The Military, Metaphors, Motions and Commotions

Robert McClelland, Commander-In-Chief of the NDP blogosphere, has promoted Uncorrected Proofs to the rank of captain for my series of posts related to labour history. I'm not quite sure the military metaphor works, but the recognition is welcome. Speaking of the military, a colleague of mine recently lamented via e-mail that Canadians seem as obsessed as Americans with "supporting our troops". Another colleague, bewildered by what he sees as creeping Canadian patriotism blames Don Cherry and Rick Mercer for the knee-jerk support for Canada's military. Both are members of CUPE 4207, and recently ushered a motion through a union meeting asking Brock University to ban military advertising on its campus. Although I'm sure CUPE's request will ruffle feathers in both the university and the community, I don't think Canadians generally associate supporting our troops with supporting specific military missions, in Afghanistan or elsewhere. That's why I think the NDP's campaign to support the troops by bringing them home was a good message for the party. Which brings me back to Robert McClelland... read his excellent series of posts on Afghanistan here.