream and yell, but the minute of things get tough, you run away. That's not courage.

Courage is when in the face of things that you know will damage you, you still persist and do them. That's called integrity. You stand it. You say what you mean, you mean what you say, and do what you say. So to me, when we're talking about the politicians of our country, I expect them to be the example of the epic process. And they're out there, folks. And people that say to me, oh, well, they're all the same. They're not.

They're simply not all the same. And if you see what's happening right now in terms of self-interest, defining the leadership of our country, look for someone who at least will not use self-interest for their first term. It's a democracy. You can throw them away. You can get another one. And you can work your way up the ladder in terms of better and better, better leadership. but I'm telling you right now, in our country, people feel like they know where we're being drawn. It's to more money in people's pockets rather than a vision. Let's go back to that, of a future for Canada.

So choose leaders in an iterative process that will take you forward, not backwards. And I give you, Argentina, I give you so many other places where one leader, got a country through a bad process and perhaps they got rid of them after that process, hopefully then picked a better leader to carry on. But you have a country which is a democracy, which allows you to choose leadership. And in governance, we can get to governance in a moment and talk about that. But when we've got the ministries of propaganda constantly telling us what to think, then you have to find your information somewhere else, right?

things like this X other other platforms but as a Canadian it's up to you to demand better you know I I knew better than to give us 90 minutes David to get there this because I'm like I'm chuckling I'm like there's four more things and I know you're asked earlier if I knew Evan I'm like oh yes I've interviewed Eva several times have utmost respect forever and it's funny because I'm like I was looking at her interviews you and I forget how many how many parts is there I got through two maybe we did we did seven we did seven parts and then we did each of the national interest work I remember thinking like seven parts that's interesting and I'm as I sit here and I'm like I get why they're seven because you have

been going and I'm like we're through two and I don't know I'll be curious what people say about this right I mean certainly if they've been listening to me there's been a lot of people that have gone down different avenues and have met with more than just resistance. And so that brings upon Alberta independence and the petition and people signing it because they can't see a way out of where Canada is heading. And they don't like where Canada is heading. And so they're doing the one thing that seems to them to be a move in a direction that at least is starting to paint a vision of where Canada could be.

And that is Alberta going its own way. you're pushing a different thing than that. And I'm okay with it. That's what discussion's all about. You got to have all the realms come in and discuss these things to either create resolve of, no, this is where we're going or to go, maybe we could go a different way. And that's okay. That's what a discussion is all about.

I said earlier that I strongly support the vote. I think in a democracy, the citizens decide what they want. And if the vote goes 51%, then the, there's a process that follows. And I have a speech in Calgary. I wasn't there because I don't support the separation movement. But her speech was perfect. I thought she talked about the process after a vote if a vote is successful.

If the vote's not successful, there's a whole other discussion that I would be happy to have it sometime. because that doesn't put Alberta in a seat of power. It shows the East that separation isn't strong enough here. And so for every ying, there's a yang. You've got to be very sure that you're ready for the outcome either way. And so that whole discussion is something that some people shy away from, but I think it needs to be part of the discussion. but I think Albertans, I think Quebecers,

I think the people in all of Canada have a right to vote. I agree with you. And once again, I've had this conversation, maybe more off air than on here, right? I mean, the whole point of getting it to a vote is to have all of Alberta's input. And then you have to go by what Alberta says. If they say they want out, they want out.

If they want to stay, then they want to stay. I certainly know there's a lot of people wrestling with getting out of this country. They're tired of the direction that's heading David. And for them, this is maybe a last-ditch effort of maybe there's a way forward in a different sense than a United all-encompassing Canada. Now, there's other thoughts and trains of thought that go with that. Either way, I appreciate you hopping on and doing this because a lot of people

don't want to talk about staying in Canada in a way that people can understand. And you're painting the idea, I think, of what people want out of Canada. They want somebody to be like, this is where we're heading. We want Alberta along. Alberta, you got to stay. Quebec, you got to stay too. So my point is, I want Canadians to want to stay, and that includes Albertans. But I don't want anyone ever telling a Canadian they have to stay.

I want Canadians to make those choices, and I want them to do it in an informed manner. And that's why I talk about the six national interests, because we, used to. Can't we talk about all six of them again? Can we have those debates in coffee shops and things in an informed knowledgeable manner and demand that our politicians talk to us that way, that they don't talk down to us about what they're going to do. They should be reflecting what we want them to do and so the entire process has to go that way. And when I use Argentina as an example, and there are many more. It's about turning the cornerstone on that conversation.

And as I said to Eva, many times in our discussions, democracy is messy. It goes up and down and it goes in and out. And I lived through Trudeau one. Folks, it was not a good time for our country. And external forces, we talk about what Trump's saying to us now. Let me take you to 1970. I was just about to join the Army.

and the Trudeau government had collapsed to 70,000 in the armed forces from 105. We used to have an armed forces of 105,000 in 1967, okay? So why don't we have an armed forces of 200,000 now? We've doubled our population. I asked that question. Regardless, he had taken it down to 70,000 from 105,000, with the intention of 40,000 and calling it the Canadian Peace Corps. Remember Kennedy had a Peace Corps?

He wanted us to be the Peace Corps. Take our weapons away and send us around the world, building water pumps and helping people irrigate fields. No more armed forces for Canada. It was over. It was done. That was his intention in 1970. He elected in 68. Europe, NATO, then only 15 countries, said directly to him, no tank, no trade.

That was the slogan of the day in 1970. Sound familiar? No tank, no trade. So he stopped. We stopped reducing it 70,000. We rebuilt back to 85,000 in the Mulroney years. But the first thing we did was we bought the Leopard One tank. We stayed in Europe. We didn't withdraw our forces. That was the intention in 1970. It was to bring all our forces, our fighter squadrons, our infantry and armored artillery, everything out, our division out of Europe. And so we left ourselves in Europe and we continued to trade with Europe. It was all those external forces again. So we've seen these stories before and we've been able to recover.

I think we can recover 10 times better if we have a meaningful conversation. Armed citizens with all six national interests to demand a 25-year vision. And any politician which can't define a 25-year vision for Canada cannot be the leader of the federal government of Canada, period. They can't say where it's going because I put it to that our current prime ministers will not be in Canada in four years. He will either be in the United States. He will be in Europe. He is looking. He wasn't here before.

He's not hanging around after. He's already moved his family out. He's moved all his business out. He has no intention on being here in four years. I want a prime minister who intends to live their whole life in Canada and be part of that 25-year vision and to help build to it, not to run away from it as soon as he's done the damage he or she can. David, appreciate you hopping on and doing this.

You have a great time. Anyhow, just I encourage people if they're interested, to go search out the paper, Canada, 2024, a strong resilience. nation or a fearful fractured country it's on the frontier center for public policy they can see the layout of the of the remaining four but more importantly the last section that deals with how to demand more from your politicians and i also strongly encourage you have a chippeux book on on how to re-engage reconnect with canada thanks david thank you