After serving 15 years, and receiving superior PERs my entire career, It was decided in less than 2 months that I was to be medically released after being diagnosed with osteoarthritis in my left knee, resulting from an injury that occurred in the Persian Gulf , before any treatment was sought, before surgery was even considered necessary. Yes, I was pissed, especially after hearing of a young private that lost his leg in an motorcycle accident was being kept in with a prosthetic leg. After being released from the CF in 2006, I have been doing nothing but fighting for treatment, as my OA progressed rapidly and have had three unsuccessful knee surgeries, but no total knee replacement for another 20 years or so, yet VAC will not pay for the pain medications that my doctor has prescribed, they put me on VIP, but only gives me $400.00 per year for lawn care and snow removal, so basically I can only have my lawn cut 10 times and do the shoveling my self, or let the grass grow and have my driveway shoveled, not both. Then when someone tries to fix the issues that affect me directly (veterans first motion), Harper and his entire conservative party vote against it. Then even though it passed with unanimous support of all opposition parties, the Tories fail to act on it, blatantly disregarding the will of the people.
And what exactly has Harper done to improve the lives of serving members? They increased funeral funds, WOW!. He promised a northern naval base that nobody will want to go to, way to go. They purchased heavy lift aircraft to support troops in Afghanistan, but we all know it takes years to go through the process, so that was probably started by Oconner's predecessor. They did extend FSP to injured soldiers even if repatriated, but only after public outcry. Believe me, I still have friends and family in uniform, so I want the best for those still serving, I just don't see it coming from Harper, he's too busy campaigning and mud slinging at Dion to actually follow through with many of his promises. In the House of Commons, whenever an Mp asks a question about when they plan on acting on any of their promises, most of the time all you'll hear as a response is "Well, after 13 years of liberal inaction, we are doing things. We are getting the job done." no real answer, just a jab at the Liberals, they're very good at that. If questioned about spending, they bring up what the liberals spent, if questioned about the procurement process and competitive bidding on contracts, they bring up Adscam. When questioned about Afghan detainees in the jails, they say they support the troops, even though nobody ever accused Canadian soldiers of mistreatment, it happened after the hand-over to local authorities, which is, IMO, a slap in the face to each and every soldier that is over there, for the tories to use them as a political smoke screen. Being in power isn't a license to be corrupt, just as long as their not as corrupt as the last guys. Corruption is corruption, and obviously transparency, to the Tories mean hiding all the numbers in plain sight as long as you submit an ATIP request. Incompetent ministers shouldn't be shuffled to lower profile jobs, like O'conner and Oda, they should be punted to the back row and told to shut up.
Yes, there are some issues that require MPs to follow the party line, but for the most part, votes should be made with the MP's constituents in mind, on things such as non binding motions and private members bills, after all, they were put there by us, so why should we accept the person we voted in to follow blindly on legislation that is detrimental to our communities.
And based on the responses thus far, I can tell there are not many disabled veterans in this forum, who have joined in the campaign against SISIP, VAC and the Governments blatant disregard for our well being. If you guys like Harper that much, just wait to see if he ever gets a majority Government, I have a feeling you'll live to regret it. I'm not against the conservatives, I'm against Harper and his style of politicking, because he needs to stop saying that he's getting the job done and actually do it.