- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 210
pbi said:Yes...well...consider the two locatoins you're referring to here....
Cheers
Could you amplify?
pbi said:Yes...well...consider the two locatoins you're referring to here....
Cheers
Centurian1985 said:Could you amplify?
OK, I'll try: "CONSIDER THE TWO LOCATIONS YOU'RE REFERRING TO HERE !!!"Centurian1985 said:Could you amplify?
Centurian1985 said:PBI, are you implying that Alberta is pro-military while BC is anti-military? ??? If so, I would strongly disagree!
Well, hello, I grew up in BC as well, did reserves there and later joined the reg force, and I completely disagree.Hmmm, I grew up in BC and joined the Reserves and the Reg Force there as well
Havent been to Nanoose, but have been to Victoria/Esquimalt, Nanaimo, Comox, Chilliwack (all military towns) and a hundred small towns across the province. Now, are you talking about local residents and shop-keepers, or the local beatnik culture who picked mushrooms and went on environmental crusades, or the guys you ran into at bars who saw you as competition for local female attention? Because yes the beatniks and civi guys at bars would definately be hostile. I will admit seeing anti-military sentiments in three places: Victoria, Vancouver and Chilliwack. Victoria and Vancouver are well known Liberal strongholds, but the rest of the province in mostly conservative or NDP. Chilliwack is in the 'bible belt' and was probably influenced by decades of young trainees from the local base tearing into town, getting drunk, and getting their daughters pregnant. That tends to annoy parents of said daughters in all parts of the country, not just BC. I, and many of my fellow soldiers, also encountered this same attitude at numerous bars in Calgary, Edmonton, Lethbridge and Wainwright. Does this mean that Alberta is anti-military? No, it means that male bar patrons dont like us military guys with steady paychecks and snappy uniforms stealing away the women they see as 'theirs'. (Very much a caveman image but thats how it is). I also recall being in Ottawa and a local guy got into an argument with our guys over his perception of mis-use of military property. Does this mean that Ottawa is anti-military?I would have to agree that BC'ers only tolerate the military to the extent that they give a whole lot of jobs to a few areas - otherwise you haven't been around Esquimalt, Nanoose or Comox, especially back in the nuke days when it was like a hippy feeding frenzy out there.
I'm sorry but this does little to support your argument. A great many soldiers would also be angry at your throwing t-flashes into a creek and would not have hesitated to call the police, never mind how 'hippies' reacted. I also knew a 3VP soldier back in the late 1980's who would get dressed in camoflauge and illegally hunt deer with pistols in the northern island area, and it didnt impress me then either. Call me old-fashioned but I dont call that responsible soldiering.I can remember some hippy freaking out at us "mortaring fish" in a creek one day (tossing tflashes into somewhere NO fish could live, much less spawn) because we were disturbing his poetry writing.
No sarcasm or any negative comment on this - Im glad they were out there, you and the rest of our guys deserved it. Personally, I've come 'home' to many areas of the country and the only reception I ever cared about, or got, was the missus waiting for me once I got off the plane. Might have been nice to have seen a band or a senior officer for a change. Oh wait, one time the RCMP and customs guys let us bring in our extra cigarettes for free because they didnt have the proper tobacco rates on hand (thats their story and they're sticking to it!).When I was posted in Calgary, we got a nice welcome home from Yugo in 94 and nobody called me a babykiller or any other foolish thing while I was there.
you sum up, and do a search. There are literally pages of troops complaining about the shabby treatment they receive in BC, and the positive ones they receive in Alberta.Sumup! - I may be biased or possibly just never ran into a person who acted that way towards me. But I'm willing to hear evidence - Is there anyone else out there with negative experiences in BC?
Kat Stevens said:Well, I spent 14 of my 23 years in Chilliwack. The only time that anyone gave a flying rodents rectum about us was when the closure was announced and the gravy train pulled out, headed east to a place that welcomed us with open arms. I was raised in BC too, and it pains me to say this.
Centurian1985 said:I was asking pbi, but since you replied...
pbi said:Well, well, light a match and walk away, and look what happens! Sorry about that.... I thought my little innuendo would be understood immediately for the broad stereotype that it was.
While Centurian (as is the professional wont of his trade) is quick to warn us against thoughtless generalization (thereby depriving me of 50% of the things I post here..), I didn't speak without experience. I served in 3PP at Work Point Barracks, Esquimalt, 1983-86, and in 1PP Calgary 1989-1997. As MarkC (whom I stomped the rainforests of the Island with at least once...) and others have commented, the Island was not a particularly pro-military place. In fact, I think that (short of York U) it represented the largest collection of anti-military crackpots in Canada. (I wish I had invested in a VW bus repair shop...)Alberta, on the other hand, was with very few and rare exceptions a welcoming place. Calgary was offering a warm reception to returning units before it became the fairly widesprad practice that it is today.
medicineman said:The episode I alluded to with our T-Flashes was in fact an authorized CF exercise with a must expend order in an area we were authorized to do so in. Enough said about that - other than the fact the connaisseur of granola concerned very rudely refused our assistance to either help him across the creek concerned and then our attempts to at least tell him the safe route across so he could talk at our OC - he ended up having a cold swim as a result. BTW, this comes from someone who was in fact studying granola munching - I'm not going to start on some of my classmates or profs though.