Tory Redux

Category: Canadian history

  • Reliving History

    It is heartening to see someone finally tackled the tale of telling our contribution at D-Day .

    From Toronto Star

    The film crew was recreating the chaotic landing at Normandy on June 6, 1944 for the 90-minute docudrama Storming Juno, and director and executive producer Tim Wolochatiuk says one of the men approached the crew in tears.


    He had been among the estimated 16,000 Canadian soldiers who landed at Juno Beach on D-Day, and the scene brought forth a flood of memories.


    “He said it was exactly like this and he said it just threw him right back to 1944,” recalls Wolochatiuk.


    “He was thrown back and got quite emotional at times — there’s guys running around in German uniforms and that kind of was a trigger for him as well.”


    “On the one hand it was amazing to hear him say it and on the other, it was a bit of a relief to hear him say that . . . perhaps we were doing something more right than wrong.”

    For more information on Storming Juno [click here]

  • Another Reason for Honouring Veterans on Remembrance Day

    Here is a column that clearly outlines the proposal by Lisa MacLeod to make remembrance Day a statutory holiday in Ontario.[click here]

     Local MPP Lisa MacLeod’s proposal to make Remembrance Day a statutory holiday is a good idea that is long overdue. Our veterans and their sacrifices are surely as worthy of celebration as Queen Victoria’s birthday or the Civic Holiday.


    The fact that Ontario is one of only three provinces not now recognizing Remembrance Day with a statutory holiday is a pretty good indicator that our province is out of step. The situation is particularly discordant here with federal public servants getting the day off, but most other people having to work.


    What MacLeod wants to do is put Remembrance Day on the same plane as Christmas and Easter. In other words, a real statutory holiday where everything shuts down. That would prevent it from becoming just another day off to catch up on shopping.

    Don’t forget to vote in the poll this week. As well it turns out Ontario is truly out of line with the rest of Canada when it comes to honoring our veterans.

  • Dief The Chief

     

    One of the more insightful tributes to our 13th prime minister John Diefenbaker  the first master of mass communication in Canadian politics.

    source Montréal Gazette

    While the 1960 Bill of Rights did not have the entrenched constitutional character of the 1982 Charter of Rights, many key provisions of the Charter were first articulated in the Bill of Rights.More than a decade before official bilingualism, Diefenbaker made government cheques bilingual, and introduced simultaneous translation to the House of Commons.The themes of diversity and empowerment were found in the appointment of the first woman, Ellen Fairclough, to Cabinet. He gave aboriginal Canadians the right to vote without losing their treaty status. When Mulroney campaigned against apartheid in South Africa in the 1980s, using the Commonwealth as his platform, he was taking a page from Dief, a quarter century earlier.Diefenbaker’s appointment of the Hall Commission, led by Saskatchewan Judge Emmett Hall, was a landmark that led directly to medicare.The Glassco Commission reshaped the organization and administration of the federal government. The Bladen Commission led to the Auto Pact.A decade before Pierre Trudeau’s recognition of Red China, Diefenbaker opened the door with wheat sales.And then there was his northern vision, with its Roads to Resources program. Half a century later, Harper has made Arctic sovereignty, sustainable development, and the autonomy of northern peoples a centrepiece of his policy agenda.