New veterans minister has faced hurdles

Kent Hehr caught a bullet on the streets of Calgary, not on the streets of Afghanistan or the killing fields of Bosnia. But the impact on his life was no less devastating.

“It was one of those unfortunate incidents of being in the wrong place at the wrong time,” he recently said.

Many ill and injured veterans who served overseas might relate to that.

Hehr, a star junior hockey player, was being driven home by a friend in the early hours of Oct. 3, 1991, when a car pulled alongside at a traffic light. Someone inside randomly fired a bullet that severed Hehr’s spinal cord. The shooter was later arrested.

Paralyzed from the neck down, Hehr eventually rebuilt his shattered life, becoming a lawyer, then a Liberal member of the Alberta legislature, where he held numerous shadow cabinet posts.

Canadians Veterans Advocacy founder Mike Blais said he was surprised when Hehr was named the new Veterans Affairs minister, but is optimistic that Hehr will be a forceful and compassionate minister.

“I didn’t know who he was when I first heard his name today,” Blais said Wednesday. “He is disabled so he must understand what it’s like — understand what it’s like to be a wounded soldier, at least indirectly.”

Hehr, 45, has a basketful of Liberal promises to deliver to veterans.

First among them will be the reopening of nine regional Veterans Affairs offices closed by the Conservatives, and the hiring of 400 more staff to deliver more efficient, speedier services.

Crucially, the Liberals have promised to amend the New Veterans Charter and immediately re-establish the lifelong pension option for veterans.