Recent content by kcdist

Hello..... I thought I'd reach out here as we've hit a brick wall and I'm looking for a 2nd opinion. I'm the father here posting about my son's situation, as he's currently working on a remote construction project in N. Sask. and has almost (but not quite) written off his CF application due to...

A couple of points in response to your couple of points. There will never be a perfect, flawless recruiting process. Look at the news today about a prominent former cabinet minister. Think he wasn't vetted numerous times over his career? The typical large city Police Services have much more...

Thanks for taking the time for a detailed response. No....I have to admit I was gobsmacked. I assumed that with recent combat operations and with the formation of the Special Operations Regiment that, perhaps, there was a cultural shift towards 'elitism'. Back in the 80's/90's, I believe the...

Sigh...... To clarify: Based on the recent experience of my daughter/son, the recruiting process of today is inefficient and lacks many of the steps that existed 30 years ago. It appears, as a result, that the recruit that arrives for basic training is, on average, of weaker quality. Many of...

This point is rather irrelevant to the point of the thread. The question is why has the process become so easy, with so little pre-screening? Not sure about your experience, however, during my training, I can't recall a single failure in the various phases that wasn't warranted. The difference...

Would it be too much to expect both? My start to finish process, including a week's paid vacation in Gagetown, took 14 weeks from application to acceptance. My point is that it is vastly more cost and resource efficient to weed out the unsuitable application during the *application* process. One...

Physical Fitness aside, my child might have been really book smart, but also a highly functioning kid with Autism. There's no way the 10 minute chat with the recruiting officer would have been able to determine that.... However, the 5 Officer board interview would have likely figured that out in...

Egads! There's Ironman/JTF levels of fitness, and there's a basic level of fitness that every member in uniform should possess, regardless of occupation. If your goal is to lead soldiers/sailors/airpeople, and you arrive for your basic training course unable to complete one single push-up, or...

A question for the recruiters - What the heck happened to recruiting standard? My child (trying to be as ambiguous as possible so as not to identify) has now been in the CF for about five months. When s/he first suggested an interest in the CF, I was thrilled. I explained in great detail how...

To wade in here, leading up to the article in question, I was sheepishly sneaking a periodic peek at the Western Standard at the public library. Following the article, I determined that the Western Standard was the single substantial Canadian news organization to actually have the gonads to...

Two thoughts here. 1. More family doctors, while a wonderful goal, will not help the fact that heath care costs are rising far faster than inflation. Health care costs are forecast to consume 100% of provincial budgets within 20 years unless drastic changes are made to reduce growth. 2. Anyone...

I believe user fees, with some modifications, would actually go along way to solving our nation-wide health care crisis. It is an unfortunate fact of our society that if something is 'free', there will be a significant portion of the population that will abuse the privilege. Take Calgary for...

Perhaps. However, when is the last time a commercial plane has been highjacked in Canada? Never? If so, why do we bother with security screening? Does anyone really think there is any reasonable chance that a Westjet flight between Edmonton and Fort McMurray will ever be highjacked by...

Michael, I am attracted to this Forum due to it's high level of reasonable, rationale debate. Posts such as your most recent one contribute very little. Perhaps if you have nothing thoughtful to post, consider not posting. That said, it should be noted that in a recent (Centre Left) Globe and...

Chimo, What rubs me, and I suspect many, the wrong way, is the manner in which Pike has conducted himself in this Forum. Many join the Forum, observe for awhile, respond to a topic or two, perhaps ask a question or three, and then work their way up to starting a new topic. What Pike has done...