They were originally. There's one that affects me; I don't want to bring my own problem up, but I'll give this example.
If you served in World War II in an allied nation, whether it be Polish, British, French, or whatever, and you have lived in Canada for ten years, you're a veteran. If you served in the Korean War, although you were still an ally of Canada and you were in the British army, as I was, you're not a veteran by Canadian standards--at least not a war veteran; I'm a veteran because I served in the Canadian army afterwards.
So there are some differences. As I remember rightly, we now get pretty much the same benefits that those who served in the Second World War are getting. In fact, they extended it, I believe, to beyond the war. I think it goes up to about July of 1954, which is a year after the armistice, because the conditions were still there and they were entitled to the veterans benefits, just as people in World War I were entitled to them, I believe, if they served until sometime in 1946.