Voting veterans organized, angry, but don’t all agree
Many of the younger veterans see Conservative policies as callous
Veteran Mike Collins is a voter the Conservatives should be able to count on, no questions asked.
“I’m 40 years old, retired military, and I live on a farm in the middle of nowhere,” he says. “I should be a slam-dunk for these guys.
“But vote Conservative? Not a chance.”
Like many veterans, Collins is unhappy with his treatment by the federal government. In his case, he says it’s because of a complex and restrictive benefits system that denies dental care to his six kids — coverage he had when he was still a serving soldier.
“Want to give me a campaign promise?” he says. “Give me my dental back. I appreciate the gratitude for my service, but gratitude is also about making sure my family gets looked after.”
Collins, who served 14 years, including a 2002 deployment to Bosnia, is scathing in his view of The New Veterans Charter, introduced in the dying days of the Paul Martin Liberal government and adopted by the Conservatives shortly after they took office in 2006.
It provides younger veterans varying amounts in lump-sum payments, in lieu of the lifetime pensions older veterans still get, creating what many see as a twotier system of benefits that shortchanges the younger generation. The government, says Collins, decided it was “easier and cheaper to throw money” at young, wounded veterans than to deal with their physical and mental suffering.
Collins is one of 685,300 Canadian veterans: 75,900 from the Second World War, 9,100 from the Korean War and 600,300 from subsequent peacekeeping missions and conflicts, including at least 40,000 younger Afghanistan war vets. Include their immediate and extended families, and Canada’s veterans represent a potentially formidable group of voters — a fact not lost on the politicians vigorously courting them in advance of voting day, Oct. 19.
There’s no evidence veterans vote as a bloc, but many are angry at Stephen Harper’s Conservatives for what they say are callous policies that have left mentally and physically injured Afghanistan veterans and their families struggling with postwar life.
The legacy of former veterans affairs minister Julian Fantino’s public spats with veterans also lives on, despite his replacement earlier this year with backbencher — and veteran — Erin O’Toole.
One national veterans group is going for the political jugular with an ABC campaign — Anybody But Conservatives — and is active in socalled “swing ” ridings, trying to get voters to unite behind one of the opposition parties in order to deny victory to the local Tory.
Another group — The Canadian Veterans Advocacy — has launched an apolitical campaign, simply urging people who haven’t voted in recent elections to do so.
Even the 300,000-member Royal Canadian Legion, which traditionally has a politically neutral stance, has issued a position paper titled Veterans Matter.
The Legion believes veterans deserve improved benefits and that Veterans Affairs Canada needs an overhaul. For instance, it urges a review of the standard “under which one case manager is assigned to 40 veterans.”
It doesn’t mention a key flashpoint for some veterans: the Conservative government’s closing of nine Veterans Affairs offices across the country, 89 job cuts that saved $3.8 million (an amount, one veterans group said, that was more or less the same as what government later spent on self-congratulatory TV ads during the hockey playoffs).
Nor does it mention the classaction lawsuit launched in British Columbia against the government by six injured Afghan veterans in which they claim the New Veterans Charter violates their rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The government is fighting the B.C. case, which is on hold until after the election, and at last count had spent $700,000 on it.
Tom Beaver, chair of the ABC movement, said his members are more or less split between the NDP and Liberals, and he wants more specifics from both about what they would do to better serve veterans.
‘We tried, tried and tried to work with the Conservative government on many occasions,” he said. “They think they have the whole picture and they don’t want to share it with anybody. There’s no way you can work with a government like that.”
Canadian Veterans Advocacy president Mike Blais said his group decided not to join the ABC movement and is focusing instead on encouraging people to vote. Yet he makes it clear where he stands personally.
“In the last election, 40 per cent of the population didn’t vote,’ he said. “Their voices were silent, and because of that we ended up with a government that doesn’t reflect the will of the population.
“It’s vital we get at least half of that 40 per cent vote,” he added, “because I believe that none of them will vote for Mr. Harper.”
But no one speaks for all veterans. A Calgary-based group, Veterans For the Conservative Party of Canada, emerged last week accusing anti-Harper vets of being “cowards” for not suggesting a specific alternative.
Blais characterized the group as older veterans happy with their lot and not concerned with the welfare of younger vets.
Chris Dupee, founder of the online help group Military Minds, and recently released from the army, said he detects no political consistency among his peers.
“I see a lot of divide in the veteran community,” he said.
But he agrees that the lump-sum payments in The New Veterans Charter are problematic.
“I’ve seen 23-year-olds with PTSD get $50,000 after being kicked out of the military. He’s got the rest of his life to figure out, but the government washes its hands of him with 50K. How’s that going to last with someone who has PTSD? It’s one car, one good party, and then it’s gone.”
In May, the Conservatives introduced legislation to address some key concerns of veterans, including a retirement benefit and injury awards for severely disabled soldiers, and a proposed $7,238 caregivers benefit.
Last month, they also proposed a veterans’ identity card, a Legion idea they say will create a smoother experience at VAC offices.
The Conservatives said the legislation would “recognize and fulfil the obligation of the people and government of Canada to show just and due appreciation to members and veterans for their service to Canada.”
The NDP and Liberals also have plans, developed with significant veteran input.
The NDP is pledging to spend $450 million on veterans’ services over four years. The Liberals pledge $1.3 bil lion.
A major difference is the Liberal pledge to re-introduce pensions for those who choose them — a plan NDP veterans critic Peter Stoffer says is basically an admission that The New Veterans Charter is a failure.
The NDP says it will review the lump-some payment system but won’t re-introduce pensions for all, opting instead to improve other benefits. The charter is a good idea that’s gone from bad to worse under the Conservatives, said Stoffer, and can be improved to make veterans significantly better served.
“One veteran, one standard,” he said.
“The care for veterans will start when they are still in uniform,’ he said, “so that before you leave military you will have your health and personnel file, be introduced to a DVA officer, and that officer will be the only person you will deal with. You won’t have to explain your story to 10 different people.”
Retired lieutenant-general Andrew Leslie, running as a “star candidate” for the Liberals in Orléans after a 35-year military career, said his party is also proposing the creation of two centres of excellence specializing in mental health for veterans, RCMP officers and others who might benefit, including first responders.
He says the veterans charter has positives and acknowledges that the Conservatives have improved it. But it isn’t enough, he said.
“There is more than one group among the veterans,” he said. “Those who have pensions are less unhappy than younger veterans, and so most of our energy will be focused on fixing the problems with the charter based on nine or 10 years’ hard experience.
It all amounts to unprecedented attention to veterans and unprecedented involvement by veterans groups in a Canadian election, said University of Toronto political scientist Nelson Wiseman.
“We’ve never seen the like during an election,’ Wiseman said. “Veterans groups are marshalling their forces, and I think the preponderance of their votes will go against the Conservatives.”
Earlier this year, retired warrant officer Barry Westholm quit the Conservatives and returned his original Reform Party membership card signed by founding leader Preston Manning.
Westholm said he remains a Conservative at heart but said he’s tired of seeing veterans treated like political objects when dozens around him are suffering and some committing suicide.
Many have given up on Veterans Affairs, relying instead on help from fellow vets, said veteran Mike Collins.
“Without a nationwide grassroots movement of veterans helping veterans, hundreds would have no support at all,” he said. “I am my brother’s keeper. That’s how it is, and that’s how it has had to be.”
It’s become common in the last decade: personal attacks, fear mongering and divisive wedges ... Now, sustained over a long period of time, that kind of thing changes us.
Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau