Canada: Big Flap Over Supporting Troops

From The Calgary Sun, a flap in a Canadian community:

VICTORIA — The annual Canada Day parade in the seaside community of Parksville, B.C., will have one less float Saturday because a local group opposes what it calls the American-dominated military theme of this year’s parade.

The decision by the Parksville and District Chamber of Commerce, to sell T-shirts with the message Support Our Troops has started an ideological war of words in this normally tranquil tourism and retirement community about 150 km northeast of Victoria.

The decision to sell T-shirts, for $10 each, was made to raise money to offset parade costs and send a message to Canadians serving in the military that people in Parksville were thinking about them on Canada Day, chamber president Cheryl Dill said yesterday.

But the Oceanside Coalition for Strong Communities says the T-shirts are an open endorsement of American military policy, which many Canadians do not support even though Canadian troops are stationed in Afghanistan.

The coalition had no choice but to pull its float — a puppet show popular with children — in protest from the Parksville parade, spokesman Rick Sullivan said.

“That phrase has become associated with the critical, unthinking, blind support of the American position in Afghanistan and Iraq,” he said.

Dill said the chamber of commerce did not intend to ignite a political battle when it decided to sell the shirts on Canada Day.

We are glad that the anti-American types left in a snit, rather than being pandered to by the rest of the residents of this little community.

U.S. liberals claim that they support the troops. In reality, many think pretty much like these leftist Canadians. Not liking the war, they really want want our troops to lose.