VERITAS: FUMBLE - ADOBE LOSES PR WAR IN A FLASH

This week's perspective from com.motion:

Right from their launch, the video viewing software Flash (made by Adobe) hasn’t been available on any mobile Apple device – neither the iPhone nor the iPad. In fact, Flash isn’t available on any mobile phone at the moment. Being the current leader in the mobile space, Apple has been the centre of attention during a debate between Apple, Microsoft and Google fans, including a more pointed debate amongst developers working on devices for one or all three of those mobile phone makes. This week, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs issued a statement clearly delineating why Apple has not yet implemented Flash. Given the attacks and misinformation rife in the debates, this was an opportunity for Apple to clarify its position – something which I believe was effectively achieved through Jobs’ statement. This puts Adobe in the awkward position of defending its aging and poorly performing platform. Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen quickly arranged an interview with the Wall Street Journal to respond to Jobs’ letter, however was only able to suggest simply that he disagreed with Jobs and that consumers will decide. Unfortunately for Adobe, consumers are deciding – in droves – as they buy millions of iPhones and iPads and developers continue to move away from Flash and towards others like HTML5 and open standards. By failing to provide a more detailed response, addressing Jobs’s technical accusations, Flash has basically affirmed Jobs’ claims.

VERITAS: TOUCHDOWN - NEVER APOLOGIZE, NEVER EXPLAIN

This week's perspective from Joe Chidley:

From Tiger Woods and Mel Gibson to Akio Toyoda and Bernie Madoff, images of famous, powerful men apologizing have become a mainstay of popular culture—an iconography of shame. So it was refreshing to watch the stubborn refusal of Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein to beg forgiveness before a U.S. Senate panel this week. The hearings followed the Securities and Exchange Commission’s mid-April move to charge the investment bank with fraud over alleged double-dealing of mortgage-related debt instruments a few years ago. Goldman categorically denies the allegations as “completely unfounded,” and CEO Lloyd Blankfein stuck to script as he was grilled by congressmen about financial arrangements and deals far too complex to be discussed here. Suffice to say, what the US government calls double-dealing, Blankfein calls prudent hedging against risk, without which Goldman could have gone the way of Bear Stearns, Lehman Bros. and the dodo. In the politically charged public arena of a Senate panel hearing—where politicians clamour to denounce the alleged wrongdoer in what BusinessWeek astutely calls “the theater of aggressive reform”—Blankfein could not reasonably foresee any kind of PR victory beyond maintaining his dignity. By sticking to his guns, he managed that, at least. Touchdown, Lloyd Blankfein.

VERITAS: FUMBLE - OPENING 'BIGOTGATE"

This week's perspective from Joe Chidley:

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is in the midst of an election battle for his political life. In Brown’s campaign against a strong mainstream contender (Conservative David Cameron) and a surprising upstart (Liberal Democrat Nick Clegg), the stakes are high—which makes it all the more surprising that he and his handlers would fall into the kind of amateur-hour gaffe that has created a national scandal across the pond. Earlier this week, a miked Brown was in Rochdale speaking to “real people,” among whom was a middle-aged woman who voiced some concern about the UK’s immigration policies. The exchange over, Brown got back in his limo and muttered to his aides about his displeasure at being confronted by the woman—whom he then called “bigoted,” forgetting that his mike was still on. And so the Prime Minister of the country was left apologizing for insulting a citizen who was just expressing her views and asking questions. Welcome to “Bigotgate.” Later, on BBC Radio, Brown apologized “profusely” for what he said, but hedged his apology with a vague implication that the woman was indeed bigoted towards immigrants. And then he then laid some blame on the broadcasters who replayed what he thought was a “private conversation” in his car. Note to the PM: if the microphone is on, it ain’t private. Fumble, followed by poor attempt at recovery, Gordon Brown.

VERITAS: TOUCHDOWN - LINE OF THE WEEK

This perspective from Bob Reid:

I was shocked – shocked! – when the wheels quickly fell off reports that Noah’s Ark had been “99.9 per cent” confirmed found high up on the cliffs of Mt. Ararat, just like the good book said it was. Nothing against the bible, folks, but anything that Leonard Nimoy used to tell me all about on “In Search Of …” both hooks me in and cracks me up, i.e. killer bees, UFOs, Bigfoot and the Bermuda Triangle. I’m rooting hard every time a story on any of these arises that it will at last be vindication for the Fox Mulders of the world – but alas, it’s not to be once again it seems. A disgruntled member of the group making the claim is now spilling the beans that the whole thing was a fake, but it’s the line of archaeologist Paul Zimansky, quoted in one of the stories by National Geographic, that wins the Touchdown: “I don’t know of any expedition that ever went looking for the ark and didn’t find it,” he notes, drily. That’s gold, Jerry!

VERITAS: TOUCHDOWN - BULLOCK SHOWS HOW IT'S DONE

This week perspective from Bob Reid:


“We’ve been schooled,” was the comment of one of my sharper PR-meister friends, after Sandra Bullock’s feature spread in People magazine went public this week. Having kept completely out of the public eye since the implosion of her marriage several weeks ago, Bullock confirmed that she is divorcing husband Jesse James – AND that she has quietly adopted a young boy whom she will raise as a single parent. Bullock and James actually adopted young Louis together before things blew up after his infidelities were revealed – and, to Bullock’s credit, as my friend sagely noted, she didn’t use the adoption as any kind of “Oscar prop” to try and sway academy votes her way for Best Actress (which she won handily anyway). Also, by granting People the exclusive, she was able to tell her full story in a highly controlled, credible environment for maximum benefit. We’ve been schooled, indeed.

VERITAS: TOUCHDOWN - THS BASHES PIT BULL BAN

This week's perspective from Bob Reid:
I’m going full-on “water cooler” this week, which is really the hallmark of communications plays that matter anyway: pit bulls, Sandra Bullock and Noah’s Ark. All that’s missing are Amy Winehouse, killer bees and Bigfoot, not necessarily in that order. On the pit bull front, the embattled Toronto Humane Society got its groove back at least a little bit this week by earning some major media coverage with a good ol’ number crunch. Sometimes organizations looking to promote their brand or their issue need not look any further than the data they already have at hand – or which they can access or compile – to garner attention. The THS has long opposed the ban on pit bulls brought in by the McGuinty government, and to give the issue fresh legs, they compiled dog bite stats reported by the province’s local health integration networks (LHINs) and municipal public medical officers of health over the last ten years. The stats cover the period both pre- and post the ban, and show that since it was imposed, the incidence of dog bites overall hasn’t really changed. “It is clear that the new law has not worked. It has not reduced the number of dog bites and increased public safety. All it does is punish one breed of dogs,” said THS spokesman Ian McConachie. In a letter to the Premier, the THS is calling for the breed-specific provisions against pit bulls to be scrapped, and that the focus be placed on owners instead of the dogs themselves. “We need to educate owners about their breed and how to modify their behavioural issues through training,” said McConachie. The THS still has image problems aplenty stemming from the nasty battle with the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, but as a channel-changer away from that issue and back toward one where they have had consistency and credibility, it was a Touchdown.

VERITAS: FUMBLE - GIZMODO (BLOG)

This week's perspective from com.motion:
Everyone by now has heard that Apple's next iteration of the iPhone was lost by an Apple software engineer, found, sold to Gizmodo and ultimately posted from Gizmodo with pictures across the web. Questions were raised as to how the phone was acquired and what attempts were made to return it. Throughout it all, Gizmodo has positioned itself as the innocent man in the middle, sharing worthy news with it's readers. Their tone has been provocatively smug throughout, and they have gone so far as to edit blog post with what they have suggested to be their communications with Apple. Unfortunately, whether Apple follow through or not, it appears laws were broken and profit has been the indulgent factor at play here. Fumble to Gizmodo for nothing other than a dubious lack of honesty in the editorial process.

VERITAS: TOUCHDOWN - THE SHOWERPOOL MOVEMENT

This week's perspective from Joe Chidley:

Axe has never been shy about its value proposition to men: Start using its line of scented grooming products, and the ladies will dig you. It’s a play on the old Hai Karate ads from the early 70s, always delivered tongue-in-cheek, but a recent integrated communications initiative from Axe Canada moves the dial from promoting a product to doing some good—all the while maintaining the brand’s sense of raunchy humour. In time for Earth Day on April 22, Axe Canada launched a new “Showerpooling” campaign, which encourages people to take showers with one another to save water, the Earth’s most precious resource. The campaign includes an app on the company’s Facebook page that lets fans invite others to shower together, and features a promotional video that has some great creative about how guys who shower with women (preferably several women at once, of course) can save the planet. (Favourite line: If the water supply runs out, “many of the things we take for granted, like synchronized swimming, will disappear forever.”) At the same time, Axe released a survey of Canadians’ showering habits: Quebecers are the least receptive to the idea of Showerpooling, apparently; the average 19-to-24-year-old spends 11 minutes in the shower, and more than half of that age-group showers every day—consuming 2100 litres of water a week each. That highlights the serious side of the campaign: Axe is working with the World Wildlife Fund to “educate Canadians on ways to limit their water usage and be a better friend to the environment.” As the Globe and Mail’s Simon Houpt put it in one of the many media pickups of the campaign, “When horny men get on board, you know the green movement is here to stay.” Touchdown.

VERITAS: TOUCHDOWN - FLAHERTY AGAINST THE WORLD

This week's perspective from Joe Chidley:

Sometimes a voice in the wilderness can come across as the voice of sanity. Witness Jim Flaherty and his solo efforts to quash a proposed global tax on banks. This week, the International Monetary Fund unveiled a proposal for two new international levies on financial institutions that would help pay the costs of any future financial meltdowns a la 2008. Hold on a minute, said the Finance Minister. In a letter to the G20 and in statements in response to the IMF proposal, Flaherty argued not only that Canada does not need such a levy—its banking system emerged relatively unscathed from the recent debacle—but that such an IMF-backed fund might actually increase the “moral hazard” that leads to financial services crises in the first place (by making explicit a backstop for bank risk-taking). Instead, he has proposed a scheme that would effectively require banks to create a “systemic risk fund” of their own. Going it alone like Flaherty did might well be courageous, but it is certainly not foolhardy. For one thing, he is speaking out against a fuzzy, poorly understood and not particularly well-liked institution, the IMF. For another, arguing against a tax of any kind, let alone a bank tax, will do Flaherty no harm among his ideological constituency in the business community. He also pointed out that “this is a G20 issue, not simply a G7 issue”—reaching out to other stakeholders, especially large developing countries, whose banks either were not players in the 2008 meltdown or who were caught up in its effects through no fault of their own. And finally, his messaging—“We’re a sovereign country. We can regulate our banks and our other financial institutions as we see fit”—adheres to the axiom that all politics is local; it plays well back home. How can he lose? Touchdown.

VERITAS: FUMBLE - POT PROTESTERS GAIN ZERO CREDIBILITY

This week's perspective from Bob Reid:

Setting aside the headline-grabbing gun scare at this week’s “Marijuana March” in Toronto, I’ve got to say that while the quantity of media coverage afforded to the annual “4/20” rallies is always significant, the quality (in terms of message and positioning) the organizers get out of it stinks like so much skunk weed. Inevitably, the photos and video footage zeroes in on people dressed like giant bongs and guys in front of Queen’s Park or Parliament Hill hauling on joints the size of Cohibas. That’s all well and good if your ultimate audience is Cheech and/or Chong, but if the goal is to try and credibly lobby for changes to the criminal code, I see nothing that helps in the coverage the effort earns. Where are the credible third party voices who might speak to potential medical benefits, or how decriminalization might free up cops and courts better used on more serious matters? Duuuude …

VERITAS: TOUCHDOWN - HARPER LEVERAGES HOMOLKA CARD

This week's perspectives from Bob Reid:

The dust had barely settled regarding the outrage around the granting of a pardon for a convicted sex offender when Prime Minister Stephen Harper stirred the pardon pot all over again by noting that school-girl sex killer Karla Homolka might also be eligible for such an amnesty under the existing guidelines. The mere mention of her name generates national headlines, and Harper knew exactly what he was doing by playing that card. By raising the spectre himself, Harper was able to get in front of the issue and use it to position himself as a champion of changing the rules – had someone else brought it to the fore, it would have been a problem for the PM to have to grapple with, another issue to manage. Some commentators denounced the move as “cynical” (hello John Moore!), yet even they will admit that Harper got exactly the kind of media mileage out of it that he wanted. Touchdown.

VERITAS: FUMBLE, RECOVERY - MCGUINTY SHELVES SEX-ED REFORM

This week's perspective from Bob Reid:

“Flip-flop.” “Back-pedal.” Climb-down.” Ah, just a few of the inevitable descriptors which get thrown around any time a politician reverses gears. Having worked in the corner office at Queen’s Park for many years myself, I can empathize with the damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don’t nature of the game. Stay your course amid vocal opposition and you’re a “steamroller” who “rams through” your agenda. Bend or back off from something and you “lack leadership” and are “caving in.” Premier Dalton McGuinty found himself betwixt and between this week, one day defending and then quickly afterward shelving plans to revamp Ontario’s school curriculum with respect to sex education. It’s a political potato of the hottest type, so I give points to McGuinty for quickly dropping it altogether – not burying the plan altogether, but noting that “it’s become pretty obvious to all of us that we should give this a serious re-think.” Shelving an initiative you were championing just hours previously is an extreme move, but like quickly ripping off a band-aid, the short-term sting in a communications crisis like this is preferable to the drawn-out agony of having to fight an organized vocal opposition (read: evangelists) on an issue which tends to immediately polarize the broader public. So points for the recovery, but the other communications lesson here is the Fumble in the first place: contentious ideas have to be very carefully rolled-out to an audience, especially when there are highly motivated opponents who will not hesitate to seize control of – and define the terms of – the debate first. McGuinty and his folks should have known better.

VERITAS - FUMBLE RECOVERY - BOINGO BOUNCES BACK

This week's perspective from Joe Chidley:
This item comes to us courtesy of a Loyal Reader. (So thanks in advance, Loyal Reader, both for the item and for being, well, loyal.) Seems LR got a surprising email on the weekend of April 10 from Boingo, the world’s largest network of Wi-Fi hotspots. In it, he and thousands of other Boingo account holders were informed that their Unlimited access accounts had just been changed to pay-as-you-go accounts – a not insignificant downgrade that had account holders up in arms. A few days later, the company sent another email acknowledging that the weekend alert had been sent by mistake, and explaining that it was an internal communication never intended for wider consumption. A fine mea culpa, if a little late to the game, as our LR noted. But what made LR and a bunch of other Boingo users feeling better was the company’s inclusion in the apology a link to the corporate blog, which provided further details on the foul-up and invited users to provide feedback. Smart. And as our LR remarks, many customers ended up using the blog “to thank the offender, or put it in a context [of] ‘not the end of the world, no one died,’ etc.” Lesson: when your company has screwed up, acknowledge the mistake and then make sure you are seen as doing everything you can to help your customers and to show you care about their concerns. Nice Recovery, Boingo!

VERITAS: TOUCHDOWN - CONAN CRACKS UP (IN A GOOD WAY)

This week's perspective from Joe Chidley:

When the going gets tough, the tough launch a multimedia PR campaign. And while you might not think of pasty-faced Conan O’Brien as a tough guy, the former Tonight Show host has shown lots of PR savvy since his dumping by NBC three months ago and replacement by fellow former host Jay Leno. That dumping was unceremonious but not unlucrative: Conan collected a $32-million severance package. As part of the deal, he can’t talk to the press. But he clearly hasn’t taken this one lying down, and what could have been a career-ender has instead turned Conan into a household name. There’s a Facebook page, “I’m With Coco”—Tom Hanks’ nickname for O’Brien—and it has nearly a million fans. There’s Conan’s Twitter account, which has nearly 850,000 followers, where he tweets such deadpan bits as “I’m in Vancouver for my second show. Thought I’d stir up some controversy by wearing my hat that says ‘Canada.’” And there’s his comedy tour itself—the “Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour,” which is visiting including this week the aforementioned Vancouver. The reviews: he’s funnier than Leno. You can’t buy that kind of PR. Touchdown, Conan O’Brien.

VERITAS: FUMBLE - FEELING THE STING AT NING

This week's perspective from com.motion:

Ning is likely the biggest social network you may never have heard of. Ning has seen explosive growth in unique visitors, offering the ability to create free public or private social networks. Rather than just creating a Facebook page, for example, users could create entire social networks – customizable at a small incremental price – for their cause, organization or family and friends. Unfortunately, it seems the business model just wasn’t there. Unique visitors (eye balls, as they say), don’t necessarily translate into revenue. As a result, long time CEO and web maven Gina Bianchi was replaced by Chief Operating Officer Jason Rosenthal and the network has been forced to lay off over 40% of its stay and put a strong push behind its premium (read: paid) service. It is unfortunate when business circumstances trigger the need for immediate and transparent communications, but it happens and we’ve seen a lot of that over the past two years. In this case it seems as though Ning had blinders on, ignoring a low conversation rate of eye balls to dollars and has been forced to really change its role in the lives of its users. Moving to a premium model with unfortunately cut out a lot of the grassroots users that exist now and force Ning to justify its costs. I suspect that such drastic changes may spell more harm to the business model. Transparency and engagement with the user and developer community might help Ning get back into shape.

VERITAS: FUMBLE - ROSSI CAMPAIGN DISCLOSES POLL RESULTS

This week's perspective from Bob Reid:

The Globe & Mail contacted all of the major Toronto mayoral candidates’ campaign managers, and asked if they had – and would be willing to share – any polling data they might have on how their horse was looking in the race. (The Toronto Star gave big play to its own poll with Angus Reid finding similar results, but for this analysis I’ll focus on the sole-sourced Globe version). Most told the Globe that they didn’t have any polling. Rob Ford’s campaign said they did, but wouldn’t share beyond saying he’s “neck-and-neck” with George Smitherman. But Rocco Rossi’s campaign manager, Sacchin Aggerwall, gave the Globe pretty much the full monty. The only detail refused was the actual percentage split between candidates, but it was no issue to say that their own poll has Rossi running fourth, behind Smitherman, Ford and Joe Panatalone respectively, with Sarah Thompson fifth and Giorgio Mammoliti in sixth place. Rossi’s camp disclosed full details about other poll points, including positive-negative comparisons between him and Smitherman and other potential vote-swaying indicators. Maybe there’s a brilliant strategy here, but I’m not sure what it is, other than to potentially try and scare moderate voters by showing Ford (on the right) and Pantalone (on the left) polling strongly, and positioning Rossi as having nowhere to go but up the middle? Still, the message I took away was that things aren’t looking great for Rocco at this point and, to the contrary, Ford and Joe Pants are riding some surprisingly pretty good waves – something which may embolden fence-sitters to join them. Second, Rossi’s folks must surely have known that when a reporter calls on a fishing expedition, ponying-up data and comment will put said data firmly in the spotlight. So why feed that beast, when your numbers are less than great? Ah, politics … stay tuned.

VERITAS: TOUCHDOWN - UNION TRUMPS TTC IN OUTREACH OPTICS

This week's perpective from Bob Reid:

When I used to work in politics, I remember a fellow staffer once proudly holding up a policy document and remarking that “most people don’t read this stuff anyway – they just WEIGH it!” His point being that, to most observers, if something looks and feels substantive, well then, that must be the case. Such optics were front and centre when the Amalgamated Transit Workers Union – the rank & file TTC staff – held its first in a series of three planned town hall type public meetings, to hear first-hand the concerns and suggestions of riders about how to make the system better. And despite a smaller than expected turnout, the union scored massively in terms of media coverage and on-air chatter. Not only did they win points simply for showing up and listening, but Local 113 President Bob Kinnear led a lot of the coverage with his uncharacteristic lead-off mea culpa – going so far as to confess a particularly cringe-worthy moment from his own interaction with a TTC customer from years ago, to underscore the point that they can all do better. The willingness to listen and to admit a degree of failure by Kinnear and other union reps played out beautifully, winning the workers some significant goodwill points from the public and many commentators. And, as an added communications bonus, they managed to snatch the lead from the TTC itself and the commission’s “blue ribbon” panel of experts approach to assessing problems and potential solutions. Touchdown.

VERITAS: TOUCHDOWN - MILLER'S MESSAGE RIDES HIGH ON TTC PA SYSTEM

This week's perspective from Bob Reid:

“The medium is the message,” Marshall McLuhan famously opined. Personally, I have always found the play on words to be kind of cloying, but his point was – and remains – nonetheless valid: the channel through which you communicate has a great deal to do with how effective you’ll be at reaching your target audience with your message. David Miller is taking criticism from some political opponents, but the Toronto Mayor’s use of the TTC’s public address system to rally riders to lobby Queen’s Park for more transit funding is a communications Touchdown. Miller’s message (which has absolutely nothing new about it) is not only being heard directly by the audience most affected by the issue, but the tactic itself – helped by the controversy around it – is being amplified tremendously by the resulting earned media coverage, and getting heard far beyond the limits of the city’s subway station platforms.

ADVENTURES IN AFGHANISTAN - By Bob Reid

Bob Reid, Veritas' Chief Media Strategist, spent a week in Afghanistan recently.  Here is his report on how it came about, what he saw, what he experienced, and what he learned about Canada's mission.


THE CALL
“How about you come with us, play keyboards for our set, and then we’ll back you for ‘Highway of Heroes,’ for the troops, right there in Afghanistan?”

It was Nick Sinopoli, making the offer I couldn’t refuse. Just to get to play with The Carpet Frogs would be a huge thrill. I have been a fan – and friend of – the band for years, long before they started moonlighting as the backing band for my idol of the ivories, Burton Cummings. But to actually travel with them halfway around the world, and to perform my musical tribute to our fallen soldiers in front of several thousand troops at Kandahar Air Field?

That would be the experience of a lifetime. And it was.

Left to right:  Bob Reid, David Love, Sean Fitzsimons (drums, rear), Nick Sinopoli, Mike McDonald, Jim Nielsen

Bob performing "Highway of Heroes."  Lots of lighters aloft out in the crowd.

I wrote “Highway of Heroes” in September of 2008, and released it as a CD single last November. With help from some fantastic musicians (including Triumph legend Rik Emmett and my NewsTalk 1010 “Rock Talk” partner Blair Packham) and tremendous retail and distribution support from HMV and Universal Music Canada, the little song that could has been steaming away on the Canadian singles sales chart (#11 this week!) ever since it debuted – astonishingly – at #1 at Christmas time. It’s all tremendously gratifying to me as a songwriter, and especially since I am donating a share of proceeds to the Wounded Warriors fund - but I never in a million years would have thought that I would be so privileged as to have it bring me face to face with the men and women on the front lines.

 

TEAM CANADA 2010

The Canadian Forces have facilitated a number of “Team Canada” visits, as they’re called. They take a bunch of musicians, a bunch of former NHL stars, and even the Stanley Cup over to Afghanistan to give the troops a break from the day-to-day routine of working so hard to bring security, stability and a productive future to that country. Along with me and the Frogs, this one included musical acts Default, Alan Frew and Sam Reid from Glass Tiger, and Luke McMaster, and a raft of hockey icons including Lanny McDonald, Tiger Williams, Jamie Macoun, Chris Niland, Mark Napier and a dozen others. The NHLers played a series of ball hockey games against the troops, while we musos entertained between periods and put on a huge concert at KAF plus a smaller show at another base elsewhere in southwest Asia on the way back home.

Alan Frew, Luke McMaster and Sam Reid perform between periods at a night game.

 

 Me & Default!

Day game at KAF

  

TASK FORCE KANDAHAR

You might think it’s a long way to go for just a couple of ball hockey tilts and a rock show or two, but we were fully engaged all day, every day. We had breakfast, lunch and dinner in the mess halls with the soldiers each day – and they were very happy to tell us about the work they are doing, and to catch up on the news from home.

 

  

At other times, we were immersed in a series of briefings, seminars and hands-on demonstrations on all aspects of Canada’s mission in Afghanistan. One of the most impactful was the IED (Improvised Explosive Device) training range, where we were given a Reader’s Digest version of the training given to the Canadian troops who work “outside the wire.” We learned the grim facts of how these deadly booby-traps are made, planted and triggered, and how our soldiers are trained to spot and defeat them.

IED pressure plates made from saw-blades and other cast-off items.

Old Soviet-war era ordinance repurposed into an IED, hidden in a culvert.

We were all affected greatly by our visit to the Canadian-run hospital on the base, where wounded soldiers and insurgents alike are cared for. Many of us were moved to tears by the sight of two young Afghan children in the intensive care unit, one of whom had been critically injured by a landmine. I will never forget the cry of an innocent child, lying in a hospital bed, wounded forever by a war he’s not even old enough to comprehend.

Far more encouraging was the session led by Colonel Simon Heatherington, the deputy commander of TFK at Kandahar Air Field. He told us about the tremendous progress being made in bringing real security to this dangerous part of the country, with Canadian soldiers working in lock-step with the Afghan National Army troops they are mentoring. And, at roughly the same time as this briefing, news reports were being written about just how empowered the Afghan people are becoming to reject the Taliban themselves. We also learned about Canada’s three priority projects: rebuilding the Dalha Dam which will create thousands of jobs and irrigate a massive part of the region for agriculture; eradicating polio among the Afghan population; and building 50 new schools to help educate the nation’s children. Canada’s combat role is just one aspect of the much larger and arguably more important task at hand.

PEOPLE WE MET

This is me with my new friend Sean Wilson, a civilian working at KAF, whose brother Mark was killed in action in 2006. Read a news story about Sean from just a few days ago here.

SOME FINAL THOUGHTS

It has been a long, tough haul for the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan. We naturally tend to think first and foremost of the combat mission: our soldiers in fire-fights with the Taliban, and grim ceremonies when any of them fall. It’s understandable that many Canadians are saying ‘enough is enough,” and advocating that we bring our troops home and out of harm’s way. There have been times when I have felt twinges of that myself, while standing with countless others on a freezing Highway 401 overpass, awaiting a cortege from CFB Trenton.

But now, having been there, and walking and talking with the men and women who proudly wear the Maple Leaf on their shoulders, I can honestly say that I didn’t meet a single one who wants to leave before the job is done.

They don’t get reported in the media to the degree that they should, but the tangible signs of progress are there. Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Walt Natynczyk told me himself that in just a few short months, he has seen noticeably larger swaths of green farm fields as he flies over the countryside.

People now feel secure enough – and that there is enough of a promising future – to once again make a commitment to the land. Kids are back in school. Infrastructure is being rebuilt and expanded. And Afghans are seeing and experiencing a positive, viable alternative to the tyranny which not only held them down, but which also gave rise to the global terrorism that has drawn blood in New York, Washington, London and Madrid.

If success in Afghanistan lay purely in military superiority, it would have been over long ago. This is a battle for hearts, minds and the future direction of a critically important nation that has asked for the world’s help. Canada has been doing its part, and doing it admirably well. The Canadians who are there, actually doing the hard work – soldiers and civilians alike – deserve our support and continued commitment until the goal toward which they have been so incredibly dedicated is achieved, and until the time when they can come home with their heads held high knowing that their mission has been fully accomplished.


Thank you for reading this.

Bob Reid