Our current government appears to care about our military's health. Not since the days of Louis St. Laurent have our service men and women been looked after so well. Of course there is much more to be done, especially with compensation to injured warriors. But overall the seamen, the soldiers and the air-crews feel a lot more wanted under the present government than they have in five governments preceding this one. The question should arise, why?
John Diefenbaker got the ball of abuse rolling. It wasn't the cancellation of the beautifully engineered Avro-Arrow that was a rub against the military. It was the creation of the inter-ballistic missile which more or less made the Arrow almost obsolete. Diefenbaker's abuse of the military came in the form of anti-Americanism. His historical spat with John Kennedy was nothing more than childish behaviour. It is interesting to note, the military did go on alert during the Cuban missile crisis. The leadership in the military had decided to honour it's commitments to it's number one ally even if the prime minister wouldn't. Diefenbaker finally gave his approval to go on alert a day or so after they already had.
Lester Pearson was too busy seeking out a Nobel prize to really care about our military properly. His love affair with the concept of peace-keepers blinded him to the true needs of a military. But exemplary work was done in Egypt and Cyprus and the United Nation's peacekeeper was born. Unfortunately Canadians fell in love with the idea of peace-keeping and peace-keepers to the detriment of our military. It was dangerous folly in the fifties and it is dangerous folly now.
Pierre Trudeau not only had a severe contempt of the military, he was the most anti-American prime-minister Canadians ever endured. Its as if Pierre Trudeau missed the most important events in his life because of a childish, leftist attitude which seemed to blind him to the obligations to his allies and the needs of the first world, vis: Canada and the United States. He cut Canada's contribution to Nato right after the Soviets attacked Prague which crushed the Czech's Prague spring in 1968. Many justifiably wondered which side Trudeau was truly on. Except for the purchase of CF-18 fighters and the very questionable Leopard 1 tank from Germany the military was left to rust out. Replacement of hardware was delayed over the years many times and eventually postponed. He was a man willing to spend billions on multi-culturalism and bi-lingualism but nothing on our security or our commitments to our allies.
Brian Mulroney mean't well but he inherited the Trudeau mess. Brian Mulroney did get us back on track with our American allies. It is unfortunate he didn't keep the promises he made to our mlitary. Two large majority governments should have enabled his government to re-vamp the military, but it didn't. To his credit, Canadians took part in the invasion of Iraq. Since we didn't have the equipment including proper uniforms and foot ware to send over a battalion of soldiers the Canadians sent their CF-18 fighters and the ground crews to service them. The nonsence of Anti-Americanism lifted it's stupid as well as ugly head in the form of many carrying placards which read, 'No blood for oil'. But common-sense seemed to prevail as most realized a very small state, (Kuwait) was being savagely and brutally attacked by Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Before Mulroney left office the conservative government ordered the EH-101 Cormorant helicopters to replace the 30 year old Sea-Kings and 15 Labrador helicopters. The purchase made good sense and was applauded by the military. There was much more they needed but the purchase of the Cormorant helicopter was a good start.
The first thing Jean Chretien did when entering the office of the prime-minister was to cancel the purchase of the Cormorant Copter. In his own words this anti-military and anti-American prime-minister said 'Candians didn't need a Cadillac helicopter'. The government ended up paying a half billion dollar cancellation fee. Like Mr. Trudeau and Mr. Mulroney before him, Jean Chretien loved the idea of sending Canadian soldiers to world hot spots as United Nation's peace-keepers. The problems with this scenario are at least two-fold. You can't expect a Canadian military which has been stripped of equipment and more importantly morale to perform up to task in potential hot spots. A good example of burn out being present was the actions of a few during the Somalia campaign. Those who perpetrated these disgusting actions have been punished. The commanding offficer should also be punished. But the complete dismemberment and destruction of this air-bourne unit was an action which was shameless and is a example of a government not knowing how far to go with punishment. I suppose the government at the time looked at it's decision as saving money to pump into something else other than the military. What ever the reason, it was a shameless and inappropriate action. One has only to remember Rwanda and Canada's forces wearing the UN blue helmet unable to stop a senseless slaughter to give pause for a re-assesement of what we as a nation need to do.
It would be a very smart move to have Canadian forces refrain from all UN missions for the next five years. And though the present government is doing a good job with our military it truly needs to do more. We need to wipe away 50 years of abuse and start careing about the things which benefit all Canadians. One of those things is our military.
John Diefenbaker got the ball of abuse rolling. It wasn't the cancellation of the beautifully engineered Avro-Arrow that was a rub against the military. It was the creation of the inter-ballistic missile which more or less made the Arrow almost obsolete. Diefenbaker's abuse of the military came in the form of anti-Americanism. His historical spat with John Kennedy was nothing more than childish behaviour. It is interesting to note, the military did go on alert during the Cuban missile crisis. The leadership in the military had decided to honour it's commitments to it's number one ally even if the prime minister wouldn't. Diefenbaker finally gave his approval to go on alert a day or so after they already had.
Lester Pearson was too busy seeking out a Nobel prize to really care about our military properly. His love affair with the concept of peace-keepers blinded him to the true needs of a military. But exemplary work was done in Egypt and Cyprus and the United Nation's peacekeeper was born. Unfortunately Canadians fell in love with the idea of peace-keeping and peace-keepers to the detriment of our military. It was dangerous folly in the fifties and it is dangerous folly now.
Pierre Trudeau not only had a severe contempt of the military, he was the most anti-American prime-minister Canadians ever endured. Its as if Pierre Trudeau missed the most important events in his life because of a childish, leftist attitude which seemed to blind him to the obligations to his allies and the needs of the first world, vis: Canada and the United States. He cut Canada's contribution to Nato right after the Soviets attacked Prague which crushed the Czech's Prague spring in 1968. Many justifiably wondered which side Trudeau was truly on. Except for the purchase of CF-18 fighters and the very questionable Leopard 1 tank from Germany the military was left to rust out. Replacement of hardware was delayed over the years many times and eventually postponed. He was a man willing to spend billions on multi-culturalism and bi-lingualism but nothing on our security or our commitments to our allies.
Brian Mulroney mean't well but he inherited the Trudeau mess. Brian Mulroney did get us back on track with our American allies. It is unfortunate he didn't keep the promises he made to our mlitary. Two large majority governments should have enabled his government to re-vamp the military, but it didn't. To his credit, Canadians took part in the invasion of Iraq. Since we didn't have the equipment including proper uniforms and foot ware to send over a battalion of soldiers the Canadians sent their CF-18 fighters and the ground crews to service them. The nonsence of Anti-Americanism lifted it's stupid as well as ugly head in the form of many carrying placards which read, 'No blood for oil'. But common-sense seemed to prevail as most realized a very small state, (Kuwait) was being savagely and brutally attacked by Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Before Mulroney left office the conservative government ordered the EH-101 Cormorant helicopters to replace the 30 year old Sea-Kings and 15 Labrador helicopters. The purchase made good sense and was applauded by the military. There was much more they needed but the purchase of the Cormorant helicopter was a good start.
The first thing Jean Chretien did when entering the office of the prime-minister was to cancel the purchase of the Cormorant Copter. In his own words this anti-military and anti-American prime-minister said 'Candians didn't need a Cadillac helicopter'. The government ended up paying a half billion dollar cancellation fee. Like Mr. Trudeau and Mr. Mulroney before him, Jean Chretien loved the idea of sending Canadian soldiers to world hot spots as United Nation's peace-keepers. The problems with this scenario are at least two-fold. You can't expect a Canadian military which has been stripped of equipment and more importantly morale to perform up to task in potential hot spots. A good example of burn out being present was the actions of a few during the Somalia campaign. Those who perpetrated these disgusting actions have been punished. The commanding offficer should also be punished. But the complete dismemberment and destruction of this air-bourne unit was an action which was shameless and is a example of a government not knowing how far to go with punishment. I suppose the government at the time looked at it's decision as saving money to pump into something else other than the military. What ever the reason, it was a shameless and inappropriate action. One has only to remember Rwanda and Canada's forces wearing the UN blue helmet unable to stop a senseless slaughter to give pause for a re-assesement of what we as a nation need to do.
It would be a very smart move to have Canadian forces refrain from all UN missions for the next five years. And though the present government is doing a good job with our military it truly needs to do more. We need to wipe away 50 years of abuse and start careing about the things which benefit all Canadians. One of those things is our military.
