As the nomination battle to replace Dick Harris as the Conservative candidate in Cariboo-Prince George continues, perhaps the three remaining candidates should also be worried about what the federal party is doing to dampen their chances in next year's election.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has talked a great game about caring for the Canadian Armed Forces and the men and women in uniform but his treatment of the current officers in the military, as well as retired veterans, has been pathetic.
As a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Canada is supposed to be spending two per cent of its gross domestic product on its military. Under Harper, it's barely half that and, according to the Globe and Mail, defence spending is at its lowest level since the end of the Second World War. Yet Harper loves to be seen talking tough to Russia's Vladimir Puton about Ukraine and Arctic sovereignty. He's little more than the chihuahua that barks up a storm at the pit bull on the other side of the fence.
He's also completely fumbled the process to get new fighter jets for the air force and the price tag has just continued to climb.
Yet it's Harper's handling of veterans that could come to haunt him and his candidates on the campaign trail next fall.
The government has closed numerous veterans affairs offices in Canada, including the ones in Prince George and Kelowna. While Harris insisted last December that he has not received a single complaint to his office from an area veteran saying they want service and can't get it, local veterans weren't impressed.
"It's not just here in Prince George but all across the country and our veterans are not getting the service they need," said Legion 43 branch president Bruce Gabriel, a 21-year veteran, last year. ""We need to know that our people are looked after and we need to have those offices open with people in them who have passion for the veterans."
It didn't help that Harris and his fellow Conservatives tried to dismiss the protests against the closure of the veterans affairs offices as the work of public sector unions trying to save the cushy jobs of their members. While the Public Service Alliance of Canada certainly did take up the cause, both locally and nationally, veterans affairs staff would certainly have more experience and knowledge dealing with the needs of area veterans than area MPs.
Furthermore, the Conservatives were slow to react to the growing problem of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) seen amongst veterans. To be fair, this was a cultural problem within the military itself but the government did not help senior military leadership move on this issue as quickly as it should have and that inaction had local consequences. Greg Matters was shot by police in the driveway of his Pineview home in 2012, ending a 30-hour standoff. Matters, a 15-year-veteran, wasn't diagnosed with PTSD until after he left the forces in 2009.
The auditor-general's report Tuesday details how fully the Conservatives failed Matters and other veterans on the PTSD file, with typical government bureaucracy, extensive paperwork and long wait times for those seeking treatment and benefits.
Knowing the auditor-general's report was coming and wouldn't be flattering, the Conservatives decided to throw money at the problem, unveiling more than $200 million in new spending for veterans causes in the days before Tuesday's report. In other words, all the protests by veterans and their supporters were worth nothing but an embarrassing analysis by the government watchdog was worth $200 million in damage control.
Meanwhile, Veterans Affairs Minister Julian Fantino wasn't even in the country Tuesday. He was in Italy, attending ceremonies to mark the 70th anniversary of the Allied campaign to free that country from Axis countrol.
The Harper Conservatives are really no different from that fellow who impersonated a decorated veteran on Remembrance Day in Ottawa. They love to wear poppies and be seen attending ceremonies but do little and spend even less to support the military and its veterans.
