EDITORIAL: The meaning of Remembrance Day
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On Friday, at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day, of the eleventh month — marking the time and date of the armistice that ended the First World War in 1918 — we remember all Canadians who made the supreme sacrifice in war, to keep us free.
We remember the 66,000 Canadian soldiers who died in the First World War, the war that was supposed to end all wars, which turned out to be a vain hope.
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We remember the 47,000 Canadians who died in the Second World War, the 516 Canadians who died fighting in the Korean War, the 158 who died in the Afghanistan war and the 130 Canadians who have died on peacekeeping missions around the world.
We remember them with two minutes of silence at 11 a.m.
We also remember the 200,000 Canadians wounded in these conflicts — many in both mind and spirit.
We remember their families and friends because as much as their loved ones served and sacrificed overseas, they served and sacrificed at home. They too, had to cope with the terrible uncertainty of war and the possibility of the death or serious injury of their loved ones, which would change all of their lives forever, in a moment.
There is a misconception today among some that Remembrance Day is misguided because it glorifies war.
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Nothing could be further from the truth.
Canada’s veterans from all wars are our greatest ambassadors for peace.
They know, more than anyone, the horrors of war and their testimony about the nature of war reminds us it should always be the last response to tyranny, only when all other options have failed.
Winston Churchill, the greatest war-time prime minister in the history of global conflicts, reminded us of this when he said negotiating an end to conflicts was better than fighting.
Or as he put it: “To jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war.”
Remembrance Day isn’t about glorifying war.
It is an annual reminder of the terrible cost of war paid by the hundreds of thousands of Canadians who served in them.
It is perfectly consistent to honour Remembrance Day while being opposed to war.
Canadians who have served in war know better than anyone else why that is true.
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