The problem is lack of visibility of military hardware in big cities like Ottawa. If you were in Edmonton they are used to seeing military plans and vehicles. In Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver, not so much because there are no big bases close by. While in Ottawa there are military personnel and embassy staff, you don't see CF-18's or LAV's or other military hardware except trucks from reserves (and maybe a towed 105 howitzer like the one I saw the other day). Also, Ottawa is full of immigrants from war torn countries. Yes it was announced in advance, but for a football game and not Remembrance Day or Canada Day where people would expect this. A lot of new immigrants don't give a shit about football, unless they mistake it for soccer.

I saw the flybys, and it was cool. My new immigrant neighbor down the street also saw it and ran in the house. My dad grew up in Vancouver and once went home to visit his mother on Nelson Street in his dress uniform with his sergeant stripes and people ran away thinking he was a cop, nobody knew what an air force uniform looked like.

They closed or downsized the bases in Ottawa. Rockcliffe is a waste land of barren streets and foundations and I remember older fighters landing there. I also did my reserve basic training there with a hundred other high school students with the SYEP and it makes me so sad to see it that way. Uplands, of course, where my dad worked on Chinooks in the 80's, is downsized to a crypto unit, 30 Artillery Reserves, a band hanger, and the newer government hanger. All the hangers that used to house 2 or 3 squadrons of Canadair Sabres in their heyday are gone. All the H-huts where I did cadets are gone. A lot of military barracks or armories are gone, like Beaver Barracks and the 3rd Field Engineer armory where I joined up. So in a sense, Ottawa is being to de-militarized by removing military installations and equipment and becoming loaded up with new war weary immigrants from the middle east that it is no wonder people are not used to seeing fighters overhead. But I am sure it is worse in Toronto and Montreal that have fewer military installations with hardware, other than reserves.