Speech

From the Prime Minister's Web Site (http://www.pm.gc.ca/)

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PRIME MINISTER STEPHEN HARPER COMMEMORATES THE 90th ANNIVERSARY OF THE BATTLE OF VIMY RIDGE

April 9, 2007
VIMY, FRANCE

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Your Majesty,

Mr. Prime Minister,

Distinguished guests,

Veterans,

Ladies and gentlemen:

Thank you all for honouring us with your presence.

We Canadians here today are a long way from home.

But there may be no place on earth that makes us feel more Canadian.

Because we sense, all around us, the presence of our ancestors.

If we close our eyes we can see them, dressed in their olive khaki uniforms, rifles slung over their shoulders, the distinct Canadian wide-brimmed helmet perched on their heads.

They are emerging from the filthy trenches, trudging through the boot-sucking mud, passing skeletons of trees and the shell holes washed in blood, enveloped in the horrible noises of war.

Overhead, the red ensign is fluttering in the breeze.

One hundred thousand brave Canadians fought here 90 years ago today. Three thousand, five hundred and ninety-eight died.

Every nation has a creation story. The First World War and the battle of Vimy Ridge are central to the story of Canada.

Because it was here for the first time that our entire army fought on the battlefield together.

And the result was a spectacular victory, a stunning breakthrough that helped turn the war in the Allies' favour.

The Somme, Ypres, Paschendaele, Beaumont-Hamel: the names of all the great battles are well known to Canadians and Newfoundlanders.

But we know the name Vimy best of all.

Often the historical importance of events is only realized with the benefit of hindsight.

But at Vimy everybody immediately understood the enormity of the achievement.

Brigadier General Alexander Ross famously said that when he looked out across the battlefield he saw "Canada from the Atlantic to the Pacific on parade," and that he felt he was witnessing "the birth of a nation."

A year after the war ended, the brilliant Canadian commander at Vimy, Sir Arthur Currie, put it another way in a speech to Toronto's Empire Club.

Canada was a nation of immigrants before 1914, he said. "Now these men who have come back are your very own."

The Veterans of Vimy passed their stories to their children, who passed it to theirs, who passed it to us, who are passing it to our children thousands of whom are with us today.

And some of them will return here someday with their children and grandchildren.

Because nothing tells our story of the first world war as eloquently or as powerfully as Walter Allward's extraordinary monument to the 11,285 Canadians who fell in France and who have no known grave.

It reminds us of the enormity of their sacrifice and the importance of the duty all of us have to follow their example: to love our country and defend its freedom to the end.

Allward said he was inspired by a dream.

He saw thousands of Canadians fighting and dying on a vast battlefield.

Then, through an avenue of giant poplars, a mighty army came marching to their rescue.

"They were the dead," Allward said.

"They rose in masses…and entered the fight to aid the living…I have tried to show this in this monument to Canada's fallen, what we owed them and will forever owe them."

It is sometimes said that the dead speak to the living.

So at this special place, on this special day, let us, together, listen to the final prayer of those whose sacrifice we are honouring today.

We may hear them say softly: I love my family, I love my comrades, I love my country, and I will defend their freedom to the end.

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The Prime Minister's Office - Communications
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Speech

From the Prime Minister's Web Site (http://www.pm.gc.ca/)

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PRIME MINISTER STEPHEN HARPER SPEAKS AT AN EASTER DINNER WITH VETERANS IN VERLINGHEM, FRANCE

April 8, 2007
VERLINGHEM, FRANCE

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Minister Thompson,

Colleagues from the Parliament of Canada,

General Hillier,

Commissioner Busson,

Ambassador Laverdure,

Honoured Veterans,

Distinguished guests,

Ladies and gentlemen,

Thank you all for joining us tonight for this special Easter dinner and for being part of our 90th anniversary commemoration of the battle of Vimy Ridge, the first genuinely Canadian military victory.

A special thank you to the representatives of all the departments and agencies of the Government of Canada who have planned these special events in France.

It is a tribute to your efforts that so many Canadians have made this journey with us - especially so many young people!

And I know a great many more at home are with us in spirit.

But it is you, our veterans, who give real meaning to our journey here.

As young Canadians, you took Colonel John McCrae's famous command to heart, and you took up the torch for our country.

You upheld and built on Canada's international reputation for military excellence established by your forbears at Vimy Ridge and throughout the First World War.

I am proud that Laureen and I are able to share these events with our children.

As you know, Laureen's great uncle died here in the First World War, and her grandfather attended the inauguration of the Vimy monument in 1936.

Like the generations of Canadians before us, we feel a duty to teach our children about the sacrifices our ancestors made so we could live in freedom.

We want our children to know how Canada's victory at Vimy transformed us – how it took people from a group of colonies linked by common institutions and edicts and made them into a true country bonded by shared identity and experience.

This awakening of Canadian nationhood was apparent even at the time.

A correspondent for the New York Times wrote that, for Canada, Vimy Ridge was "a day of glory to furnish inspiration for generations."

Canada changed forever that day.

Our perception of ourselves changed, and so did the world's perception of us.

No longer just part of the empire, from then on Canada spoke with its own voice.

The four divisions of the Canadian corps – serving together for the first time at Vimy – made a powerful statement in defence of our values, the timeless, universal values of all civilized nations, the values we still cherish today: freedom, democracy and human rights.

This is our heritage as Canadians.

Canadians did not go to war then – nor will we ever – to conquer or to enslave.

But when the cause is just, Canada will always be there to defend our values and to help our fellow human beings.

New challenges face us today - global terrorism, rogue regimes, nuclear proliferation threats as unpredictable for our generation as the two world wars were for those who had to confront them.

We still live in a dangerous world.

As Prime Minister, my thoughts these days are never far from Afghanistan, where a new generation of Canadian soldiers carry Colonel McCrae's torch.

Sadly today has been a difficult day in Afghanistan.

We have learned that an incident has claimed the lives of six Canadian soldiers, and injured a number of others.

Our hearts ache for them and their families. And as we are gathered here on Easter Sunday, our thoughts and prayers are with them.

Today's events once more remind us of the sacrifices that our men and women in uniform continue to make to defend against those who threaten freedom, democracy and human rights.

For these men and women, the terrain of Kandahar province today looks as desolate and dangerous as Flanders Fields did 90 years ago.

But those who wear the maple leaf on their uniform move forward, against tyranny and fear, with the same courage and determination that you did in your time and that the heroes of Vimy Ridge did before you.

Tomorrow, as we dedicate the restored Vimy memorial, we will mourn the three and a half thousand Canadians who died in that single battle.

But let us remember not merely where they fell, but for what they stood: the proud, united, independent Canada we know and love.

And let us, young and old, renew our commitment to uphold the spirit and legacy of Vimy Ridge – and to keep the True North strong and free.

Thank you.

God bless Canada.

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The Prime Minister's Office - Communications
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