Poppy Days

FTLComm - Tisdale - Friday, October 26, 2001

Thursday morning Doug Wesser by the bank and a lady across the street in front of Lamb's Hardware were busy selling poppies to everyone who passed. The Royal Canadian Legion has used the sale of poppies to support its many positive projects ever since the end of W.W.I Canadians had willingly answered the call to arms when Britain automatically launched us and all Commonwealth countries into the horrific conflict beginning in 1914. For such a small country (around 10 million at the time) Canadian forces under British command were the elite of the conflict but took enormous losses. Losses which we must recognise to this very day and into the future because it was during that war that Canada gained its independence from Britain emerging at the end of the war as a substantial military power among the nations of the world. Because of this November 11, 1918 really marks the true beginning of what we know as Canada. During that war Canadian women achieved their rightful place as full citizens, as a nation we came to understand not only what it meant to live in a democracy but to experience a life free of fear with the liberty to speak our minds and hold whatever religious beliefs we wanted. So when you pin on your poppy, it is not just a symbol of remembering those who fought and died on our behalf but is also our own Canadian way of saying how much we appreciate our land, what it stands for and the marvelous contribution its people continue to make to a better world. The Legion has had some discussions with Bruce Schapansky and he has delayed his November 11 auction until afternoon of that day.