POLITICAL LOWLIGHTS OF 2014 – #2: The Conservatives’ Shameful Treatment of our Veterans

In 2014, we saw a Conservative government plagued by scandals, out of touch with challenges facing Canadians and preoccupied with photo-ops and their own partisan interests. Meanwhile, Justin Trudeau’s Liberals fail to hold Conservatives to account and, after two years, we still have no idea where they stand on key issues.

A year’s worth of scandals and ineptitude condensed into our annual list of the top political lowlights of the year... LOWLIGHT #2: The Conservatives’ shameful treatment of our veterans

When Julian Fantino skipped a meeting with veterans rather than hear their concerns, Canadians thought it couldn’t get worse, but the Conservatives’ poor treatment of veterans sunk to new lows in 2014:

• While Canadian military personnel and veterans face an unprecedented mental health crisis, Fantino closed 9 regional offices and fired hundreds of frontline workers, forcing veterans to drive hours to receive service or call a 1-800 number;
• Nearly a quarter of total staff have been cut from the department since 2009, most of whom helped veterans access disability, health and pension benefits;
• While $1.13 billion in dedicated funding for veterans was left unused, Fantino made sure that senior officials were given huge bonuses for making devastating job and spending cuts;
• In a failed attempt to deflect attention from the Auditor General’s revelations that Canadian veterans don’t have proper access to mental health services, Fantino announced $200 million over six years – but with a catch: it was actually over 50 years;
• Even with unspent money left in the Veterans Affairs budget, a quarter of veterans who applied for mental health benefits between 2006 and 2014 were denied.

All this, and Conservatives have the audacity to stand in the House and say they “make no apologies”.

Canadians deserve better. And after nine years of Stephen Harper, Canadians just can’t afford to wait for Justin Trudeau to get ready.

Tom Mulcair’s New Democrats can be trusted to hold Conservatives to account while fighting for families and proposing common sense solutions for issues they are facing every day.