I haven't asked my daughter who is in the naval reserves how she feels about the announcement made in the past couple of days about changing the names of Canada's different military branches to older names that includes the title "Royal".
I mean I have nothing against the Royal Canadian Navy, however, we're in 2011. Trudeau repatriated the constitution back in 1982 to make Canada more into a country and less as a British colony. The term "Royal" especially in Quebec is a large step backwards. Most Quebecois don't give a rats ass about the British monarchy. In general it's being slammed as a colonial throwback.
On the other side of the coin you have the veterans, mostly those from WWII and later who didn't care much for the changed names when all the branches of the military were put under one name and have been lobbying for the names to change back. It makes sense. If you fought for Canada under the Royal Canadian Navy, you feel the name shouldn't have changed.
Personally I have nothing against the British Monarchy. I'm not a huge fan, but I don't hate them either. If the British like them, it's their prerogative. It still bugs me that Canada's head of state is the Queen, but I can live with it so long as I have the freedoms I care so much about.
For instance I can say whatever I want about the Queen or Steven Harper on this blog, or even if I was walking downtown Montreal, or Ottawa or Toronto or Vancouver. One of the things Syrians are fighting for is that same right. If they say anything against Bashar or his regime, that's surely a beating and possibly a jail term sprinkled with torture.
That being said I'm grateful to be Canadian, grateful that our Canadian forces are from the people and for the people. My daughter joined the naval reserves because she wanted to HELP people. She knows the Canadian Navy has a nice track record for peace keeping missions and rescue missions. That's what made her join.
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funny story. Peter Mckay is on the NB Jetty at the Halifax base, and if it was panned out far you'd see our little mine sweeper Marine Coastal Defence Vessel, the HMCS Glace Bay, where we were told to stay indoors so that we didn't make a fool of ourselves. lol! behind him is the rest of the jetty, where they brought in the last corvette, the Sackville, and had a marine helicopter and an amphibious tank. we thought it was pretty funny because they made such a big deal about us blacking our boots and ironing our shirts but then kept us inside! lol
ReplyDeleteI forgot to add, I meant he was on our jetty when he made that announcement yesterday morning or whenever it was.
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