[maple_leaf_eh]

Oh brother, you picked a painful scab! The CF changed from classic green "Combats" to pickle relish "CAD (pause) PAT" about 2002. The project was called Clothe the Soldier, also known as Tease the Soldier. It was a complete layered, unders to outers, temperate/cold/wet/snow/Arctic ensemble, new departure from the past. Even new rank badges across the three services.

The Forces was in the midst of getting every one from Reserves to Air Force into one uniform when the ISAF mission came upon us. There was talk of an Arid CADPAT and pictures of it were on the website and in the publicity etc. Except the industrial base for making several tens of thousands of high quality uniforms isn't very deep in Canada. So the boys went to Afghanistan in CADPAT. Naturally, the government got its axe kicked for putting the troops into harms way improperly coloured. It didn't seem to make much difference to the Taliban.

MARPAT came along after the fact. Canadians are very touchy about wearing another country's uniforms. (I can only think of one modern instance when the troops wore British desert DPM and that was in Kuwait 1991.) The vests are standard issue Velcro, elastic and panels; now they have a cover with many pockets. Private kit has been in and out of fashion and acceptance. At the time, I believe personal equipment was not advisable. After all, the government gave you the best uniforms for the conditions ...