We didn't have a Navy before this week. We had ships. We had
sailors. But all we had was a Sea Component or a "Maritime Command" of
the Canadian Armed Forces.
I first learned of the
progressive tinkering of the military that lead to the symbolic defacing
of the RCN when I was a teenager. I was a member of the
Royal Canadian Sea Cadets;
an institution older than the Navy itself. When I started, Sea Cadets
and Air Cadets had to wear green uniforms. We had to explain to every
new recruit that Canada doesn't have a Navy and so we all had to wear
green because yadda yadda... all history now. It was an awesome day
when we were issued black. Generations before mine had to wear greens
and I was lucky enough to be among the first to don traditional Navy
black. Air Cadets got their light blue and the Army Cadets kept the
green. It felt great.
It always seemed like a crime
to me that we Canadians had a Navy and good one, but we had to submit to
some progressive naming scheme to call it the Maritime Command or the
Sea Element of the CF. Bull!
I am very proud of my Conservative Government for healing this old wound.
Restoring
the Royal Canadian Navy, Royal Canadian Air Force, and Canadian Army
was a very excellent move and I thank them. I'm sure all veterans and
active members are equally thankful.
Some might think
it's all about "buttons and bows," as the offending Liberal famously
said. It isn't. The military is an institution that is built on honour
and tradition. I think of our Service men and women as knights. -Not
as they were historically, but how knights always should have been.
They do not steal, rape or kill without cause. They are the honourable
warriors we as a people decide they should be. They devote
themselves to our national will and security under oath to the Queen.
And then we take away who they are. Imagine some
liberal decided that police are no longer police but Human Rights
Engineers? Imagine if Firefighters were somehow held in contempt by
these self-loathing liberals? How many recruits do you think the lowly
Department of Uncontrolled Combustion would score? Seriously. What
politically correct term would they rename you?
The one
valid concern has to do with cost. Part of the reason to homogenize
the armed forces was to cut the bureaucracy and turf wars that came with
having separate armed forces. One only needs to look at the USA for
examples of this.
There's
Obama climbing out of Marine One. Marine One is just one of a
whole air force of helicopters and Harriers that belong to the United
States Maine Corps. The Marine Corps is the elite army of the
United States Navy. The US Navy also has its own air force that runs
off of Aircraft Carriers. The US Air Force also has its own small army
and the US Army also has its own army aviators. That seems like a lot of
duplication if you ask me.
That's not how we do it. We can use Land Command and
Canadian Army interchangeably. Same with the Navy and Maritime Command
etc... Everyone knows they mean the same thing. There is no need to
pull out signs, change letterheads and most importantly, segregate the
operations of each service. Even so, there is a report that DND has
become bloated and top heavy as it is.
Use the new names where convenient, but don't spend an extra dime on these changes.
Since we are actually acknowledging that we have a
Navy again, we may as well return their traditional name. King George
gave them the royal title so why not not fully return the original name
while we are at it? People have become fixated on the word
Royal lately and they are missing the point entirely. Its about having a Navy an Army and an Air Force again. The
Royal is less important but isn't a Royal Navy better than your garden variety Peoples Democratic Banana Republic Navy? Sure it is.
I hope that I have brought some insight into why this
decision needed to be made. You can tell who is distant from the
military by where they fall on this issue. Even left of center friends
of mine who respect the military have grudgingly given this one to the
Conservatives. We've all been waiting for this for most of our lives.
