Why Vimy matters: Peter Mansbridge on a battle that defined us

Google Street View offers never-before-seen look at Vimy Ridge

http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/google-str ... -1.3357547

When you wake up today, it was 100 years ago, the ridge shook with thunder and death.

Spare a thought for the men who fought, bled and died up there.

...in fact spare many thoughts.

When I was my youngest son's age, although they were getting old, there were still many survivors of Vimy all across Canada.

A solemn Prince Charles, William and Harry pay tribute to fallen soldiers in northern France on the centenary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge

The Prince of Wales joined William and Harry in northern France on Sunday
Royals are paying tribute to soldiers who died at the Battle of Vimy Ridge
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and President Hollande are also there


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/artic ... z4dmW90Ur0


Nice to see them wearing Canadian poppies.





And here we can see who has balls, and who doesn't.

Two served and continue to do so, while one is just self serving.

I watched a few documentaries on The History Channel today. One in particular focused on a group of descendants of the Canadian soldiers that served at this time 100 years ago. It was very emotional for them as they retraced some of the same steps on the same land their forefathers served upon. Such a beautiful area whose tragic history is still visible today. If I had a bucket list going to see The Canadian National Vimy Memorial for myself would be on it for sure.

May we never allow our future generations to not learn about and acknowledge the sacrifices made by those who served.

I in no way wish to discredit anything done on Vimy but I always thought that the War of 1812 defined you as a nation and WWI put you onto the world stage as an equal.

I'd argue that the War of 1812 determined that Canadians had no desire to join the Union and preferred to remain a separate country, while Vimy proved to the Britain that Canada was a true nation in its own right and worthy of control of its destiny.

It gave Canadians the courage and pride to push for full self-determination, although it took until 1931 for it to be realized (Statute of Westminster). For example, In World War 1, the UK declared war on Germany for Canada, while at the start of World War Two, Canada declared war on Germany itself.