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Remember
Monday, November 10, 2014
Tisdale:
by Timothy W. Shire
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Before 11:00 AM on November 11, 1918 ten thousand soldiers died on that the last day of the Great War. One of them was a 25 year old fellow, Pvt. George Lawrence Price, who lived in Moose Jaw and he was shot and killed by a sniper on a street two minutes before the cease fire took affect and the war ended.

It was very shortly after the outbreak of the war that volunteers began signing up to become part of Canada's Expeditionary force and were sent off to Europe 6.8% did not come home. The picture of the top of the page was taken at Toronto University in 1914 a full hundred years ago. (The picture is from Toronto Archives and the other images on this page were borrow from various Canadian war memorial sites.)
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What were they thinking? What prompted sane young people to become soldiers and serve a country that was only 47 years old at the time?

There are many stories about these people and we know a great deal about them and what was motivating them. These people wrote down their thoughts, their ideals and the most heart felt emotions, so we can say that even though many had only just arrived in Canada, they knew what being Canadian was all about.
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This picture is the only image that was not taken in the first months of World War I and it was taken in the first months of World War II. Twenty-one years had passed since Armistice Day that ended the great war and once again Canadians, of every ethnic background put their lives on hold to serve their country, knowing full well that they would be engaged in violence beyond our imagination.

But it did not stop or end there, seven years after World War II Canadians were in combat on behalf of the United Nations in Korea, six years later Canada lead the first United Nations Peace Keeping mission to the Middle East. Since then United Nations Peace Keeping and wars in Afghanistan and now in Iraq are challenging Canada's armed forces.

It really is up to you to consider what it is that sent these people into harms way. We can read what they have said about their reasons and we can listen to the testaments of present day volunteers. You really need to take them at their word. They believe in Canada, they believe in the principles on which the country was established and they cherished those principles so much they have for a hundred years been willing to die for what they believe in.

I want you to think about that tomorrow. They were French, English, Scots, Ukrainians, First Nations, Italians, German, Chinese, Jews and Sikhs, they were every kind of Canadian there is, for we are a nation of so many different people, but what all have in common is worth dying for.
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