Give the Militia a free pass
Fixing Toronto – Part Three
It was early one morning not too many days ago, and I watched a female member of the militia fumble for change as she was about to get on the streetcar. She was in full uniform, and not the parade type, complete with a decent-sized rucksack. I’m not sure where she was going at 8am, but I’m confident that it wasn’t a glamourous appointment.
Made me think. We don’t really need to drain a TTC token from uniformed members of the Canadian Armed Forces. If our Private was on her way to a training exercise, the kind that prepares you to ultimately ship off to Afganistan, wouldn’t it be nice if we treated her the same way we treat uniformed members of the Toronto Police. As a society, we benefit when on-duty Officers travel on TTC; the system is safer. No doubt about it.
Whether someone in uniform is protecting us at home, or training to protect us abroad, let’s give them a free pass. It’s the least we can do.
MRM
I wonder how many members of the Armed Forces live in Toronto. The Moss Park Amoury seems to be a training center, rather than a base (and it does not contribute anything to its immediate neighborhood). Are there other bases in the GTA? I tend to think of the military in terms of its 613/705/905/519 presence, as most green fatigues in the 416 are worn by hipsters!