The new Conservative government has taken "two important steps to restore tradition, which in nearly all cases, is the proper thing to do things" (that attitude is, to me, inherently short-sighted but not the object of this particular rant).
The Liberals started ordering the flag atop the Peace Tower at half-staff for fallen soldiers in 2002 after a friendly-fire incident in Afghanistan. I welcomed this as our country reaching a new level of social maturity, when all Canadians could grieve and reflect on the ultimate sacrifice which we demanded of them by putting them in that situation. This continued for the next three rounds of military casualties, but they chose not to extend the honour to a soldier who died in a vehicle roll-over accident. Critics immediately decried the "picking-and-choosing" attitude of the Liberal gov't, meanwhile, veterans and other military associations stated they preferred that ALL fallen comrades be honoured on Nov.11 (which makes a lot of sense to me). The CBC's backgrounder has all the details.
Aside: there is such a thing as flag etiquette, but that's not the object of thois rant either.
Resistance to change is a normal human reaction, and typically, once the dust settles, life goes on just as happily as before. So why would the new Conservative government revert to the original tradition? Personally, I suspect they are trying to lull Canadians into a blissfully ignorant state, avoiding drawing any negative attention to the expanded and dangerous mission in Afghanistan. This suspicion is reinforced by today's announcement banning reporters from events marking the return of bodies of soldiers killed in the line of duty.
I agree with Kevin Newman's perspective indicating that public participation in the grieving process provides the mourning families more effective sympathy and support, helping them cope with their losses, than if they are left to deal with it alone and forgotten by the very country that caused their loss.
It just doesn't make sense to me that former politicians (PMs, cabinet ministers, governors general, etc), having served in the plushest of offices, should be honoured such after dying of natural causes, when young eager Canadians who die in the harshest of conditions protecting our social interests aren't allowed to share their final chapter.
