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Generally speaking, the only soldiers politicians really seem to like are veterans.

That’s of course because they are no longer actively war-fighting or militaristic, and are also often one way or another injured.

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Thus, in a country that embraces the culture of the less capable and frail, they can been seen as “victims,” and indeed in this country, veterans often have been shoddily treated (Hello, Julian Fantino) by the governments that sent them off to war or peace-making, there being little pure peacekeeping any more.

So while I knew I’d heard only a little about improving the lot of veterans in this election campaign (and indeed the major parties all have a few stylish lines in their platforms about this), there has been virtually nothing said about soldiers.

There are about 100,000 serving Canada at this moment — a regular force of about 68,000 members and another 30,000 in the army, navy and air force reserves, most of them coming from the army side.