Remembrance Day and Veterans Week arrive next week. It was first celebrated on November 3, 1919, and was then known as Armistice Day. For over a decade it was celebrated on the first Monday preceding November 11. The date was set to mark the end of the first world war. The public outcry led to November 11 being declared the official day in 1931.
We celebrate the day in memory of those who have gone before us in wars around the world. Today pictures of hometown sailors, airmen and army veterans hang from the poles in our community. They are pictured in their youth and on November 11 we will gather at the cenotaph to recognize their sacrifices and those of their families.
Today, 3,600 Canadian troops, sailors and air force personal located abroad, may not be directly involved in fighting as they were in the first, second, Korean wars, and Afghanistan, the peace keeping in Cypress, but today they are located across the globe. You will find Canadian troops in Latvia, Jordan, Iraq, Qatar, Lebanon, Central and South America, Republic of Congo, Sinai Peninsula and taking part in naval operations in the Pacific with Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea. Our forces contribute to our own safety. Their families sacrifice while husbands and wives are away from our nation on duty.
Standing at the Cenotaph, or taking time to remember, we must also give thanks to those brave men and women who continue to serve in our armed forces. The horrors of war that come daily onto our television screens give us pause to remember how fortunate we are to live in Canada. Refugees from the Ukraine and Gaza who have made their way to Canada remind us that we too are touched by the horrors of war. It is not as in the Second World War that a telegram arrived letting us know that a family member was wounded or had died. You often see those refugees in a hotel, on a cell phone trying to learn about the fate of families. You see them on television screens asking for help to send supplies back to their relatives in war torn countries.
Even today young men and women from our district are in far flung places with Canadian forces. They too must be remembered and so too should their families. It is no less important to remember those who today are peace keeping and training than those who went before.
