Giving Credit Where Due...

National Post editorial board: Our (new) military

Posted: January 16, 2010, 8:30 AM by NP Editor

When we first sent troops to Afghanistan, they had to hitch a ride with the Americans. In 2004, when we sent a team of medics and engineers to Sri Lanka following the Boxing Day tsunami, they had to wait for days until we could pay a transport company to fly them to the disaster in old Russian aircraft. For most of the decade before the Tories came to power in 2006, our peacekeepers and troops had to endure the indignity of thumbing a ride to the world’s hotspots. We had the will to help, but not the means.

But now, that has changed.

Thanks to Tory efforts to rebuild our military, within 24 hours of Tuesday’s devastating earthquake in Haiti, Canada had aid flights heading to that beleaguered country. Within 48 hours, the first 272 Canadians stranded there were in the air on their way home to Montreal.

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