Tomorrow at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of the eleventh year we will all stop and remember those who sacrificed all to ensure we have the lifestyles we enjoy today. I will think of my parents and the sacrifice they made in their service in the Royal Navy; I will also thank them for the sacrifice and the risk they took in moving to Canada, creating the opportunity for me to live the life I have. I am truly thankful for that move and am truly a PROUD CANADIAN.

I contrast their sacrifice (selling everything they owned to purchase passage to a country thousands of miles away where they worked hard for ten years before they were able to purchase our first home) with the attitude of the Occupy groups who believe everything should be given to them because they want it.

I am afraid I just don’t understand a mindset that says this is the way I want things to be and therefore that is the way they should be and I am going to disrupt everything I can until that is so. Looking to government for support rather than working to support needs rather than wistfully seeking support for wants.

All economic systems whether they be hard capitalism where risk is rewarded or communism where hard work is rewarded require a commitment from individuals. Government is absolutely needed to ensure the needs of the many are met through services that we all require; transportation, healthcare, protection and social services for those unable to provide the necessities for themselves. Government also needs to be a regulatory overseer to ensure level playing fields but they are not there to provide guarantees to any individual or group because they want it. The following quote from Margaret Wente in the Globe and Mail sums up my thoughts:

It’s not the greedy Wall Street bankers who destroyed these people’s hopes. It’s the virtueocracy itself. It’s the people who constructed a benefit-heavy entitlement system whose costs can no longer be sustained. It’s the politicians and union leaders who made reckless pension promises that are now bankrupting cities and states. It’s the socially progressive policy-makers in the U.S. who declared that everyone, even those with no visible means of support, should be able to own a home with no money down, courtesy of their government. In Canada, it’s the social progressives who assure us we can keep on consuming all the health care we want, even as the costs squeeze out other public goods.

Government, including Local Government needs to return to basics. They need to stop meddling in social experiments and leave those to the passionate groups who are prepared to find a way through fundraising or volunteerism to fulfill those worthy goals.

So tomorrow I will remember those who instilled a solid work ethic in me and contributed to a world where that work ethic meant something. Thank you for your sacrifice and it is my hope that the few sacrifices I made for my children will have the same impact on them.