Battle of Vimy Ridge
Tuesday April 9, 2002
Mr. Bill Blaikie (Winnipeg--Transcona, NDP): Mr. Speaker, it is a
great honour for me to speak on behalf of the NDP today in commemoration of the
85th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge.
Ten years ago I was part of the pilgrimage to the
Vimy Memorial on the 75th anniversary, at which time I had the wonderful
opportunity to get to know the 14 Vimy vets who were part of the delegation.
They ranged in age at that time from over 100 years old to 93 years old. The 93
year old, whom the others called the kid, was a man by the name of Frank Bourne
who lived in Vancouver but was also at one time from Winnipeg where he worked
for the railway and supported the CCF. We got along well. I especially enjoyed
his recollections of Winnipeg just after the war, including his memories of the
Winnipeg general strike in 1919.
I will always be grateful for the gift of getting to
know him and the other Vimy vets who belonged to the generation of my
grandfathers, one of whom served at Vimy Ridge but neither of whom was blessed
with the same longevity as those who were able to mark the 75th anniversary of
their participation in that nation building but nevertheless tragic event in
which so many of their comrades died.
I note with sadness that, as the old hymn says so
well, time like an ever-flowing stream bears all its sons away, and that this
year there was for the first time no Vimy vets at the ceremony in France. At
the going down of the sun we will remember them as I am now remembering my
grandfather, Robert Nisbet Blaikie, Sr., who was a piper and a soldier, along
with his older brother Jim, a drummer, in the 1st Canadian Montreal Rifles,
recruited in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. They were part of the 3rd Division, 8th
Brigade.
By coincidence, the tunnels preserved at the Vimy
Memorial Park are those that were used by this group, tunnels that would later
be viewed by visitors from all over the world, sometimes guided for a time by a
great-granddaughter of Robert Blaikie, my daughter Rebecca who worked there as
a guide in the late 1990s.
Each new generation needs to be aware of the
sacrifices of those who have gone before and I commend the government for
taking young Canadians on the pilgrimage this year. The Vimy vets I knew would
have been pleased.
On a final note, may I say what a coincidence it is
that I should have this opportunity to remember my Grandpa Blaikie on this day,
the day of the Queen Mother's funeral, who herself lost a brother in World War
I. Twenty-two years after the Battle of Vimy Ridge, in 1939, my grandfather
played the pipes for the King and Queen as their train stopped in Biggar,
Saskatchewan to meet with the assembled throng. As a piper myself, I note with
satisfaction the role that pipes played today in bearing the Queen Mother, a
descendent of Robert the Bruce, to her final resting place.
When I visited the Vimy Memorial in 1992, I searched
the over 11,000 names on the memorial for the name of a man known only as a
name to a family in Transcona that I know well. His name was George Esselmont.
He and his brother Bob built a duplex on Whittier Avenue in Transcona just
before the war, to live in together with their families after the war. George
would never do so. He was and is among those Canadians who were killed at Vimy
and have no known grave. He grew not old as his brother who was left grew old.
Age did not weary him nor the years condemn, but he never got to live out his
dreams and live life to the full, like 66,000 other Canadians who died in the
first world war.
May we always remember their sacrifice and honour it
not only with courage in war, as Canadians have been ready to do when called
upon, but also with the courage that it sometimes takes to fight for peace in a
world given over to the temptation and the power of war.
May God grant that our remembrance today and in days
to come be a source of wisdom and discernment as we make our way in a present
and into a future that is still not free of the tragedy and the evils of war.
