by Michael Nickerson
Michel Maisonneuve
WHERE’S AN ASTEROID when you need one? From an evolutionary perspective, they can be quite refreshing. Take dinosaurs. Not the brightest of creatures by all accounts, but certainly strong stubborn brutes you wouldn’t want to mess with. Sadly, they were on their way out some 65 million years ago, not really adapting with the times. But they were taking their sweet time about it, with a lot of eager, intelligent mammals just waiting to take up the slack and get on with modern life. And then bam! Along comes an asteroid. Goodbye Rex. Hello brainy little fuzz balls.
Well funnily enough we seem to have a dinosaur problem of our own these days. Specifically, I refer to our current military and the many individuals within who still seem to be stuck in the past; a bunch of huffing, puffing beasts from a bygone era not knowing well enough to just lie down and let the power of fossilization do its magic.
Now before I’m accused of wanting to rain large rocks down on the heads of unsuspecting military personnel because I find them a tad thick and out-of-touch, rest assured I have no interest in diverting celestial bodies for any such purpose. Aside from it being a moral and legal no-no, I’m assured by my contacts in NASA that it really doesn’t pass the cost/benefit sniff test.
But if ever you heard of a bunch of soon-to-be-extinct military leaders who not only can’t accept change, but are unwilling to get the hell out of the way for those that can, it was on show at the recent Vimy Gala. An annual awards ceremony to honour a “Canadian who has made a significant and outstanding contribution to Canada’s defence and security and the preservation of (its) democratic values,” this year’s recipient was Lt.-Gen. (ret.) Michel Maisonneuve, who gave what can only be described as a speech right out of the early Jurassic.
Seems the old boy had an axe to grind, or perhaps a claw if we’re going to stick with the metaphor. In a wide-ranging acceptance speech, Maisonneuve took aim at dress-codes, cancel culture, woke journalism, collective apologies, Liberals, historical reassessment and reconciliation, climate change policies, and a society “lost in these days of entitlement, Me First, not my problem and endless subsidies and handouts.” Grumpy little brontosaur, isn’t he?
What was telling though was that with an audience of both retired and serving officers, people who have and will continue to shape the direction and culture of our armed forces, Maisonneuve received a standing ovation! It’s a bit like becoming ecstatic over the suggestion we should all go back to the era of laying eggs and shedding scales.
Now I don’t know if you’ve heard but Canada is in the middle of a major military recruitment crisis. As recently reported by David Pugliese in the Ottawa Citizen, senior leaders have been briefed on just how dire the problem is. Facing its highest attrition rate in 15 years, the Canadian armed forces are looking at over a decade just to return staffing to “proper levels,” with critical technical, health, and cyber positions at a premium.
Now the Maisonneuves of the world and their defenders would have it that if we just fund our military properly, stop criticizing it, and get back to basics where men were men, women worked the typing pool, and people stopped dying their hair we’d all be better for it.
To that I say we need all walks of life to fill the increasing technical requirements of modern warfare and security (or past warfare for that matter...Alan Turing anyone?). I would also say that having sexual misconduct problems exposed publicly is the right and moral thing to be done, and that it’s pathetic that an institution founded on the concept of bravery and personal sacrifice seems so scared of it being so.
But the kicker is this: if you want Canadians to commit their tax dollars to properly fund military infrastructure, salaries, and training to deal with an ever darker world, you’ll need to appeal to them, not dismiss them as too weak and woke to matter.
Canada is changing, boys. Adapt or die...metaphorically of course.