Pass the message

Nice Ottawa Citizen editorial today. Feel free to forward it on to your individual MP to ensure they get the message.

Support the troops

We also have great sympathy for their families and we want our political leaders to respect that emotion.

Which means that decisions about when to lower flags for example or about how much is appropriate for the government to pay for a military funeral become fraught with difficult political calculations that should be handled clearly, openly and without partisanship.

But that is not what is happening. Our political leaders in the House of Commons are discrediting themselves in the meritless accusations and jibes that are flying across the chamber. It is not becoming for Canadians to witness the prime minister, who has never served in uniform, trading insults with the opposition leader, who has also never served.

Canadians deserve honest dealing with the issues that surround our fallen heroes, but we are not getting it.