The reserves will always be picked on when there's a shortage of money. They've been picked on for all of their existence pretty well. “Screwed around” might even be a better description. It just happened recently that, just to be dramatic about it, one busload of reservists going off to a course got a cellphone call saying they were to turn around and come home. The course was cancelled, just because there were inadequate funds to run that particular course.
In spite of all that, they continue to endure, and they are at a peak now in their operational capability. They have a large number of volunteers who fill very important positions. I had the pleasure of meeting with 30 reservists, all from Ontario infantry units, on one of my visits to Afghanistan, who are the convoy escort platoon. As you can imagine, that's the most dangerous job there. I asked for a show of hands for how many of them had been subjected to an IED attack. All the hands went up. What about two attacks? Most of the hands went up. What about three? Half the hands went up. When I got to seven, one hand went up, and the guy had burns to the side of his face. He had all his kit on. He was the one who had nailed a suicide bomber two days earlier, and the fireball had gone over the vehicle and burned his face. I asked him how many of these escorts he had done. He said, “Thirty-eight, sir, but if you wait about five minutes, it'll be thirty-nine.” They're just outstanding soldiers.
So their capability is great, but they're still not supported anywhere near enough with funding. By that I mean they need the actual vehicles they'll see when they go overseas. They need the weapons and all of the kit. But God bless them.
We're probably the only nation in the world that has a regular force larger than its reserve force.