Has anyone ever noticed?

[Gunner]

Honestly I would call them an politicaly easy to ignore farce, but that's my oppinion.

Call them a farce if you want to but if it wasn't for SCONDVA all the nice pay raises from the late 90s and quality of life programs you are now using may not exist.  So say its a farce all you want but the reality of the situation is a lot different. 

The VCDS testified before SCONSAD in Dec and verbally stated that the government had not given the CF any marching orders to prepare for the new 5,000 recruits.  It prompted the government to act on their election pledge.

 

[HollywoodHitman]

"a certain grasp of military affairs is vital for those in charge of general policy."
- Karl von Clausewitz

 

[MC]

While as many have mentionned proving your worth at war will most definately not make you a great politicia,, I still hold a lot of admiration for the old "soldier, scholar, statesman" model. Wouldn't you tend to respect a politician more if they had respectable experience in "real life", such as the army, especially those who come from more wealthy families. I have to say that I hold a negative prejudice against career politicians, like most of the big shots we have here in Canada. For me, politics is for once you are older and have had experience with life.

 

[Gunner]

While as many have mentionned proving your worth at war will most definately not make you a great politicia,, I still hold a lot of admiration for the old "soldier, scholar, statesman" model. Wouldn't you tend to respect a politician more if they had respectable experience in "real life", such as the army, especially those who come from more wealthy families. I have to say that I hold a negative prejudice against career politicians, like most of the big shots we have here in Canada. For me, politics is for once you are older and have had experience with life.

MC - I agree with your desire to have more amateur politicians (ie those that made it in the world first).  The Shiela Copps, Jack Layton, Jean Creten, etc, etc make my teeth ache whenever I hear them speak.  However, having said that, there are some very talented politicians in Parliament that have been extremely successful prior to their political career.  Once in Ottawa, the parliamentary apparatus sucks everyone into its vortex and spits out adherents of strict party doctrine.  The voters and media don't encourage or forgive these capable politicians and allow them to make mistakes in order to develope (Why in God's name are the Liberals still in power??).  Bottom line is we have allowed ourselves to be taken over by the media and the governmental demands for professional polticians...

Sorry for the rant. 

 

[Infanteer]

Which is why I've consistently argued that we, as a representative democracy, would benefit a counter-weight of smaller-scale, shorter-term direct democracy to allow more "amateurs" into the political arena.