The Ben Mulroney Show - Everyone wants to build our military up, but how are we supporting our veterans?

Episode Date: February 14, 2025

Guests and Topics: -While everyone is talking about rebuilding the CAF, no one is talking about how we support our veterans with Guest: John Thomson, CAF veteran, Opinion columnist for the Western Standard  -AI is getting harder to distinguish with Guest: Mohit Rajhans Mediologist and Consultant, ThinkStart.ca  -Yes, Canada has brain-drain. But Canadians abroad often find it hard to come home with Guest: Emerson Csorba, Business executive, previously working in geopolitics If you enjoyed the podcast, tell a friend! For more of the Ben Mulroney Show, subscribe to the podcast! https://globalnews.ca/national/program/the-ben-mulroney-show Follow Ben on Twitter/X at https://x.com/BenMulroney Enjoy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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for total fund savings adventure, maybe reach out to TD Direct Investing. This is the Ben Mulrooney show. And sure as an I am Alex Pearson. It's great to have you here with us, certainly. And one of the big conversations I think a lot of us have reflected on and should be reflecting on is Donald Trump's rhetoric, you know, continues to ramp up about making Canada a 51st state.

Certainly it has ignited a lot of patriotism in this country, a patriotism that we never should have let go of and a shame on us for doing so. But it raises questions about how we let our great nation go from once upon a time punching above its weight to being so vulnerable. Right? No, once upon a time we did have a very healthy military. Like no president would disrespect us, not certainly like we're seeing right now. We were strong, right? But not so much now.

We certainly are getting a lot of promises from all the leaders about what they'll do with the military. Again, woulda, coulda, shoulda, all these things should have done, been done a long time ago. We should have taken care of our veterans a long time ago before allowing them to become homeless and suffer with PTSD, right? Should have made sure our recruits were up, should have made sure we had weaponry, right? If you want the best and brightest, we can get them, but you have to have the equipment. And once upon a time, if you look back to the numbers, 2021 census, we have 461,240 veterans in Canada, or roughly 1.2% of the country's population.

These are the people who are willing to serve, put their lives on the line for our country. But can we get those people back? Can we actually rebuild our country and bring back numbers, Can we actually rebuild our country and bring back numbers, you know, that people would put their lives on the line for what we have now? We have to support our military and veterans in order, you know, to make sure that we can defend ourselves. But how do we do this? Let me bring in John Thompson to this conversation. He is a Canadian Air Force veteran.

He also is an opinion columnist for the Western Standard. It is great to have you with us, John. Thanks, Alex. Really happy to be here today. Let me ask you, you know, your thoughts, first of all, on what it is like. You know, I think of my grandfather, certainly whenever I hear Donald Trump open his mouth about making us a 51st state and all those men and women to a degree, but others battles after the great wars, you know, what they must feel like when they, if they could hear that, right? It's so disrespectful. But what do Canadian vets like yourself think about it? Well, I won't speak for every Canadian vet because like any group, there's a wide range of opinions on the matter, but you know, personally, I think you nailed it that, you know, there

is a bit of disbelief that after, you know, everything you do as a Canadian veteran who served along, you know, the US military through numerous conflicts that that rhetoric exists. And yeah, I think it's something that we need to address. Yeah, I mean, look, the bottom line is we need to rebuild and we need to rebuild fast and we can look back and say, well, we should have done all these things, but the point is we have to do it now and we have to somehow convince people to come into service,

right, to wanna step up and fight. How do we get back to a point where we can actually not only support our vets, but make people or entice people to want to stand up and serve? Well, I think right now we have a really unique opportunity where, you know, is everyone's passion for the country right now actually patriotism or is it primarily a strong dislike of President Trump? And I don't think they're the same, but I do think that we can use the one to increase

the other. And you know, what we need is some leadership from the government, from our political leaders to channel that into something constructive and work towards creating a narrative that supports the CAF and our veterans at the same time. I'd like to see less narrative and actual action. Right. We get the talk. What we don't get is the action. And the action we have seen has been paltry.

I mean, to hear that soldiers of ours on the front lines in Ukraine had to buy their own equipment, you know, to hear that veterans, you know, are homeless on our streets, not being given supports for PTSD. The more we hear about these stories, the harder it is to convince younger generations or people to actually step up, right? Because once upon a time, men and women would run to that.

How do you then change the culture, right? Because we do need younger generations to step up. How do we get back into schools? How do we somehow start to market military as a step, something you can do, opportunities? How do we get young people more interested where they're serving with cadets, right? That they're starting to put country first. Once upon a time, a president said, you remember, Kennedy said, you know, ask not what you can

do for your country, or ask not what you can do. What's the saying? I'm going to forget it now as I'm tired. Ask not what you can do for your country or I'm getting it wrong. You know what the saying is. I've got it wrong. Yeah, I know what you're saying. It's all backwards.

But bottom line is you got to ask what you can do for your country. We've got to get that back to that question. What can I do for my country? Right. And, you know, I think in terms terms of action there's a lot of things we can do and you know I and many others have written about ways the government can you know speed up the procurement process by allowing more flexibility for purchasing within the structure of the CAF but also you know we need to do a

better job of honoring and recognizing our heroes and you know we talked about Canadian war heroes and creating that sort of patriotic narrative that supports a military or the buildup of a new military. Like we talked about the legion's bishop or John McCrae or Tommy Prince or Leo Major, but, you know, those are soldiers who served generations ago. You know, we do a terrible job about talking

about our modern veterans and their accomplishments and their sacrifices. Like in 2022, we had a position in front of the House of Commons to re-examine a victory, to set up a Victoria Cross Review Board and potentially recognize some of our Afghan vets with that because we're the only country that never did award its top honor and it was voted down. So, you know, we need to change, Ottawa Parliament needs to change its direction and action and start taking real steps like you said. Yeah, and I would say, I have to think that it does start at a younger age, right? I think we have to change our whole mindset because it's not, it's pretty naive to think that we're not going to be involved in some kind of conflict, especially with the geopolitical situation that we're

facing today. Yeah, and I mean, I think all of us grew up and we're fortunate to grow up where, you know, we had World War Two vets and Korean vets in our schools talking to us or parading doing the marching into the colors and, and a lot of that has gone away now. And, you know, a lot of it does, or part of it does fall on modern veterans to get involved and to take up that torch and get into the schools and create that awareness. But those veterans have to be supported as well from the top. Yeah, 100%. But again, we have to expedite all of this and go on war footing, so to speak,

to do all these things. And do you think we have it in us? of this and go on war footing, so to speak, to do all these things. And do you think we have it in us? That's the real question is how much of this is just talk? I think that's the question that's going to play out over time. I think that we do have it in us. Whether the patriotism we see is more hate for Trump than it is actual patriotism. Right. I don't know, like we went through a decade where Canadians were very silent about having our flag and half-masks for six months or our statues of Sir John A were tore down.

And I think that patriotism is there and I think the capability to rebuild the military is there. I just think we need to, like we have in the past, been pointed in the direction that we need to go and then turn loose to do it. And that's going to take leadership. Well, and that and really walking that talk. Well, we'll stop talking and hopefully get that going. John, very much appreciate your time on this. Thank you. Great to be here, Alex. Thanks again. There you go. That's John Thompson. You can read about his view on this in the

Western Standard. He's written about it. And again, the saying, don't ask what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country. And this weekend, fly your flag with pride. And I am Alex Pearson. It is great to have you here with us today. Thank you for listening. And of course you can find us always. Find the podcast on Spotify, Apple Music, or Amazon Music. That is where you'll find the Ben Mulroney show. You can find all the shows there. I want to talk a little bit about Made in Canada, because, you know, we were just

chatting about Donald Trump and one of the fallouts of, you know, this latest chapter is that Canadians are in fact, more and more looking to buy Canadian. It's not as easy as we assume, right? A lot of things we think are made in this country, not necessarily made in this country. So I think it's become a little more tricky for people, but there is an app for that. So let's get into this conversation.

Cause there are apps for just about everything we bring in Moeed Rajan. He's a Mediologist and Consultant with ThinkStart.ca. Great to have you, Moeed. Hi Alex, how are you? Thank God there's an app because it really is tough, right? But there is a new app and I think a lot of people do want to support local if they can. But this one helps by scanning labels.

Well, there's actually a few different apps is what I ended up hearing about as a result of doing research for the story. So what ended up happening is first we ended up talking about this by Canadian tech app. So we, sorry. And so what we ended up doing was a little bit of research to figure out what exactly is happening right now to actually mobilize people to feel like they can engage with things and know that they're able to look at products and know if they're Canadian or not. But the interesting part about this is that when you break down how you can look

and scan and find this information, this information exists. And so what we're noticing is that from Shopify right down to the spy Canadian app, you can take your phone and start to use and interact with products and be able to figure out that A, if it's actually been made in Canada, B, if it ships from Canada, and C, if it's a combination of a Canadian product.

And that's where the red flag comes in a little bit because as much as people want wanna be patriotic right now, we are not really doing an audit about whether all of these apps, et cetera, are doing the right thing other than marketing for the cause, so to speak. All right, yeah, and so then how do you wade through that? And how new are these apps?

Because I think everyone sees an opportunity and they jump into it, but sometimes it can start to work out. Well, I mean, that's the other thing. That's the other reason why we're not actually doing, you know, a full feature about everybody just downloading one app in order to feel like they're able to show their patriarchy. No, patriarchy. That's it. Patriotism, patriarchy, different show, right? But patriotic. No, but Alex, to be honest with you, what you're noticing right now online is every social media account that's able to show their allegiance to Canadian-made and Canadian products,

they're starting to do that. You're starting to see it incrementally from the software-related companies right down to social media. But what the trick, the unfortunate part about that is, is a lot of it still goes to an American pipe, right? And so we're not necessarily like a lot of it is marketing. And so why we we could I believe that you will go to the app store and see your browsers and see different things show you that they're going to help you shop with this Canadian accessibility in mind. Just be wary that a lot of it is still marketing and a lot, a lot of it is designed in order to keep you, the consumer, just well informed.

It's still a part of a larger ecosystem, an ecosystem that still pays a tax to actually operate in Canada. Yeah. Plus if you're going to just only buy a Canadian, you're going to have to get rid of a lot of stuff that you like, like kind of like Netflix and stuff like that. NFL. Yeah, a lot of things that you would be getting rid of. I think you're also putting a situation now where you're going to go through a little

bit of exhaust trying to figure out is this really making a difference? You know, we've been through years of greenwashing and we've started to realize more and more that corporations have been able to do that. I think the intent is good. Put up the hashtag, get been able to do that. I think the intent is good. Put up the hashtag, get the loyalty, do that. But just understand that you putting up a flag on your Facebook saying you're only going to buy Canadian, I challenge you in about three months to see if whether you're actually able to do that with online purchases. Yeah, it takes a dedication.

It takes a dedication. Let's talk a little bit about AI. There's always going to be stories about AI. You know, it's just a part of life and certainly becoming more dominant in life, but certainly AI in the news this week with Scarlett Johansson actually calling out, you know, for more AI laws, this having to do with that fake video of celebrities condemning Kanye West's anti-Semitism. And basically AI created this image and this t-shirt with a blank you Kanye West kind of retaliation, but it was AI. It freaked a lot of people out. And so she wants more laws in an area

where we don't have anything. This is actually another case of a pop culture moment that's redefining what people are understanding. What's happening right now with synthetic video, Alex, is absolutely crazy. I'm able, first of all, I can foresee this. I can foresee three things happening in the near future. A, there's going to be a massive disruption to social media as a result of all these synthetic videos being littered online. Is that a bad thing? Well, we'll get to that in one second. We'll get to that in a second.

Two, I think that every single social media app is going to start to use these tools as a way to keep people there. So I read recently that YouTube is going to start to let people create what I refer to as synthetic media as part of their marketing tools. So that changes things. Just six months ago, all of these places from YouTube to Facebook said, you've got to label this as AI. I challenge you to find one thing on your feed and then five or six things that you scroll that doesn't have some sort of AI influence.

Now back to the story. The story is very real mainly because of the fact that all of the celebrities that are featured there, if you didn't have the North American context, and you just saw this somewhere around the world where these people seem to be famous because of syndication or, you know, Seinfeld is only famous because of the show, you wouldn't know the difference. Yeah. Right?

No, it's a very big problem. And again, it's like you have to ask what can go wrong. It's like everything, everything. And the I have beta tested over 30 different apps in video generation alone. And I will tell you that they're all getting better and better day by day. I don't know where they're coming up. Some of the, you know, some of the inputs that I put, I'm geeking out with you right now. But I'm telling you that I'm basically playing with fire. And I know that it's going to cause a ripple effect.

If there's no label on this video soon, it's going to be very, very bad for people. Yeah, no question about it. It's like, where are we going with this? And I don't even want to know. But meanwhile, you know, US, the UK, they're just, they can't agree on how to actually regulate it, right? Like they're so far behind, you know, the toothpaste right out of the tube on this, but they don't, they don't know how to put it back in.

There's many aspects of that that just baffle me, you know, on one hand, you see this posturing where you have this AI action summit this week, where people are just basically talking about holding hands and making sure the world is secure. On the other hand, these countries are making global announcements about the powers that they're building and infrastructure to be able to win the AI arms race. We are in no way as Canadians,

we are no way at the forefront of being able to lead conversations about this technology. Right now, we should be more concerned about the fact that we need to employ and retain people here that are able to build some of these backbone systems that we need in order to stay competitive and to service our actual population. We have a population here that could really benefit from some real economic impacts of some great technology and some use of spreading out the ability to have a connected health network that's proper. Oh, totally. Like family doctors, there's so much can be used for, but I feel like we're too late.

Well, I don't know if we're too late only because there's a lot to worry about before we can get to a solution. But we are definitely not too late from seeing solutions being built here for here. And that's where I think that we should be, I don't think Canada is necessarily gonna be able to walk into an AI action summit and have the keynote speaker slot in the next two and a half years, but I do believe that Canada is going to be able

to export global solutions as a result of what we've been able to do. So if we can get to that point where we can stop fear mongering and start excelling in what we're good at, that will be the main key. I'd be happy going back to the rotary dial phone at this point in life, but that's just me, Moid. I still have one.

I still have one you can borrow at any time. Don't tempt me, don't tempt me. Hey, have a great Valentine's Day and a weekend. Thank you. You as well. There you go. That's Moid Rajan joining us. He's with thinkstart.ca.

And again, artificial intelligence, it's here. It's not going anywhere. And it is crazy. It is great to have you here. I am Alex, here's your new friend Ben Mulroney. And I don't think this is a secret. We have a brain drain problem in this country. Right?

We need the best and we need the brightest. If we want to build the best country, right? If we want to have the best country, right? We need the best and we need the brightest. We need the best and we need the brightest. We need the best and we need the brightest. We need the best and we need the brightest. We need the best and we need the brightest.

We need the best and we need the brightest. We need the best and we need the brightest. We need the best and we need the brightest. We need the best and we need the brightest. We need the best and we need the brightest. We need the best and we need the brightest if we want to build the best country, right? If we want to have good things in this country. And all too often you'll hear Canadians say, look, if I'm gonna get to the top of my game I've got to go elsewhere to reach success. I don't know why we do this in the country but we seem to shame those who do well. It's like you do well and all of a sudden you're a villain, you're some kind of greedy something. I don't know why we do that because we actually need the best and brightest. And so the question

then becomes, well, how do we keep people here? And then how do we bring people back who have left who might want to say, Hey, I want to go back to my country. How can I go back? Or even if you're maybe living outside of the country, how do we bring more power into this country and not stand in its way? Emerson Sorba is a business executive previously working in geopolitics. He writes about this in the Globe and Mail. He joins us now about Canada's brain drain problem and why it's so hard to bring Canadians abroad

back. Thanks for joining us. Thank you, Alex, for having me. What was the biggest eye-opener for you yourself? There probably hasn't been a single eye-opener. It's been a number of small conversations. And I think this was really highlighted. I was back in Toronto in mid-September, first trip back to Canada in a few years.

And I just had a real sense of closeness from everybody that I met would basically say, great that you've done these things abroad, but really take time to get to know Canadians. Don't talk about what you've done abroad and that's your way to reintegrate. So it was a number of small things, but it was that mid September trip that really struck me. All right. And so what is it, the experience? Like what's the door being shut? Is it that you bring back too many skills?

What is it that's such a problem to come back to? You know, it's exactly what you're saying. It's what you were just saying in the break. I think there's a suspicion towards Canadians that have been abroad and just a light closeness to outsiders. That's what I'd say it is. It's nothing that particular.

It's just a gnawing suspicion of people that have spent time outside of the country. Yeah, I mean, I think in a lot of people's young career, you think, well, maybe I go abroad even just to get more skills, even just to open more doors, maybe just to try other things and then to be punished on your way back. That shouldn't be a thing. But people do this thing and then not realizing that they might actually

be doing more harm to themselves. That's exactly it. And it's what you were saying earlier. We should want Canadians to go abroad. We should want our best and brightest to spend at least a few years abroad and then come back. As the world is really big and that provides us with knowledge, it provides us with connections

that we can use to leverage different strengths for our country. But we don't really encourage that. Why is that? Is it because some people here are worried about seeing what how others do things? You know, they people are so are people here, businesses here so afraid of outside perspectives of maybe they didn't think of it or, you know, maybe it's a threat to their own, you know, existence? Like, what is it they're so scared of hearing? Well, you're putting exactly what you're putting your finger right on the problem. I think the problem is that in Canada, we have a moral sense of superiority. We think that we're this, this, this-gooding country internationally, and

we really, really care about that reputation. But we're afraid to encounter other countries to actually engage in the world and realize that some of that is true, but that some of that is not true. So by engaging in the world that is big, that is very competitive, that can be very wicked, it risks bursting our self-narrative as a country, as a peace-building nation, and adapting to a world that is much more cruel now than what it used to be. So it's easier to hold on to things that we pride ourselves on than to adapt. That I think is the problem. And that's why

Canadians don't like it when people come back from abroad and say, this is actually how the world is right now. Right. Yeah, it's interesting that you say that. But especially now, given all the stuff with Trump, it's a big eye opener, I think, for a lot of people who are saying, well, what's the rest of the world doing? Why aren't we doing it? And it's like, well, because you're not open to what the world is doing. I mean, even our prime ministers have had, or even the ones who want to be prime minister have had a hard time coming back to this country. And Mark Carney will, I guess, be tested on this too, coming back to this country and once again,

selling himself. But then in this new Trump era, what would you say, Emerson, is what we have to do? Because we do have a brain drain problem, but we have areas, we need talent right now. If nothing has woken people up in this country more than Trump is now, we need this talent here. We need to bring talent in, and we need the best minds working to be able to kind of maximize of what has to happen.

The question is, are we all talk about that? Will we actually do anything? Exactly. So your question on what we need to do with Trump, first we have to realize that, and I'm sure you've covered this elsewhere, the annexation plans, I think, are real. Greenland is a test run for taking over Canada

to see what the international reaction is to Greenland and our Panama Canal. And we have to realize that our ally is not going to be our friend anymore. So we didn't need to find ways to protect ourselves. And part of how we'll protect ourselves is by building out stronger relations with other countries. I've written elsewhere that we should consider as provocative of an idea that as this is

to look at joining BRICS as an observer member. So we engage more with China, Saudi, those kinds of countries. We have to look more towards Europe, although Europe's not gonna help us, but we basically need to focus on our self protection as a country and realize that the US, even though it's been our friend,

is not gonna be our friend anymore. So that's the attitude that we need. And then the reason why going abroad and spending time abroad is so important is because we need to cultivate these networks outside of our country to defend ourselves. And I wouldn't be surprised if in a few years, part of what wins in annexation battle for us is a disinformation war with the American public. Canadians will need to get very, very smart on a citizen level about engaging with their American peers to fight a disinformation battle that Trump is going to lead to show that Canadians are bad people. That requires going out into the world.

Yeah. And that's already underway, right? Like the talking points of us being in debt and all the rest of it. And it is taking hold. Just before I run out of time with you, though, I would say this. You know, there's no question AI is something we do really well. Technology is something we are known for doing really well. We haven't capitalized on it. We're not moving fast enough on it here in this country, but they want to in the States. I know so many people, young people, they're ready to go. They are okay with a 51st state, right? How do you stop them from going and keep that brain power here? Oh, that's such a good question about young people wanting to be Americans, which I find devastating. I think what we need to help solve that is we need more Canadian nationalism.

We need more confidence as Canadians, which comes back to this point we've shared, or that we're talking about, which is understanding our role in the world and the meaningful role that we can play. What's our job as Canadians in the world, as bridge builders between adverse powers. That, to me, is what we need as a way to reinstill a healthy nationalism that shows that it's actually really good to be Canadian rather than wanting to be American. So again, it comes back to role that requires understanding the world in which we operate. You mean punching above our weight. What's the thing? Exactly. Emerson, I'm going to What's the thing, eh? Exactly.

Emerson, I'm going to run out of time, but I certainly appreciate your perspective on this. I completely agree with you. I appreciate it. Great. Thank you for your time as well. Daniel Blanchard is no ordinary thief. His heists are ingenious.

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