Appalled by the statistics of homeless veterans, Mike Ranta’s second cross-Canada canoe journey is dedicated to the men and women who have served this country.
In honour of the lost and living, Ranta is paddling across the country in a canoe with his dog, Spitzii, to shake hands and personally thank Canada’s veterans.
He began his journey 100 days ago at the ocean’s edge in Steveston, B.C., with hope of completing the journey to Cape Breton faster than his 214-day tour in 2014.
Ranta has invited all Veterans to sign his canoe as he travels east.
“Our Veterans are hurting,” Ranta said during his stop at the Royal Canadian Legion Branch in Kakabeka Sunday morning.
“It appalled me as a Canadian when I heard that five per cent of our homeless people in our country are veterans. They protect our way of life and they need to be treated better.”
Ranta added that if you want to change something for the positive than you have to do something positive.
The canoeist couldn’t think of anything more Canadian than to paddle across the country from legion to legion and personally thank the veterans for their services.
“I’m not ashamed to say more than once that I’ve sat on the side of the river and cried with these guys, some of them are going through difficult times,” he said.
“It’s very important that we respect these men and women, they’re the salt of the earth.”
Ranta hopes to make contact with the prime minister during his stop in Ottawa to discuss a possible solutions to help veterans.
He hasn’t been in contact with Justin Trudeau, but he believes the prime minister will want to make those positive changes.
