Our Place in the World
I've asked the Flea if I could join the Red Ensign Bloggers.
There is an attitude in this country that is disturbing. Whether it's the young people I watched during the Federal Election say "We don't need a military - we're peacekeepers" or boomers that are so anti-American that any suggestion of increasing our place in the world and to stand up for human rights or liberty is called out as undying support for 'Bush's war'.
As the Flea said in the original post:
This country has also been a force for liberty. The third largest navy in the world fed Britain through the dark days of the Blitz and Hitler's north Atlantic wolf packs. This is the country that took Vimy Ridge and that stormed Juno Beach. Let's bring back that Canada.I don't think that 'that Canada' is brought back by increasing our armed forces - God knows it's a part of it though. Most importantly it is having our leaders speak clearly to Canadians and the world about what Canada is on the global stage - not abstaining on UN votes, not hiding behind a bizarre 'soft power' strategy, and not making non-decisions based on polls and plans for the next election.
It's about making commitments and meeting them. It's not about having an embarassing foreign aid budget while we blindly increase our health care funding and corporate welfare. It's about becoming again a force for bringing together liberal democracies and as a group facing up to fascist and totalitarian governments, and generally fighting way above our weight class - we used to do it - we can do it again.
