PHOTO: ALDIS SUKSIE

Canadian entertainers on the Legion-sponsored Canadian Forces Show Tour assemble in front of their Airbus.

Canadian talent came to Afghanistan in the fall thanks to The Royal Canadian Legion’s sponsorship of a Canadian Forces Show Tour.

Dominion Command sponsors one show tour a year as a way of building morale in support of Canadian troops and to promote the Legion with a group that is eligible for membership.

Organized by the Canadian Forces Personnel Support Agency, the tour featured country singers Julian Austin and Diane Chase, blues singer-guitarist Matt Minglewood, rhythm and blues singer Kelliane Cahoon, Quebec singer Pascale Pelosse, Vancouver dance troupe Source Dance and comedian Sheldon Bergstrom, who also acted as master of ceremonies.

Chase used to be the lead singer for the band Flirt based in Sudbury. When she struck out on her own, she was replaced in the band by then-unknown Shania Twain. For Austin it was his third show tour to entertain troops overseas. He wrote a song entitled The Red And White which pays tribute to all past and present Canadians who have served in the Canadian Forces. He played it in public for the first time on the tour. “My experience in Bosnia made me realize how lucky we are to be Canadian and how proud we all should be of our country and of our men and women serving it,” he told public affairs officer Major Dany Laferrière.

Dominion Treasurer Mike Cook represented the Legion on the tour Oct. 19-Nov. 2, 2005. The group departed from Canadian Forces Base Trenton, Ont., and reached Camp Mirage, a classified location in the Persian Gulf, after about 21 hours of flying time. “The first leg of the trip can be measured as five movies and two meals,” wrote Cook in a later report.

The group did two shows in Camp Mirage with 280 Canadian, Australian and New Zealand troops at the first show and 250 at the second. Calgary singer Cahoon said, “What impressed me the most is the high regard and respect soldiers from other nations residing on camp have for our Canadian soldiers…. This trip was a big eye-opener.”

The group went to Kandahar in Afghanistan where American, French, Dutch, British, Romanian and Canadian troops are stationed. “Kandahar is a dusty, dirty camp with a wind all the time,” wrote Cook. “We were assigned our rooms, or should I say tents, complete with cots and sleeping bags. This was home for the next six days.”

There the delegation visited troops, with the stars signing autographs before doing two shows. “Each show had approximately 1,400 people in attendance and finished with a standing ovation,” noted Cook. “Watching from the back, you could feel a sense of pride that we, the Legion, had been able to bring a little bit of home to everyone in Kandahar.”

With the poppy campaign about to begin in Canada, a poppy flag was delivered to Camp Mirage. “When I left on Nov. 2, it was up the flag pole,” he said.

After that the group suited up in body armour to visit the Provincial Reconstruction Team about 30 minutes away. While there they performed a show for about 230 people. “While the show was on, a bomb went off some 600 yards from the wall of the camp,” said Cook. “It was a little more difficult to fall asleep that night.”

Cook summed up the trip: “The one conclusion I came to is that our money is well spent and put to good use.”