>Since I was young and learned that Switzerland had some form of compulsory service I've wondered why Canada didn't have the same thing.
>JohnB said it changed his life. I bet it would just about anyone's. (For the better of course)

Yeah, I've served my year, and what did it get me...

- I learned to do minor theft and not get caught
- I learned to lie to my superiors straight in the eye and not blink
- I learned how to pull a large bluff by just pretending someone ordered it
- I learned how to shoot a rifle, something I never had a need for
- I learned how stupid people exist out there, and even get promoted
- I learned all the social ills that a hierarchy brings, except to those at the bottom - they don't give a damn how far does one outrank them; all the ranks are the same to them
- I learned that solidarity still exists, just among those at the bottom
- I learned that I've wasted a perfectly good year.

That's what happens when you serve your term at age of 26, when you've already graduated, seen some world, got a job, wife, kid. For those who got in right after high school, I figure a life change is possible and probable.