Dear Editor:
Is there anyone left in the Canadian government who has any understanding of the importance of defence for our country?
In September of 2023 General Wayne Eyre told the Commons Defence Committee that the underfunded national defence budget would be cut by about $1 billion dollars. Subsequently, he also stated that Canada’s military was so underfunded and understaffed that the CAF (Canadian Armed Forces) was irrelevant. This was an astounding revelation by General Eyre.
When choices are made to spend money on health, dental and child care, these may be worthwhile choices when a government is properly administered. But defence is one of the main reasons to have an organized government.
Successive Canadian governments, and particularly the current government, have forgotten since well before the end of the Cold War, when Canada started increasingly relying on the U.S. for our defence, and that, in essence, is a huge subsidy that the U.S. hands Canada every year (I hate agreeing with Trump).
There has been an exodus of knowledge and experience from our CAF. We can’t seem to fill 16,000 positions, and most of the “trainers” have left the CAF. Retention is practically non-existent.
Afghanistan vets had to fight for benefits, and as the public became aware of all this, recruitment diminished considerably. As a peacekeeper myself, Canadian peacekeepers were renowned around the world, and it is this reputation I dearly want to see return to Canada.
Pride in service and what it means to volunteer to serve in our nation’s armed forces must return to our nation! Refusal to award a medal for our Cold War veterans, and a volunteer service medal as other Commonwealth countries have done has added to the declining recruitment process.
It seems we have forgotten those that kept our northern airspace patrolled, and those that serviced those jets and the pilots that flew them. Those that served on the Bonaventure in the Caribbean and the Atlantic during the Cuban missile crisis, why are these honourable deeds relegated to the abyss of forgetfulness?
We certainly need change, and fast, as President Trump’s threats are finally beginning to sink in. To summarize: wake up, Canada!
Jacques De Winter,
Rockwood