The Return of the Forces

You can understand if the 20 year old and under crowd in Canadian society is a bit confused lately. Those poor Generation Whatever-letter-we-are-on-now kids, fresh from the leftist, anti-war mind-bath also known as our education system, are having to learn who those strange, khaki-coloured people with the guns are. (Message to the younger crowd: those fine people are called ‘soldiers’ or ‘troops’. They are from a military organization known as the ‘Canadian Armed Forces’. Given how this poor group had been gutted for over a decade by neglect and outright targeting by the previous federal Liberal administration, I can forgive your failure to recognize them.)

One cool thing about not being a member of the Forces myself is that I don’t have to be careful in stating my opinion about either my disgust of the previous anti-military Chretien/Martin government, or my kudos for the current Conservative regime who have more than lived up to their election promises of rebuilding and strengthening all areas of National Defense.

P.M. Harper and his team have focused on two primary areas in their plan. The first is recruitment and the public relations side. With hard-hitting, honest television commercials and a revised message through the media to the Canadian people, the image of the Armed Forces has been modernized from the old, stale, 1960’s-style one. Add to that the atmospheric-level popularity that no-nonsense, direct-talking General Rick Hillier enjoys with the Canadian public and military personnel alike, and the effect is like a reawakening by the citizens of the nation to the fact that we have a functional military.

The second area is Afghanistan. Sometimes timing is everything in politics, and it certainly is in this case. Finally, a pro-military government takes over the controls in Ottawa at a time when Canada’s Bravest are being asked to take part in an actual combat mission for the first time in a half-century. It couldn’t have happened at a better time for the Forces. Perhaps even just in time.

Putting aside my obvious and well-documented support of our participation for a moment, my point is that the Canadian military is in a front-line position in a war and this has blown the cover off of some longstanding, glaring shortcomings (all of which is direct evidence of years of Liberal government neglect. For the military to be as effective as they were while having to deal with lack of materials for so long is evidence of their resolve, if not their survival skills.)

When a problem becomes part of the comedy thread of Canadian culture – everyone has heard at least one ‘Sea-King’ joke by now - you know there is something wrong. Now, for the first time in a generation, we have a federal government that is not only serious about supporting the military, but is actually taking steps towards that goal. Modern equipment is now either already in use or on order, increases in budgetary spending has been allocated, and the modernization and upgrading of services for military personnel is underway.

The image makeover isn’t complete, however. There is still residue from the Trudeauesque, anti-military, anti-war propaganda out there, as the recent, controversial banning of the Armed Forces from a British Colombia university career day will attest. But, as any good Canadian soldier will tell you, they stand on guard for all of us – even the idiots.

Maybe now they can do that with working equipment.