An advocate for reservists says the Canadian Armed Forces have suffered from neglect and woke agendas under the watch of the Trudeau Liberals.Reservists in the South Alberta Light Horse Regiment in Medicine Hat and Lethbridge were told March 6 they would be absorbed by the King’s Own Calgary Regiment. “The people that are left behind don't necessarily want to put on a different hat because it's a very tribal organization that we have," retired Lt. Colonel John Selkirk, former executive director of Reserves 2000, told the Western Standard. "And one tribe doesn't necessarily want to change and be another tribe. And I think that a lot of those folks in that regiment and in Lethbridge will just quit. And this is sad because the army is so short of soldiers now they can't afford to lose any trained people.”Selkirk not only disagrees with the change, but also how it was done.“That announcement was made without any consultation at all,” Selkirk said.“This is typical of how the regular force treats the militia.”Selkirk, who handed leadership of his organization to Steve Giberson as it rebranded to Reserves 2050 last month, said the military is “absolutely starved for resources” thanks to the Trudeau Liberal government.“The prime minister is taking a billion dollars out of the operating budget of the Department of National Defense,” Selkirk said.“On the other hand, he tells people in NATO and the United States, I guess, ‘Oh, yeah, we're strengthening our military. Oh, we're doing everything we can.’ So it's downright lies.”Selkirk said the fallout over the vaccine mandate “certainly has weakened the military,” but so have other problems.“The morale of the Armed Forces is very low because of all this stuff, the woke nonsense, the senior officers who have been charged with not only sexual harassment, but other things, the fact that the prime minister himself just has no interest in soldiers. Does he ever go to a base and talk to people? I mean, he'll go if there's a photo op, but it's meaningless. He doesn't care. In fact, I think he, like his father, has a real hate-on for the military.”To ease recruitment, the military is exempting some applicants from an aptitude test. Selkirk says lower standards and political agendas haven’t helped so far.“The biggest thing is that the military has had to bow down to the woke gods. And the Liberal Party of Canada has pushed this to the Nth degree. I think that a number of generals in Ottawa should have fallen on their swords and made a fuss about it, but they haven't.“And the damnedest things are going on now, in my humble opinion. People can have purple hair and nose rings,” he said.“They're just a shambles. They look terrible. And if you look terrible, you probably feel terrible. And if you feel terrible, you probably won't fight worth a damn.”Selkirk said he thinks orders delivered by the military last October to refrain from praying to God at public events was “a self-inflicted wound” as was relaxation of the dress code.“If you are a man, you can wear a dress and high heels. It's just crazy,” Selkirk said.“They just did away with regulations, thinking that that would be the magic panacea to get more people in the door. I’m firmly of the opinion that the kind of people you want to come in the door want to be in a uniform, they want to feel part of an organization that has standards, that has a history, that has discipline. They're looking for discipline, and the dress regulations allow people to be undisciplined as far as I'm concerned."“Look, a mob is not very effective if you want to get a job done. A disciplined body of people, especially an armed body of people, will get the job done.”
An advocate for reservists says the Canadian Armed Forces have suffered from neglect and woke agendas under the watch of the Trudeau Liberals.Reservists in the South Alberta Light Horse Regiment in Medicine Hat and Lethbridge were told March 6 they would be absorbed by the King’s Own Calgary Regiment. “The people that are left behind don't necessarily want to put on a different hat because it's a very tribal organization that we have," retired Lt. Colonel John Selkirk, former executive director of Reserves 2000, told the Western Standard. "And one tribe doesn't necessarily want to change and be another tribe. And I think that a lot of those folks in that regiment and in Lethbridge will just quit. And this is sad because the army is so short of soldiers now they can't afford to lose any trained people.”Selkirk not only disagrees with the change, but also how it was done.“That announcement was made without any consultation at all,” Selkirk said.“This is typical of how the regular force treats the militia.”Selkirk, who handed leadership of his organization to Steve Giberson as it rebranded to Reserves 2050 last month, said the military is “absolutely starved for resources” thanks to the Trudeau Liberal government.“The prime minister is taking a billion dollars out of the operating budget of the Department of National Defense,” Selkirk said.“On the other hand, he tells people in NATO and the United States, I guess, ‘Oh, yeah, we're strengthening our military. Oh, we're doing everything we can.’ So it's downright lies.”Selkirk said the fallout over the vaccine mandate “certainly has weakened the military,” but so have other problems.“The morale of the Armed Forces is very low because of all this stuff, the woke nonsense, the senior officers who have been charged with not only sexual harassment, but other things, the fact that the prime minister himself just has no interest in soldiers. Does he ever go to a base and talk to people? I mean, he'll go if there's a photo op, but it's meaningless. He doesn't care. In fact, I think he, like his father, has a real hate-on for the military.”To ease recruitment, the military is exempting some applicants from an aptitude test. Selkirk says lower standards and political agendas haven’t helped so far.“The biggest thing is that the military has had to bow down to the woke gods. And the Liberal Party of Canada has pushed this to the Nth degree. I think that a number of generals in Ottawa should have fallen on their swords and made a fuss about it, but they haven't.“And the damnedest things are going on now, in my humble opinion. People can have purple hair and nose rings,” he said.“They're just a shambles. They look terrible. And if you look terrible, you probably feel terrible. And if you feel terrible, you probably won't fight worth a damn.”Selkirk said he thinks orders delivered by the military last October to refrain from praying to God at public events was “a self-inflicted wound” as was relaxation of the dress code.“If you are a man, you can wear a dress and high heels. It's just crazy,” Selkirk said.“They just did away with regulations, thinking that that would be the magic panacea to get more people in the door. I’m firmly of the opinion that the kind of people you want to come in the door want to be in a uniform, they want to feel part of an organization that has standards, that has a history, that has discipline. They're looking for discipline, and the dress regulations allow people to be undisciplined as far as I'm concerned."“Look, a mob is not very effective if you want to get a job done. A disciplined body of people, especially an armed body of people, will get the job done.”
