Does Iqaluit need camo-clad peace officers in counter-insurgency gear?

I spent a summer on a ranch in High River, Alta. riding fence and branding and castrating yearling steers when I was 16, and made the embarrassing mistake of trying to mimic my cowboy heroes by keeping my chaps on when we drove the pickup downtown for hamburgers.

The cowboys said “Um… we don’t wear chaps when we drive into town for hamburgers” and laughed at me for being a moronic “tenderfoot.”

I’m reminded of this lesson when I see peace officers lining up for their mail at the Iqaluit post office in “full camo” stealth outfits and belts bristling with counter-insurgency gear.

I mean, are we under attack from hordes of Russian paratroopers or radical Islamist guerrilla fighters in Iqaluit? Is there a threat of violent civil unrest and cataclysmic rioting in our streets?

If we are, we should be informed so we can stock up on water and flashlight batteries.

And have these camouflage uniforms been tested for stealth efficiency on Arctic terrain? They look far more suitable for Syrian desert conditions.

Train for crises by all means, but there’s a time and place — and age — for playing cowboy.

(Name withheld by request)
Iqaluit

Email your letters to editor@nunatsiaq.com.

Nunatsiaq News welcomes letters to the editor. But we are under no obligation to publish any given letter at any given time.

In our print edition, we usually print letters on a first-come, first-served, space-available basis. In our online edition, we usually print letters as soon as we are able to prepare them for publication.

All letters are edited for length, grammar, punctuation, spelling, taste and libel. You may withhold your name by request, but we must know who you are before we publish your letter.