Remembrance Day

Today's program gave pause to reflect on Remembrance Day. Following a minute of silence Barbara Busing read John MacRae's poem, In Flanders Fields. Our guest speaker was club member Paul Clifford who spoke of Canada's contribution to WWII. At the start of the conflict Canada had a standing army of 4500 with around 40 000 in the militia/reserve forces. By the end of the war it had the third largest navy and an airforce of 40 squadrons. Paul spoke of Canada's army and its major efforts: Dieppe and Ortona, Italy and the significant human losses incurred during these campaigns.

Following Paul's talk, Ralph indicated he visited Ypres and Passchendaele and read, In Flanders Fields, at the grave site of the soldier said to be the inspiration for MacRae's poem. Although Ralph had read the poem many times for school Remembrance Day programs he indicated how difficult it was to read while standing in the cemetery at John MacRae Way surrounded by the history of Canada's fallen soldiers.

The Remembrance Day program closed with a request by Russ Powers to attend the November 11 ceremony at Memorial Square in Dundas and watch the parade work its way to the Cenotaph of the soldier statue at the Dundas Community Centre. He indicated that the ceremony is changing annually as the veterans of the world wars and Korea pass on and the veterans of more recent conflicts join the parade. He asked us to be there for the 10:30 AM start.