Debates of October 29, 2004 (day 31)

Mahsi, thank you and good morning, Mr. Speaker. Earlier this year on a family vacation to Europe, my family and I took the opportunity to visit one of the most remarkable and inspiring places I’ve seen and that was the Canadian War Memorial at Vimy Ridge in France, Mr. Speaker. The time allotted won’t allow me to go into a description of everything that we saw and felt, but it was a very calm and a very quite day in June when my family and I walked amongst the monuments. Those 30-metre-tall white marble spires dominating the landscape are indeed inspiring. The rows and rows of graves of Canadians and other allied service people who gave their lives in that remarkable First World War battle and the tours of the tunnels and the front lines and the remarkable damage and carnage that happened during that battle were very humbling. They made me feel very grateful for the sacrifices of Canadian and other service people over the three years of that campaign, and they gave me a great feeling of pride, Mr. Speaker, for what our Canadian nation has done since then and today around the world.

Mr. Speaker, there are still many veterans of World War II and the Korean War; 25, I understand, who live in the Northwest Territories. I salute them. I hope that we all do that on Remembrance Day on November 11th, and I want to express the gratitude that I have in a sense that I hope we never take for granted the sacrifices that they made to give us one of the most remarkable things and that is freedom to have our say, to speak our minds and for the democratic institution that we all work with and celebrate day after day. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Hear! Hear!

---Applause