What has happened that has turned Canadians into cowards?

Question

I am a Canadian living abroad and am apalled at how Canada treats it's wartime obligations. We are ok with being in Afghanistan as long as someone else does the dirty work. In other words, cowards hiding behind someone else. Why has the Canada of Vimy Ridge and Dieppe turned into the Canada of Cowardice? I sometimes feel ashamed to be a Canadian when I read the public opinion polls that want us to run from our obligations and even seem to support our enemies.

Re: LindaLou " Hey...feel free to stay the hell away from Canada!!!"

I'm wondering if you misunderstood me. I am proud of our soldiers in Afghanistan- and am fiercly proud of our warrior history as that article states so eloquently. What I am not proud of is the media and the NDP and Liberal Party's insistence that we only be involved in conflicts where we are not in harms way. We are Canadians. We are warriors. And we have never shied away from a fight that was right, and we have never lost- not even against the Americans in 1812. My question is what happened to Canada's Elite that has caused us to become cowards. If not for a middle class PM (Harper) we'd be out of harms way now, basking in the sun in a "safe" part of the conflict where noone get shurt and noone gets offended. - So I'm not sure why the proud sister of a soldier would want someone like me to "stay away from Canada"

Answer 1

I am Canadian, living in Canada, and am equally embarrassed about the "anti-war" sentiment in Canada and the negative impact this has had on the internal and traditional Canadian motivation to fight for what is right.

At the end of WWII, Canada had the third largest navy in the world. While we have since become known (at least internally) as "peace-keepers", Canada does have a proud warrior past.

I don't mean "warrior" in the sense of gratuitous warfare. I mean "warrior" in the sense of going to war when liberty and justice dictate that it is right to do so.

I believe that an important reason for the "anti-war" sentiment is the strong undercurrent of anti-Americanism that exists among many (but certainly not all) Canadians. This exists for the same reasons it exists in Europe and elsewhere: a sense of jealousy and helplessness in the face of the American juggernaut. Certainly the USA is not perfect and we need to defend our national interests, but we should be VERY wary of accepting the "great satan" designation affixed to the proud chest of the Americans by the enemies of all of Western Civilization.

Those opposing Canada's contribution to world liberty and democracy through battle should consider that their ability to protest involvement was built on the backs of soldiers. War is bad, but sometimes necessary.

I just wish that more people understood that sometimes, things are truly worth fighting for. It doesn't make the fighting enjoyable, but it does make it worthwhile, noble and right.

Answer 2

Buddy, first of all when was the last time you heard someone say "fight fire with fire?" Because that logic does not make any sense at all and that is what the Canadians are doing right now in Afghanistan, fighting fire with fire. Wartime obligations? What wartime obligations? Our goal was to rebuild Afghanistan and not fight the Taliban. First of all I support our troops, but we are seriously fighting an endless war that is going no where. The Soviet Union in 1979 tried to invade Afghanistan but failed because of the guerilla forces. Now let's think about it. Who is stronger militarily? USSR or Canada? The answer is evident. If the USSR couldn't even seize control of Afghanistan how are we able to? We are not backing away from our moral obligations but we are starting to understand that war and fighting is not the solution to conflicts -- diplomacy is. I can bet you that we would have a better shot at bringing the Taliban through diplomacy than trying to blow each and every single one of them up. And I feel that killing someone is by far the worst thing one can do. I am also deeply offended by you calling Canadians cowards. If you think that we shouldn't withdraw from Afghanistan then go join the armed forces, whats stopping you? I sometimes feel ashamed to be Canadian when i know that there are people like you who are also classified has Canadians.

Bombing for peace is like f LI cking for virginity.

Answer 3

The fact that you've referred to Steven Harper as a middle class Prime Minister is clear evidence that you are out of touch as to what is actually happening HERE IN CANADA... Politically speaking, of course. Keep reading about life in Canada in 2016 from abroad, We'll be here living it.

Answer 4

The answer is simple. We have had successive governments over the last 30 or so years that we have paid well to "take care of us". Unfortunately, this has led to us becoming insulated, sedated and self-absorbed. We have become so government dependant that we don't get upset anymore when fraudulent behaviour occurs because, what are you going do anyways. We as a nation have been so swaddled that we no longer know how to take care of business as we once have. We are so afraid of offending anyone for any reason because we ourselves are afraid of being offended. We have forgotten about the greater good and are only concerned with what's in it for me right now?! This facade of being concerned for others is so false it's stupid. We need to stop worrying about how we will be perceived and boldly go, do what needs to be done and let the perceptions fall where they may!

Answer 5

You shouldn't be ashamed to be a Canadian. Canada has a proud history and current events are only a snapshot in time.

Answer 6

Cowardice is a harsh term...and is it really applicable in this question? Do you condemn someone for being a coward because they choose not to join a fight? If a bully coerces you, and you do not sink to his level and fight him, does that make you a coward? Peacekeepers we are - today. We don't have the forces to 'fight'. We don't have the finances to send troops to battle. They would be ill-equipped.

Is it so wrong to be a 'peace keeping nation'? Don't we have enough warrior nations? We are not the United States - we don't have to follow them wherever they lead. Many countries - noble countries - have chosen not to pick up arms and become warriors in the Iraq conflict...and I'm proud to say we are one of them. I respect and honour the troops who are doing battle, but question the need for war.

Answer 7

I find the statement insulting. It's the sort of smear tactics adopted by the Bush White House and his bumboy Harper when they talk about anyone who dares to disagree with them. UNLIKE Mr. Bush and Mr. Harper I have worn the uniform. (I DON"T count Mr. Bush's little stint in the National Guard - his stay out of Vietnam card bought and paid for by daddy.) And, were I still in uniform, I would want no part of the ridiculous wars being waged in Iraq and in Afghanistan.

The simple fact is that the world is NOT a safer place because of these wars. Terrorism is the result of the shortsighted, parternalistic and profit-based foreign policies of Western nations. We have seen it in Indochina, in Africa and in the Middle East. Today's wars will breed more terror. History keeps repeating itself and the gung-ho, war-cheering morons never learn.

Answer 8

Hey...feel free to stay the hell away from Canada!!!
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This is a good read - funny how it took someone in England to put it into words...

Sunday Telegraph Article
From today's UK wires: Salute to a brave and modest nation
Kevin Myers, The Sunday Telegraph

LONDON - Until the deaths last week of four Canadian soldiers accidentally killed by a U.S. warplane in Afghanistan, probably almost no one outside their home country had been aware that Canadian troops were deployed in the region. And as always, Canada will now bury its dead, just as the rest of the world as always will forget its sacrifice, just as it always forgets nearly everything Canada ever does.

It seems that Canada's historic mission is to come to the selfless aid both of its friends and of complete strangers, and then, once the crisis is over, to be well and truly ignored. Canada is the perpetual wallflower that stands on the edge of the hall, waiting for someone to come and ask her for a dance. A fire breaks out, she risks life and limb to rescue her fellow
dance-goers, and suffers serious injuries. But when the hall is repaired and the dancing resumes, there is Canada, the wallflower still, while those she once helped glamorously cavort across the floor, blithely neglecting her yet again.

That is the price Canada pays for sharing the North American continent with the United States, and for being a selfless friend of Britain in two global conflicts. For much of the 20th century, Canada was torn in two different directions: It seemed to be a part of the old world, yet had an address in the new one, and that divided identity ensured that it never fully got the gratitude it deserved.

Yet its purely voluntary contribution to the cause of freedom in two world wars was perhaps the greatest of any democracy. Almost 10% of Canada's entire population of seven million people served in the armed forces during the First World War, and nearly 60,000 died. The great Allied victories of 1918 were spearheaded by Canadian troops, perhaps the most capable soldiers in the entire British order of battle.

Canada was repaid for its enormous sacrifice by downright neglect, its unique contribution to victory being absorbed into the popular Memory as somehow or other the work of the "British." The Second World War provided a re-run. The Canadian navy began the war with a half dozen vessels, and ended up policing nearly half of the Atlantic against U-boat attack. More than 120 Canadian warships participated in the Normandy landings, during
which 15,000 Canadian soldiers went ashore on D-Day alone. Canada finished the war with the third-largest navy and the fourth-largest air force in the world.

The world thanked Canada with the same sublime indifference as it had the previous time. Canadian participation in the war was acknowledged in film only if it was necessary to give an American actor a part in a campaign in which the United States had clearly not participated - a touching scrupulousness which, of ourse, Hollywood has since abandoned, as it has any notion of a separate Canadian identity.

So it is a general rule that actors and filmmakers arriving in
Hollywood keep their nationality - unless, that is, they are Canadian. Thus Mary Pickford, Walter Huston, Donald Sutherland, Michael J. Fox, William Shatner, Norman Jewison, David Cronenberg, Alex Trebek, Art Linkletter and Dan Aykroyd have in the popular perception become American, and Christopher Plummer, British. It is as if, in the very act of becoming famous, a Canadian ceases to be Canadian, unless she is Margaret Atwood, who is as unshakably Canadian as a moose, or Celine Dion, for whom Canada has proved
quite unable to find any takers.

Moreover, Canada is every bit as querulously alert to the achievements of its sons and daughters as the rest of the world is completely unaware of them. The Canadians proudly say of themselves - and are unheard by anyone else - that 1% of the world's population has provided 10% of the world's
peacekeeping forces. Canadian soldiers in the past half century have been the greatest peacekeepers on Earth - in 39 missions on UN mandates, and six on non-UN peacekeeping duties, from Vietnam to East Timor, from Sinai to Bosnia.

Yet the only foreign engagement that has entered the popular
on-Canadian imagination was the sorry affair in Somalia, in which
out-of-control paratroopers murdered two Somali infiltrators. Their regiment was then disbanded in disgrace - a uniquely Canadian act of self-abasement for which, naturally, the Canadians received no international credit.

So who today in the United States knows about the stoic and selfless friendship its northern neighbour has given it in Afghanistan? Rather like Cyrano de Bergerac, Canada repeatedly does honourable things for honourable motives, but instead of being thanked for it, it remains something of a figure of fun.

It is the Canadian way, for which Canadians should be proud, yet such honour comes at a high cost. Recently four more grieving Canadian families knew that cost all too tragically well.

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Please pass the on or print it and give it to any of your friends or
relatives who served in the Canadian Forces, it is a wonderful tribute to those who choose to serve their country and the world in our quiet Canadian way.

Answer 9

While I don't believe Canadians are "cowards," your concerns are valid and shared by many Americans.

If you seek anyone to blame, blame the leftists of the Trudeau mold which smeared a great country into a politically correct altar where only certain beliefs can be held, only certain groups can be extended public sympathy, and the government will solve all your problems.

Never be ashamed of your Canadian heritage, but rather work tactfully to inform others of how your country has changed and why there is a better way.

Answer 10

attempt to be arranged to : - stay in an igloo - get your automobile stopped by a cop on a horse (mountie) - study to declare eh? - be large friendly - study to love maple syrup - take in hockey as a game