On this Thanksgiving Weekend in America I wanted to take a moment and give thanks to our allies from the north.  That might sound odd, but two weeks ago I was able to attend the fundraiser that our First Wave co-founder, Shaun Francis (USNA grad), organized for the Canadian military.

It was beyond a shadow of a doubt, one of the best events I have ever attended and you all would have been proud of Shaun and the Canadian military.

This was the first event for this new charity to raise funds for Canadian soldiers- called “True Patriot Love” after a line from the Canadian anthem.   In the first event, over 1,700 attended a black tie event that raised over $2 million!   It was a “who’s who” among the Canadian military and politicians and was the largest and most successful fundraiser for Canadian troops by an order of magnitude.   Soldiers rappelled from the ceiling…it was an amazing celebration to the Canadian soldiers and their families.  The use of funds will be for many reasons, sort of a combination of Wounded Warriors, Fallen Heroes and Fisher House.

Prince Charles gave a speech via VTC.  The Prime Minister of Canada attended in person.   The Chief of the Canadian military- General Natynczyk the equivalent of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs attended not only the dinner but he went with Shaun and me to a small informal lunch earlier in the day.

133 Canadian soldiers have been killed in action in Afghanistan to date and many more wounded, making it the highest per capita casualty rate of any allied country fighting in Afghanistan.  One of their most serious wounded, a Captain who was hit in the head with an ax by a Taliban insurgent, gave a very heartfelt speech from his wheelchair as he has started to regain his speech after a year of therapy.     It would be easy for allies such as Canada to choose the easy path and to not send troops to a hard fought counter-insurgency but they have chosen the harder right over the easier wrong- hopefully other NATO nations will follow their lead.    I’m grateful that people like Shaun Francis have helped recognize the sacrifice that Canadian soldiers have made and honored them with this incredible event.

Great job Shaun!

Dan