Note from NCVA Secretary - Derrill Henderson

Attached (PDF) is NCVA’s most recent op ed/position paper entitled “Which federal party will stand up for veterans in this election campaign?”

Given the onset of the federal election campaign, in our view, it is essential that we provide our evaluation as to the current status of veteran legislative reform and outline the history of the broken government promises and commitments of the past number of years. At the same time, I believe it is important that we raise this fundamental question with federal party leaders and candidates as to “Who will stand up for veterans?”

As stated in the piece, before casting their votes, veterans will be closely monitoring all federal parties as to which election platform makes a substantial commitment to addressing the shortfalls and inequities which continue to exist in veterans’ legislation.

The federal party leaders have a genuine opportunity during the course of this election campaign to make a formal commitment to meaningfully improve veterans’ legislation so as to eliminate the blatant discrimination suffered by disabled veterans since the enactment of the New Veterans Charter in 2006 and address the longstanding concerns of the veterans’ community.

This op ed/position paper essentially lays down the gauntlet at this critical time of the federal election and demands an answer as to which party will deliver this basic commitment that Canadian veterans and families require prior to casting their votes.

We would like to see this paper get a wide exposure, and even though through past efforts, our HK vets are receiving top benefits, our widows have yet to be awarded what, in our view, what they deserve.

Derrill Henderson
Vice-Chair
National Council of Veterans Associations