95th Grey Cup-Toronto 2007

[Jon Skagfeld]

So, what's this got to do with a military forum?

Well, there was a 100 man Guard of Honour (not Honor Guard!), and a Colour Party from HMCS York who marched on before the parade and did their thing. (This was at the Rogers Centre known to most of us still as the Skydome.)

Their drill was pretty shoddy...when they did the "Present" with their C7A2s, I thought "Wow!...they're gonna do a feu de joie."

No such luck. They fired one only blank round each and that was it.

During the one minute silence, after the BareNaked Ladies sang the National Anthem (in both official languages), some yahoos were caterwauling in the stands. One black Roughrider player was sloshing down Gaterade and showing no interest in what was going on.

Our national news service, the CBC, who surprised me by even showing the troops on parade, gave about 3 minutes of air time for these guys.

They were brought in from Petawawa, about 300 miles away, to participate in this extravaganza. Not much of a return on taxpayer's investment there, eh?

Did anyone happen to notice, at game's end, over the shoulder of some talking head, the Primrose Hackle on the headdress of a Lorne Scot soldier in the background on field level?

BTW, some football team won. Ho hum.