The Privy Council Office instructed the Canadian Forces on Oct. 2 to begin preparations for the victory celebration, well before the end of the Libyan conflict, according to the records. The PCO outlined exactly what it wanted and the military complied with a Parliament Hill celebration that included a flypast of aircraft and a parade of Canadian Forces personnel. PCO also asked for and received “special inclusion and recognition of LGen. Charles Bouchard,” the Canadian commander of the mission.
The request, which was also seen as coming from Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s office, sent senior military planners scrambling and within days they came up with various scenarios, including recognition of the mission at both the local level and at the national level with a Parliament Hill parade.
No doubt Harper CONservatives rolled tape during the photo opportunity which cost taxpayers $850,000. It's all window dressing for their 2015 election campaign, where they'll accuse their opponents of "hating the troops" although every CPC MP voted against a motion in the House of Commons that would have saved Veterans Affairs from budget cuts.
The motion was defeated by a margin of 147 to 122. All opposition MPs voted in support of the motion, while the Conservatives voted unanimously against it.
"There's so many guys that have died in the last conflict for this government, and the government has more or less spit in the veterans' faces," veterans advocate Dan Slack said following the vote.
"It's bullshit." Dozens of veterans representing every major conflict Canada has participated in since the Second World War packed the House of Commons galleries Tuesday night to watch the vote. Some were very aged, some came in wheelchairs or on crutches, but all proudly displayed their medals.
So. Close to a million dollars to make CONservative politicians look *victorious*.
And ZERO from the CONs for our veterans of peacekeeping forces, military interventions and wars: WWII, Korean, Gulf, Yugoslav, Afghanistan and Libyan.
2 comments:
So far we have farmers, seniors and armed forces personnel being screwed over by the Conservatives. Majorities of whom say in polls they will vote Conservative anyway.
Nothing to conclude other than they're stoopid is there?
Nothing to conclude other than they're stoopid is there?
I dunno... I think in some cases it's closer to Stockholm Syndrome, or a person's apparently (from the outside) absurd decision to remain with her or his abusive partner.
They decided long ago that the right wing is aligned with their own values, and this endows them with an almost inexhaustible capacity to give the actual politicians involved the benefit of the doubt, no matter what they do.
It takes a really *huge* betrayal to overcome this sort of brand-loyalty--especially among the kinds of personalities that tend to be attracted to the right (where the very firmness of one's convictions is held almost in higher regard than their correctness).
I think this sort of behaviour can be independent of general intelligence (if there is such a thing). I'm not sure it's productive to approach this phenomenon as mere stupidity. Sure is depressing, though.
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