Albeit slow, I feel the government is starting to turn around. For the first time since Korea, Canadian Artillery is abroad as peacekeepers, to deter agression and protect its own troops. We have seen some brutal cuts in the last decade, but lately have started improvements. The LG1 - GIAT, the Coyote (to be used by the arty, infantry and armoured), the Leopard C2 (i believe - with the Leopard 2 turret), the Griffon. The list goes on.....
I feel the politicians are slowly seeing the light, by deplying artillery pieces to Bosnia, we have shown our ability to use weapons of mass destruction, as a deterence. In the past (peacekeeping roles) Canada has always sent the least amount of war fighting hardware possible, to show that we are not aggressors. In Kosovo we had the Coyote, which by no means is a play toy, it is a deterence. We had the Leopards, again, a tank (although mostly outgunned by the other nations)is a weapon of war,and our CF-18‘s, we showed we were willing to commit our weapons of war as deterence. And now in Bosnia, the addition of a Canadian Artillery Battery (the final weapon of mass destruction), shows that we have the ability and the means to use these weapons as deterence or show of force. Although once again the LG1 is only a 105mm, and outgunned by other NATO forces, they are manned by the excellent troops from 1 RCHA, who have proven their worth not only as artillery, but as infantry also (C Bty, went to Bosnia as C Coy - 3 PPCLI). So with the latest trends of deployments, it may be that the light at the end of the tunnel is getting bigger, and the days of the lone peacekeeper with his rifle is over. Canada‘s weapons of war, are now along side that lone peacekeeper, ready to flex its muscle.
These are just my thoughts.