Angry in the Great White North
Recruitment
Sunday, March 19, 2006 at 10:54 PM

Read other posts by Steve Janke published by the National Post
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From Sun Media:

Despite an upswing in attacks against Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan, recruiters at a Canadian Forces job fair said yesterday they are seeing their ranks swell with eager candidates.

A steady crowd took in the event at the HMCS Tecumseh, watching demonstrations and getting up-close-and-personal with Canadian Forces equipment, including an LAV III armoured fighting vehicle and a Griffin helicopter.

"Despite"? Maybe "Because of"?

Capt. Nolan Kemp with the Calgary recruiting centre said coverage of Canada's major role in southern Afghanistan and Kandahar has led to an upswing in recruitment for the Forces and its part-time reservists.

"There's a further sense of patriotism - people willing to go out there and make a difference," Kemp said.

I'm not saying people are signing up so they can get shot at. But they are signing up because they see the military as relevant, both to the world at large and to Canadians in particular, which is a new thing for Canada.

With that, though, comes responsibility. The government must establish a respectful and professional relationship with the military, and the military must move beyond constantly complaining about the lack of funding. Basically, the maturity level has to go up. I think that process is well underway already, though, and just in time too.

We owe all these new recruits the best possible future in return for their commitment to spend that future defending us in a world that seems a lot more dangerous than it did only a few years ago.

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