Monday, April 04, 2011

Interesting veterans proposal from the Liberals

Liberals:
A Liberal government would offer Canadian Forces veterans full support for as long as four years of college, university, or technical college, party leader Michael Ignatieff said Monday.

Expanding in Halifax on a plank in the party platform released Sunday, Ignatieff said it would also provide a significant boost for recruitment as the forces try to step up enrollment. The program would:

  • Cover a veteran's full schooling costs, including tuition, books, accommodations and living expenses, for as long as four years of post-secondary education or technical training after completion of their service.
  • Be available to any serving member or future member of the Canadian Forces who is honourably discharged. It would also be available to spouses if the veteran is unable to use the benefit.
This idea still leaves a lot of questions, such as who would be considered a "new veterans who have recently left the forces." Within the past year, five years, decade? Does it cover regular and reserve force members?

Whatever the case, it certainly blows the Conservative's piss ignorant "we'll help them get construction jobs" budget line out of the water.

2 comments:

Beijing York said...

As with so much else, the Contempt Party lifted the "helmets to hardhats" initiative directly from the US government.

http://info.helmetstohardhats.org/content/index.jsp

Alison said...

The Cons policy insults veterans, in that it supposes they are only fit to be construction workers. What if their talents are for teaching, accounting, computers etc? While construction work pays well, is necessary and requires certain skills, it is not for everyone. I can't imagine female vets taking up the hardhat route in droves. Although I do see increasing numbers of women in the industry, they are still a tiny minority. Disclosure, my job requires a lot of time on building sites.