I believe that there is a very large pool of loyal and wise Canadians, particularly in BC, that does not get mentioned often enough in the discussion of civil defence.... retired senior citizens. For example, I am a 75 year old healthy man who has a lot of free time on his hands. I have been fortunate enough to live my entire life in a safe environment and am very grateful for that. At this stage of my life I have no intention of forfeiting that privilege, and am passionate about helping to preserve it. I think there are a large number of us healthy seniors who feel that way. Please don't ignore us.
Yes, us Boomers are a great resource! As well, I am a CF veteran. Veterans have many (non-lethal) skills they could teach others: first aid; survival skills; map reading & compass use; radio operator procedures; emergency preparedness & safety procedures for power outages, cyber attacks; surveillance & reporting; even driving a stick shift!
I’ve signed up for a first aid course next week, as well as the workshop put on by my municipality in emergency preparedness. When I’ve finished the first aid, I will be signing up with St John Ambulance under logistics and support for the emergency management program. - And I’ve started the XBX program from the Canadian Air Force!
There's many reports on how effective the organized Ukrainian home-made drone tactic is working against Russia. I hope our military experts have plans for scaling up a similar program if needed here in Canada. Now would be the time to be planning it.
Can we have a thread for gathering collective ideas for countering social media disinformation blitzes, (IMO a very dangerous and under estimated tool being used to destroy us).
I’m sure we’ve all noticed manipulation of public opinion by large scale nefarious actors. I would wager that the election of Trump was due to a military operation style concerted and targeted disinformation social media blitz.
Canada has fortunately been largely not a target, but this unfortunately leaves us very vulnerable as we become more and more a target.
A case in point - I noticed a rapid and overwhelming surge in ‘dump Trudeau’ sentiments suddenly surge in youtube comments after Trump first made his 51st state & governor Trudeau comments. There was no substance to the anti-Trudeau comments, just variations on ‘he has to go’.
My biggest concern is the ripple effect due to our collective naivety of such an action:
polls dramatically swing away from Trudeau
Canadian media reacts to the polls and pushes for ouster of Trudeau
The Liberal Party reacts to the polls and ousts Trudeau
The social media blitz stops, the fever passes, and Trump & his allies have very easily removed a rival without our notice.
I can tell you that prior to the November US elections, my comments on You Tube denouncing Trump and trying to explain that his tariffs would indeed impact Americans negatively were being shadow banned. I presume this was being done by You Tube AI. That was when I realised that this election was being rigged somehow. After the election, no more shadow banning!
Wow! I didn't see it this way before. Perhaps Canadian media did fan the flames, but the 'dump Trudeau' sentiment seemed pervasive especially since we didn't hear a counter message. Polls taken even before the Orange Unmentionable was elected showed Trudeau's Liberals in definite decline. Of course, Poillievre has been like a piranha biting away at any exposed flesh.
The link may be outdated now, but I agree with the sentiments of this piece. I think our collective naivety of the power social media has been the main driver in the rise of authoritarianism world-wide, parallel to how naivety of radio fuelled the rise of fascism in the past. Social media went from being a power to the people tool to bring about the Arab Spring to being developed by tyrannical actors into sophisticated weapon to be used against us.
A possible vulnerability I can see for Canada is for us to be ‘Brexited’. When the timing suits them, I would expect our adversaries would team up and empower separatist movements in Canada the same way Russia funded and allied with with right wing and separatist parties across Europe. Then we could expect an outcry for a referendum in a vulnerable province -a rapid, seeming grassroots from nowhere, and overwhelming political pressure rising from social media manipulation into real discourse - leading to provincial leadership capitulating to holding a referendum.
Following would be a last minute targeted and fervent social media manipulation blitz, (as we’ve witnessed many times now). It seems Europe is finally catching on to this tactic, and just barely tipping the scale back. Canada is not used to being the target yet, and I hope we’ll be able to counter it when it’s our turn.
you’re entirely right that they will seek to exploit our fault lines, deepen our divisions - solidarity among Canadians and among our political leaders is crucial - we need a broad-based civil society coalition to push our leaders
The sooner we follow Sweden’s lead and I get a pamphlet telling me what my options are for enlisting the better. Also, let’s not rely on young people putting themselves on the line. Every adult has something to offer.
This "What Must We do?" thread has received the most input so far, and a lot of great comments are in here. We are looking to distill some sense of trendlines. In the meantime, this topic's attraction has a lot to do, it would seem, with people actually grasping the peril Canada faces -- whether short-term or 'just' longer-term, who can say right now? To that end, I would suggest everyone read the most recent article by Dan Gardner, one of the original Pledge signatories, here: https://open.substack.com/pub/dgardner/p/europe-gets-it-does-canada?r=pxhfy&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
The Harper government’s decision to allow foreign ownership of our media was a huge mistake. This needs to be reversed so Canadians will be less subject to information manipulation.
The problem with that is exactly what is happening in the US. What you need is a group that has the ability to sift through the disinformation and do the research to ensure the correct information, whether an individual like it or not is made available to the public. Sometimes the truth hurts. But that's part of democracy. The right to have a different opinion.
Currently the Postmedia Network owns more than 90 percent of all Canadian dailies and weeklies. It includes the National Post, Financial Post, Ottawa Citizen, Calgary Herald, Edmonton Journal, and Vancouver Sun. In addition, it closed many community newspapers. In October 2018, it was reported that CEO Andrew MacLeod had declared the company "insufficiently conservative". Subsequent changes made it into a mouth piece of the conservative movement. It becomes the "Fox News" of Canada. For democracy it is not healthy because it does not present a balanced discourse.
I support a YCC and a readiness plan for citizens, young and old. A call to action must be directed immediately at provincial and federal elected reps and a national program enabled asap.
I'm calling my MLA (Manitoba) and MP first thing Monday.
And I appreciate reading all of the suggestions to date. Hopeful and engaging in these challenging times. Thanks to all!
The Canadian military needs to start building drones of all types as quickly as possible. Ukraine has shown how a small country can counter a large country trying to invade.
Really connecting with the idea of youth engagement. In addition to the emergency and defence preparedness this creates, the idea engages young people in a pro-social and organized movement (where they work with other youth (and senior citizen mentors) and learn skills). The result is a generation that has a sense of purpose and meaning, something many young people say they are lacking.
I think our priority should be to watch what Moscow's goals are and view the US' actions through that lens. Trump isn't very bright, but is always able to do very well orchestrated strategic damage in favour of the Kremlin. He's only a showman doing what Russia suggests.
What are Kremlin goals re: Canada
- invading the north (the threat has been building there for quite a while)
What do tariffs on Canada do?
- weaken our economy
- temp us into escalation
So viewing US actions through the lens of the Kremlin, a Canadian action such as cutting US electricity would give Trump the excuse of a military response, which a Russian/Chinese attack in the north would overwhelm our defences. (Not there yet, but this is where we are heading). I'm all in favour of Doug Ford threatening to cut power, but not in actually doing it unless we are in an actual war.
Regarding the age: even old guys like me could contribute. Should civil defence include basic training and fire range training every year, like Switzerland male population? Should volunteers have their hardware at home including issued shoukder weapons? Regarding clinate and ecological crises, absolutely great idea.
Warning tough: our leaders should be transparent : a capable military defense implies a strong national industry able to shift gears in case of imminent threat or invason. It implies logistics thus good infrastructure and a highly professional workforce in support roles and engineering. It implies economic planning, focusing on STEM graduates and social acceptance of the fact that the military means pollution and CO2 emissions. That the price to pay to avoid a neighbour stealing our land and destroying it.
Since the original post on this Pledge for Canada post on What Must W Do? Civil and Military Defence, two pieces have been published that provide a robust basis for a debate on whether or not — and/or to what extent — Canada needs to be increasing military spending.
Where do you stand on the differences of views between the two authors"?
The first piece by Dan Gardner can be read directly on his Substack profile. It is called “Europe gets it. Does Canada? Canadian leaders still talk like it's 2017. It's time to get serious. Major sacrifices will be required if this country is to survive.”
The second piece by Luke Savage was published in the Toronto Star. It is called “Canada is going to spend another $14.5 billion a year? Here’s what we should really put it toward.”
The links to each piece are in the main text, at the top -- where we have inserted a section called "Addition on March 16, 2025."
From economics point of view, the trade war plus the rhetoric of annexation of Canada and Greenland make no sense. But, IMHO, the ulterior motive can be found in:
This is a paper by Steven Miran. titled: "A User's Guide to Restructuring the Global Trading System".
Steven Miran is now the chairman for Trump's Council of Economic Advisers and it seems Scott Bessent is pushing its implementation. The current tariff policies look very similar to what are described in the paper: incremental tariff, setting security zones, etc. Although the idea is flawed and extreme (The economic ideas by Arnaud Costinot and Andres Rodriguez-Clare was cited in the paper but was pushed back by the economists), we should not take it lightly and make the mistake similar to ignoring Project 2025. To think that we can diplomatically resolve these threats is a pipe-dream. They are looking for complete surrender. I hope some smart people will think of a strategy and actions to counter this.
I believe that there is a very large pool of loyal and wise Canadians, particularly in BC, that does not get mentioned often enough in the discussion of civil defence.... retired senior citizens. For example, I am a 75 year old healthy man who has a lot of free time on his hands. I have been fortunate enough to live my entire life in a safe environment and am very grateful for that. At this stage of my life I have no intention of forfeiting that privilege, and am passionate about helping to preserve it. I think there are a large number of us healthy seniors who feel that way. Please don't ignore us.
Old people of the world unite!
Yes, us Boomers are a great resource! As well, I am a CF veteran. Veterans have many (non-lethal) skills they could teach others: first aid; survival skills; map reading & compass use; radio operator procedures; emergency preparedness & safety procedures for power outages, cyber attacks; surveillance & reporting; even driving a stick shift!
So proud of our seniors! Anyone who is able should be welcomed and encouraged to help. Vive le Canada! Slava Ukraine! Long live democracy!
Yes, sign me up for the civil defense service! It is a crucial system to have for any emergency. How do we get this started? I am thinking...
- Reach out to our MPs
- Share the idea and the Tyee article with everyone we know
- Encourage everyone we know to sign up for the Pledge for Canada
- Other?
I am also thinking of ways, that I can prepare without having to wait for direction from the government:
- Grow a vegetable garden (food security)
- Take a first aid course
- Prepare an emergency kit
- Improve my physical fitness
- Other?
I’ve signed up for a first aid course next week, as well as the workshop put on by my municipality in emergency preparedness. When I’ve finished the first aid, I will be signing up with St John Ambulance under logistics and support for the emergency management program. - And I’ve started the XBX program from the Canadian Air Force!
Practice flying drones?
I would like to practice building drones like they do in Ukraine.
Yes! That too!
There's many reports on how effective the organized Ukrainian home-made drone tactic is working against Russia. I hope our military experts have plans for scaling up a similar program if needed here in Canada. Now would be the time to be planning it.
I don't think I'll truly feel safe until we have a few billion drones.
great list!
Me too, eh?
Can we have a thread for gathering collective ideas for countering social media disinformation blitzes, (IMO a very dangerous and under estimated tool being used to destroy us).
I’m sure we’ve all noticed manipulation of public opinion by large scale nefarious actors. I would wager that the election of Trump was due to a military operation style concerted and targeted disinformation social media blitz.
Canada has fortunately been largely not a target, but this unfortunately leaves us very vulnerable as we become more and more a target.
A case in point - I noticed a rapid and overwhelming surge in ‘dump Trudeau’ sentiments suddenly surge in youtube comments after Trump first made his 51st state & governor Trudeau comments. There was no substance to the anti-Trudeau comments, just variations on ‘he has to go’.
My biggest concern is the ripple effect due to our collective naivety of such an action:
polls dramatically swing away from Trudeau
Canadian media reacts to the polls and pushes for ouster of Trudeau
The Liberal Party reacts to the polls and ousts Trudeau
The social media blitz stops, the fever passes, and Trump & his allies have very easily removed a rival without our notice.
If I’m right about what happened, I can see it happening again.
In short, I don’t think the free world is nearly serious enough about how social media is being used as a weapon of war.
Some actions I suggest:
-Official security tracking of surges in social media blitzes
-Warning press releases to Canadian news outlets when spikes occur
-Social media blackouts before elections
Mostly I would like to hear from others their experiences and ideas.
I can tell you that prior to the November US elections, my comments on You Tube denouncing Trump and trying to explain that his tariffs would indeed impact Americans negatively were being shadow banned. I presume this was being done by You Tube AI. That was when I realised that this election was being rigged somehow. After the election, no more shadow banning!
I notice this too. Bots are everywhere doing exactly what you describe. I think this war has been fought under our noses for a long time.
Wow! I didn't see it this way before. Perhaps Canadian media did fan the flames, but the 'dump Trudeau' sentiment seemed pervasive especially since we didn't hear a counter message. Polls taken even before the Orange Unmentionable was elected showed Trudeau's Liberals in definite decline. Of course, Poillievre has been like a piranha biting away at any exposed flesh.
absolutely! coming soon
To kickstart the conversation https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/canada-needs-a-public-digital-system-not-controlled-by-big-tech/article_def68cec-a3ca-593d-95ad-88caafcffc34.html
The link may be outdated now, but I agree with the sentiments of this piece. I think our collective naivety of the power social media has been the main driver in the rise of authoritarianism world-wide, parallel to how naivety of radio fuelled the rise of fascism in the past. Social media went from being a power to the people tool to bring about the Arab Spring to being developed by tyrannical actors into sophisticated weapon to be used against us.
A possible vulnerability I can see for Canada is for us to be ‘Brexited’. When the timing suits them, I would expect our adversaries would team up and empower separatist movements in Canada the same way Russia funded and allied with with right wing and separatist parties across Europe. Then we could expect an outcry for a referendum in a vulnerable province -a rapid, seeming grassroots from nowhere, and overwhelming political pressure rising from social media manipulation into real discourse - leading to provincial leadership capitulating to holding a referendum.
Following would be a last minute targeted and fervent social media manipulation blitz, (as we’ve witnessed many times now). It seems Europe is finally catching on to this tactic, and just barely tipping the scale back. Canada is not used to being the target yet, and I hope we’ll be able to counter it when it’s our turn.
you’re entirely right that they will seek to exploit our fault lines, deepen our divisions - solidarity among Canadians and among our political leaders is crucial - we need a broad-based civil society coalition to push our leaders
I might add that that will be the biggest test for our new Prime Minister
The sooner we follow Sweden’s lead and I get a pamphlet telling me what my options are for enlisting the better. Also, let’s not rely on young people putting themselves on the line. Every adult has something to offer.
I downloaded and read the 32-page booklet. Worth a read!
I would sign up in a heatbeat.
This "What Must We do?" thread has received the most input so far, and a lot of great comments are in here. We are looking to distill some sense of trendlines. In the meantime, this topic's attraction has a lot to do, it would seem, with people actually grasping the peril Canada faces -- whether short-term or 'just' longer-term, who can say right now? To that end, I would suggest everyone read the most recent article by Dan Gardner, one of the original Pledge signatories, here: https://open.substack.com/pub/dgardner/p/europe-gets-it-does-canada?r=pxhfy&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
Great article. I never thought of the possibility of a post-US restructuring of NATO to not include Canada - That would be absolutely devastating.
I reached out to the Finnish Civil Defence people and they were very kind and sent me this link https://www.suomi.fi/guides/preparedness/how-do-i-prepare-for-incidents-and-crises
The Harper government’s decision to allow foreign ownership of our media was a huge mistake. This needs to be reversed so Canadians will be less subject to information manipulation.
The problem with that is exactly what is happening in the US. What you need is a group that has the ability to sift through the disinformation and do the research to ensure the correct information, whether an individual like it or not is made available to the public. Sometimes the truth hurts. But that's part of democracy. The right to have a different opinion.
Sweden set up an agency focused on foreign disinformation -
Currently the Postmedia Network owns more than 90 percent of all Canadian dailies and weeklies. It includes the National Post, Financial Post, Ottawa Citizen, Calgary Herald, Edmonton Journal, and Vancouver Sun. In addition, it closed many community newspapers. In October 2018, it was reported that CEO Andrew MacLeod had declared the company "insufficiently conservative". Subsequent changes made it into a mouth piece of the conservative movement. It becomes the "Fox News" of Canada. For democracy it is not healthy because it does not present a balanced discourse.
I support a YCC and a readiness plan for citizens, young and old. A call to action must be directed immediately at provincial and federal elected reps and a national program enabled asap.
I'm calling my MLA (Manitoba) and MP first thing Monday.
And I appreciate reading all of the suggestions to date. Hopeful and engaging in these challenging times. Thanks to all!
We need to defend key cities like Winnipeg in central Canada. Major railroads run through there and the US could cut supply lines between the coasts.
The Canadian military needs to start building drones of all types as quickly as possible. Ukraine has shown how a small country can counter a large country trying to invade.
Really connecting with the idea of youth engagement. In addition to the emergency and defence preparedness this creates, the idea engages young people in a pro-social and organized movement (where they work with other youth (and senior citizen mentors) and learn skills). The result is a generation that has a sense of purpose and meaning, something many young people say they are lacking.
I think our priority should be to watch what Moscow's goals are and view the US' actions through that lens. Trump isn't very bright, but is always able to do very well orchestrated strategic damage in favour of the Kremlin. He's only a showman doing what Russia suggests.
What are Kremlin goals re: Canada
- invading the north (the threat has been building there for quite a while)
What do tariffs on Canada do?
- weaken our economy
- temp us into escalation
So viewing US actions through the lens of the Kremlin, a Canadian action such as cutting US electricity would give Trump the excuse of a military response, which a Russian/Chinese attack in the north would overwhelm our defences. (Not there yet, but this is where we are heading). I'm all in favour of Doug Ford threatening to cut power, but not in actually doing it unless we are in an actual war.
Regarding the age: even old guys like me could contribute. Should civil defence include basic training and fire range training every year, like Switzerland male population? Should volunteers have their hardware at home including issued shoukder weapons? Regarding clinate and ecological crises, absolutely great idea.
Warning tough: our leaders should be transparent : a capable military defense implies a strong national industry able to shift gears in case of imminent threat or invason. It implies logistics thus good infrastructure and a highly professional workforce in support roles and engineering. It implies economic planning, focusing on STEM graduates and social acceptance of the fact that the military means pollution and CO2 emissions. That the price to pay to avoid a neighbour stealing our land and destroying it.
I’ve gone through the material from Finland, and Sweden and there is a lot that we can do: https://substack.com/@witchybeg/note/c-97211379?r=3t2vqw&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action
Thank you so much for this summary after going through that material!
Since the original post on this Pledge for Canada post on What Must W Do? Civil and Military Defence, two pieces have been published that provide a robust basis for a debate on whether or not — and/or to what extent — Canada needs to be increasing military spending.
Where do you stand on the differences of views between the two authors"?
The first piece by Dan Gardner can be read directly on his Substack profile. It is called “Europe gets it. Does Canada? Canadian leaders still talk like it's 2017. It's time to get serious. Major sacrifices will be required if this country is to survive.”
The second piece by Luke Savage was published in the Toronto Star. It is called “Canada is going to spend another $14.5 billion a year? Here’s what we should really put it toward.”
The links to each piece are in the main text, at the top -- where we have inserted a section called "Addition on March 16, 2025."
From economics point of view, the trade war plus the rhetoric of annexation of Canada and Greenland make no sense. But, IMHO, the ulterior motive can be found in:
https://www.hudsonbaycapital.com/documents/FG/hudsonbay/research/638199_A_Users_Guide_to_Restructuring_the_Global_Trading_System.pdf
This is a paper by Steven Miran. titled: "A User's Guide to Restructuring the Global Trading System".
Steven Miran is now the chairman for Trump's Council of Economic Advisers and it seems Scott Bessent is pushing its implementation. The current tariff policies look very similar to what are described in the paper: incremental tariff, setting security zones, etc. Although the idea is flawed and extreme (The economic ideas by Arnaud Costinot and Andres Rodriguez-Clare was cited in the paper but was pushed back by the economists), we should not take it lightly and make the mistake similar to ignoring Project 2025. To think that we can diplomatically resolve these threats is a pipe-dream. They are looking for complete surrender. I hope some smart people will think of a strategy and actions to counter this.
This is extremely chilling & explains a lot - thanks!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PXVrLH4zSU&t=1891s
This is a Ezra Klein podcast interviewing Gillian Tett. It discussed the Steven Miran's paper and more.
ICYMI, the recent US spending bill has increased military spending by $6 billion.