The shortest summary for me would be the importance that my family has always taken in Remembrance Day, starting with my great-grandfather, who served in both world wars. A great-great uncle on my mother's side was killed in the First World War and is buried near the Somme. I've had a continuous level of service in my family from the Korean War to two cousins who did tours in Afghanistan. It's always been incredibly important to us. Over the years I've certainly made the effort in every instance possible to take the time off to go to the cenotaph in my riding, the one that represents all of Scarborough, to participate in the ceremonies. When my grandmother was in the Canadian Women's Army Corps, she marched to the cenotaph at the first Remembrance Day after the Second World War.
It has great meaning for us. A group of people go to those ceremonies every year, and every year a few of them are missing because they couldn't get the time off work and aren't able to go and commemorate the way they would like. That's employees and owners of small businesses.
This past Remembrance Day, one of my good friends, Stephen Gregoire, who runs Eagle Beaver Sports in the riding, wasn't able to get down to the cenotaph until 10 p.m. on the 11th because of work, but he still made the time to do that. That's where it's important. The people for whom this matters are going to make the effort, and I want to make it easy for them. There are always going to be people who are going to use a day like this as a day off; it doesn't matter what we do. Those aren't the folks I want to focus on; it's the folks for whom this has meaning.