The Canadian military has, for too long, been asked to represent Canada's agreed upon national identity as peacekeepers without the kind of resources only money can buy.Like airlift to move personnel from one location to another so they are not vulnerable to roadside bombs.
Like uniforms in camouflage appropriate to the terrain.
Like a salary that allows the men and women and families of Canada's armed forces to live in dignity.
It's okay though, because the government has a plan and they're ready to help!
The government announced their plan to spend $490 billion on the military over 20 years.
Well, they didn't actually announce it, they just posted it on the Department of National Defence website on Thursday night.
They probably did it that way because they're really modest.
However they chose to publicize the announcement is less important than the men and women who choose to serve Canada through the military getting the support they have deserved for so long.
Time will tell if the government will keep it's commitment or choose to do something else when it sees something shiny, like Quebec..
The Labrador Retriever-like attention span of the government is demonstrated with the results of Campaign 2000.
Oh, don't you remember Campaign 2000, or C2K, as I like to call it.
Well, my mom says I'm hip. (No, she doesn't)
Campaign 2000 was a 1989 resolution of the Canadian government, agreed to by all parties, to eliminate children's poverty in Canada by the year 2000.
You remember the year 2000, don't you?
It was the year nothing happened. Computers didn't crash, society didn't collapse and Canadian children still lived in poverty.
And children still live in poverty today.
The same amount of children lived in poverty in 2007 as in 1989, according to a 2007 Ontario report.
Yes, that report is a year old, but I'll take the bet that not much has changed since the report was published.
The government has finally decided to provide the men and women of Canada's armed forces with the support they have long deserved, how long will it be before Canada's children get the support everyone agrees they deserve?
Related Links
Campaign 2000
Urban Poverty in Canada [report] Canadian Council on Social Development
Child Poverty Report Card First Call: BC Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition
"Canada First" Defence Strategy National Defence and the Canadian Forces
Federal government quietly releases $490B military plan CBC report
WOUNDED: Canada’s Military and the Legacy of Neglect Senate report
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