Army wins Grey Cup?

The British Columbia Lions won the 94th Grey Cup yesterday in Winnipeg, defeating the Montreal Alouettes 25 to 14. The game was marked by a tight defensive struggle, Paul McCallum's record-tying 6 field goals, a spirited halftime performance by Nelly Furtado, and the largest military deployment in Grey Cup history.

The Canadian Armed Forces were a noticeable presence during Grey Cup week as they wrapped up their year-long 'Operation Connection'. While the military claims the operation isn't necessarily a recruiting campaign, this page considers it a stroke of genius on their part to stake out a position between the beer tent and the cheerleader autographs tent: Now that's taking advantage of people who aren't thinking clearly. Of course it's all about recruiting, why does the military need to promote itself? Is there a competing Canadian military, some sort of WestJet military? Call me unpatriotic, but this page doesn't see any use in promoting the military beyond recruiting: some of us stroll by City Hall, see the Maple Leaf flag flying from the roof and assume that the military are doing their job.

Strangely enough, with all the jet fighter fly-bys and players posting for photo-ops on top of tanks, nobody mentioned the 'A-word'. In fact, CBC Sports declined the requisite look-in at our troops in Kandahar. Even more strangely, the MVP in yesterday's game was Lions' quarterback Dave Dickenson, who is the son of anti-war activist and Montana State Legislator Sue Dickenson (D - MT District #25). If Rick Hillier and Stephen Harper aren't noticing that Americans are sick of Bush's phony wars to the point that Democrats can take control of Montana, putting Canada on the same kind of militaristic cultural footing isn't making much of a connection.