Vandoos and Football
This past Thursday I attended the home opener of the Als at Molson Stadium with some 1700 soldiers, the Vandoos from Valcartier. The idea apparently was to endear Canada’s famous World War II soldiers to Quebeckers.
It was somewhat bizarre I must say seeing some 1700 soldiers packing both end-zones and acting, well, like soldiers when presented with beer, football and cheerleaders.
My girlfriend, who’s never attended a football game, turned to me and said “are they always here like that?”. I had to chuckle. “Um, no, not in the 30 years my father’s been taking me to football games”.
A recent poll has shown that Quebeckers are unfavorable to the war in Afghanistan by a figure of 70%. I can’t help but think that this will grow once our boys from Quebec begin to come home in coffins.
Because this is exactly what I was thinking when I watched our soldiers drink beer, smoke cigarettes, cheer on the Als and generally lose their heads every time a cheerleader ran by.. I stared at them thinking if this particular soldier I was looking at would be the one that I see on the cover of my paper as being killed by a road side bomb.
My thoughts then drifted as to why we are really there and if it was really worth it.
Not so sure the PR move by the military was such a good idea.
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