Armed Forces Day!

Not perhaps since the Korean War has the Canadian Army been singled out as the one branch of Canada's military that must be equipped properly for a change. Ralph Goodale's budget of Wednesday was a coming out party for the much neglected Canadian Armed Forces.

When Goodale rose to deliver his financial plans no doubt mess halls at Army bases were at attention awaiting the good news for the long suffering troops. But for their counterparts in Air force and Navy Blues Wednesday was not a day of great celebration, with it's Army first tone the other two branches are suddenly relegated to bus driver status, they can look forward to new equipment as well, but the task will be to make sure the Army can get to where it's needed. Farewell flyboys and Bon Voyage to the fleet, this budget was for the grunts who will probably have a quick step to their marching for the next little while!

Normally subjected to belt tightening and broken promises at budget time, this year's financial blue print has a heavy olive green presence to the numbers. Providing the largest increase in military funding in over twenty years.

13 billion dollars will be spent over five years to bring the Canadian Armed Forces back into the modern era of military equipment. More troops for the Army and more reserves to back them up were two of the key planks, as Goodale addressed a growing problem of over extended troops constantly being sent abroad to wave our flag.

After that the Army is take care of the plan is to provide new helicopters, arctic aircraft perhaps even an amphibious transport ship to move troops in a timely manner to international hot spots. But all of that is the long term plan. One surprising omission was any mention of transport aircraft for the Armed Forces, we need think back only a month and the debacle of our DART expedition to realize we need some reliable heavy lift, yet somehow that has not been tagged as must get just yet. Of course perhaps it will come up when the much anticipated Defense Paper is released in the next few weeks. Bill Graham's document is set to chart a course for Canada's military for the next ten years and should go a long way to help spend the 13 billion dollars put aside today for the Generals at NDHQ.

Short term it's spare parts and repairs to aging infrastructure that is to be taken care of.

And while newly installed Chief of Defence General Rick Hillier might be pretty happy with the sudden affection for his troops, it's a case of show him some money. The 13 billion dollar amount sounds nice, but initially the money will arrive in a slow trickle. Only 500 million is tagged for the Forces in this year, most of that to go to salaries and parts. On top of that, some of this "new" money is actually "old" money from cancelled plans, drydocked ships and such. Not quite the giant step forward it's proclaimed to be, but hey any move forward has to be a bonus for the long taxed military.

The big ticket items come a little further along in the Martin government mandate, which if we all remember is a minority government at the moment. It's easy to promise billions of dollars down the line if you may not be around to actually have to deliver on your word.

Over the years the Armed Forces have been promised many things, only to have the "plans" change as the political fortunes would wane for the government of the day. And while they probably won't want to look a gift horse in the mouth here, the folks in Canada's military may wish to sit back and wait to see if they are delivered all that they have been promised.

While Canada's military history is long in valour it is equally lengthy in broken promises. Many a soldier has put in his twenty years and never seen a promise kept. They'll stand on guard for us day after day, but they no doubt will cast a suspicious eye at their political masters.

Today's budget was a welcome change and finally a bit of recognition to a much forgotten but frequently needed department. Lets hope the government sticks to the plan and delivers as promised Wednesday afternoon.