Prime Time Crime
(Letter to the Editors of Winnipeg Free Press, Winnipeg Sun, National Post, and Maclean's magazine
Jan. 10, 2006)
By Patrick Twomey
I have never been so insulted and enraged in my life as when I saw the new Liberal Party attack ad decrying the thought of soldiers being posted to cities. I have served this country as a soldier proudly for 14 years. I have put my life on the line and missed out on the births of my two daughters in two separate tours to Bosnia. I have come to the aid of my fellow citizens in operations for flood relief in 1996, and 1997, and the ice storm in Quebec and Ontario in 1998.
I still serve, and I would still willingly sacrifice my life to preserve the country that I love and cherish. But the Liberal Party is now suggesting that I should have no pride in my profession; that there is something sinister about the profession of arms. In a Liberal Canada soldiers like me have no place in cities. We need to be hidden away in the hinterlands where we can more easily be ignored. Is that the thanks I and my family get for the sacrifices we've made to serve this country? Do I no longer have the right to hold my head high and tell people that I am a soldier?
Patrick Twomey
Liberals release new series of attack ads
OTTAWA - A barrage of new Liberal attack ads take direct aim at Conservative Leader Stephen Harper. One of the ads however, suggesting Harper would put military personnel in Canadian cities, was later pulled, with the Liberal Party saying the ad had been circulated in error.