The show opened with a breakdown of Ottawa’s latest defence math — and MP James Bezan didn’t mince words. The government’s claims of surging spending to 5% of GDP and even hitting 2% “this year” amount to little more than creative accounting, he said. Counting veterans’ pensions, Global Affairs, CBSA, RCMP/CSIS, and now the Coast Guard may inflate the total, but it doesn’t put new ships to sea or jets in the air. Manitobans, Bezan noted, know the difference between a budget line and real capability.

Bezan’s bigger warning: Canada’s north remains dangerously exposed. The North Warning System is at the end of its lifespan, over-the-horizon radar can detect but not track, and adversaries are already probing the Arctic. He urged a permanent F-35 presence in the North, more maritime patrols, a

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