Thank you Lads. Canadians after Vimy Ridge.

Once, years ago, while I was living in Portland, a woman asked me why I was wearing a tomato on my chest. It was this time of year, and yes I was wearing a tomato-like pin on my chest. The tomato is actually a poppy, which us Canadians wear for the couple of weeks leading up to today as a symbol of the fields of Europe, where so many of our young volunteers gave what Lincoln called, ‘their last full measure of devotion’, fighting for what they and our country believed to be right and just.

In the same way many Americans feel an affinity for the men who fell at Gettysburg, Antietam, or Shiloh. Canadians have the same feeling for our sacrifices at Vimy Ridge, Dieppe, or Dunkirk. It is a massive source of pride for Canadians to know that in 1914 and 1939, those boys left their farms and volunteered to go fight in Europe because it was the right thing to do. Today we remember the lives lost and respect the lives that were never lived so we can be here peaceful and content.