[blackdog]

I spoke with a woman in Alberta yesterday while searching for some cold weather hardy bamboo to plant here in Wisconsin. She told me that the reason Canada cannot back our coalition is that the last ten years of liberal control of their government has left them with a military that is not capable of even deploying to fight a bad cold. Other than some intelligence type op's, they have no effective military and it would embarass the politicians if they had to even symbolicaly send us some coalition forces with no training, bullets, gear, and machinery of war.

She also informed me that they are rounding up donations in her province to take out a full page ad in USA Today to express an apology for their governments lack of support.

This was just some customer service lady. A real Joannie six pack.

[anatolfz]

True; and what we have is spoken for in Afghan and Straits of Hormuz; about 3,000 people. That includes 30 or so in Iraq, another 30 or so in 'undisclosed' places.
They are trained and will act effectively though. The problem is we WON'T send poorly trained and ill-equipped people. No F-18s since the avionics are not up to snuff and therefore of no use to the coalition. Etc. What we CAN do is clear up Afghan and mind the straits.

[DrewsDad]

She told me that the reason Canada cannot back our coalition is that the last ten years of liberal control of their government has left them with a military that is not capable of even deploying to fight a bad cold.

We visited Banff last September and remember reading about what bad decisions Chretien has made in regards to the military and the Sea Kings in the Sun satire sung to Seasons in the Sun:

Sea Kings in the Sun

Goodbye papa please pray for me
My helicopter's crashing in the sea
I honestly don't mean to pout,
but my future is in doubt,
My co-pilot just fell out.
Goodbye papa it's hard to fly,
When my airframe is cracking in the sky,
For every hour in the air,
it takes them 30 to repair,
We fly these things on a dare.
We've had joy, we've had fun,
We've had Sea Kings in the sun,
But the engines are on fire,
and the Sea Kings must retire,
Goodbye Chretien my stingy one,
You could have bought the EH-101,
Instead you blew 500 mil,
Just to cancel out the bill,
Now I need an airsick pill.
We've had joy, we've had fun,
We've had Sea Kings in the sun
We'll be lucky if we reach,
a crash landing on the beach.

Canadian Pilots Sing Protest Song Over Choppers

OTTAWA (Reuters) - While their aging helicopters may hover on the verge of calamity, the creative powers of Canada's air force pilots are soaring.

Earlier this month they created fake recruiting posters to protest the government's failure to replace their creaking, 40-year-old Sea King helicopters. Now they have devised a dark ditty to bemoan their fate.

The Globe and Mail newspaper reported on Wednesday that the song -- a parody of the 1970s pop hit "Seasons in the Sun" -- was making the rounds of military bases by e-mail.

The ballad begins with the words, "Goodbye papa, please pray for me/ My helicopter's crashing in the sea," before reaching a chorus of, "We had joy, we had fun, we had Sea Kings in the sun/ but the engines are on fire and the Sea Kings must retire."

Each Sea King requires more than 30 hours of maintenance for every hour it spends in the air. Ottawa purchased 41 Sea Kings in 1961 and since then 12 have crashed, killing eight people.

A spokesman for the main Sea King base in the Atlantic town of Shearwater said the pilots had a good sense of black humor.

Plans to replace the helicopters have floundered amid accusations of dirty tricks and political favoritism, and the Sea Kings are unlikely to be replaced until July 2006 at the earliest.

[EnnisExile]

This is the BEST site on the Internet - no question!

Just a few minutes ago I posted a request for information on full-page ads being sponsored in Alberta in support of the US, as my neighbor and I both want to contribute. Then I read your post above. Thank you!

I'm hoping you can put me in touch with that other Alberta person who is collecting donations. I'll freepmail you my e-mail address and wait for your response.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

Love it! Thanks for relating that story for our benefit here on FR!