R.A. Flannagan's Blog

Turn Canada Day into Canada Month – A Proposal

Just some quick thoughts regarding Remembrance Day here in Canada and a proposal.

As you’ll know, several Remembrance Day ceremonies were marred by woke-influenced administrators. There might have been others, but the ones that made national news were: 1) The Halifax principal who asked CAF members not to wear their uniforms; and 2) The Ottawa high school that played a “Palestinian protest song” as the one and only song during its Remembrance Day ceremony.

According to the principa...

Canada’s Defense Spending: Why Tony Abbott is Only Half Right

Image created by author using DALL-E

I read with interest the former Australian Prime Minister’s National Post article on Canada’s defence spending.

My initial reaction was satisfaction that such a prominent politician from a Five-Eyes country was giving it to the Canadian government. However, my opinion changed as I considered the viewpoints of a number of pundits and their take on Abbott’s categorization of Canada as a nation of “early quitters.”

Abbott’s thesis about Canada and i...

Review of Civil War, The Movie (2024)

Since I write books about the United States’ second Civil War, I feel like I should write a review about the movie Civil War, which got its full release on April 14. I saw it last night and in a word, it was a terrific movie.

For those of you who don’t know about the movie or who know a little about it, the scene that sets the background for the movie is a civil war that’s taking place in the US. Importantly, the film is vague on the war’s particulars.

The length of the war isn’t menti...

Canada’s New Defence Policy – Our North: Strong and Free.

Does this mean Canada is going to fund its military properly?

The short answer to this question is no, Canada is not going to fund its military properly. This defence policy update is nothing more than smoke and mirrors that will allow the current Canadian government to say they’re treating national security seriously in the months leading up to the next election.

In fact, the Trudeau Liberals have no intention of being serious on anything that has to do with Canada’s military. If they wer...

How to Sell Books: Nearly Three Years of Learning

A fellow aspiring author asked how my advert for Take Whiteman ended up in his FB feed.  

He was looking for a few tips on Facebook ads but once I got on a roll, I banged out this tome. If you’re interested in the writing, have a gander at what’s below. I’m still very new at the writing thing, so take everything with a pinch of salt. In fact, nothing below guarantees success. They are only the lessons I’ve gleaned in my short time of trying to write and market stories, and as you’ll read, my ...

Should Canada Join AUKUS?

The Quick Answer is No.

Let’s start off by answering the question of what is AUKUS?

First, AUKUS stands for Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. As best I can understand, AUKUS is a three-country defence pact that proposes the involved countries work together closely on several defence-related issues in the Pacific region, including the transfer of technology that would allow Australia to acquire nuclear submarines (henceforth to called SSN = Submersible Ship Nuclear)....

In Case You Were Wondering: My Own Conservative Election Platform

So as you might gather from my various posts, I’m not a Liberal supporter. Over the past twenty-five years or so, there have been people in the Liberal Party I would have supported federally, but in the now, I could no more vote for Justin Trudeau than I could eat rat poison. On every single policy issue, I think he and his inner circle is dead wrong.

As an aspiring author, there’s advice that you shouldn’t get into politics. By taking a stand, you could alienate some significant percentage o...

The Argument for Canada Investing 2% GDP into Defence

I regularly listen to the Defence Deconstructed podcast, which regularly delves into a range of topics concerning the Canadian Armed Forces (the CAF).

Recently, I listened to a conversation that discussed the brutal Wall Street Journal opinion piece that took Canada to task for its anemic defence spending, which is approximately 1.3% of GDP. Inarguably, it was the single most damning piece of opinion regarding the sorry state of Canada’s defence capabilities in recent memory.

In listen...

Canada in Ukraine

Canada’s Policy Position on the Ukraine War: The Ugly Reasons

Canada’s number one foreign policy challenge is Ukraine. To date, Canada has sunk nearly $3 billion into this war and Justin Trudeau and his cabinet have been full-throated in their support for Ukraine and its entry into NATO.

To many, Justin Trudeau is an unserious person who cares very little about foreign policy issues. To that, add the fact the man seems a bit of a pacifist, or at the very least, he’s the least military-...

Advice for Conservative Men Going to University

Five pieces of advice for conservative men who are heading off to university or college

So you’re an 18-year-old who’s going to university or college in the fall and you have or you think you have conservative views, and you’re looking for advice about how “to do” your post-secondary experience.

Well, having spent a decade and a half in the post-secondary system working with students on a whole range of thorny issues, here are some tips and advice on what you should be thinking abo...