It's my pleasure to be here, Mr. Chairman. I have a great interest in veterans and the topic today of remembering them.
Mr. Sullivan, I enjoyed your presentation.
After hearing the comments from Mr. Andrews and Ms. Foote, I want to speak on the issue of a national holiday. When I first heard that we didn't have one, I remember my first reaction was, why not? Then I started thinking about it and talked to my veterans and the legion. The last time I looked--and I urge all MPs to check with their national veterans associations and the Royal Canadian Legion--they were vehemently opposed to it being a national holiday. I'm going to explain the reasons why.
Before I get into that, I'm going to make it clear that I'm not speaking for the government. Here in Ottawa all government employees have Remembrance Day off. I don't think that's right, because Remembrance Day should be about remembering and honouring our veterans, not having a day off work.
What the legion found when they looked into it is that in provinces where kids have the day off, 99% or more of them do not attend Remembrance Day events. When they're in school, a large percentage...and I apologize, I don't have the number with me, but I can tell you in my riding it's increased dramatically in the last five to ten years. It's been through the work of the legion promoting, and what have you. I've attended the Remembrance Day event at Chesley District High School in my riding for the last four or five years, and it is by far the best Remembrance Day event I have ever attended anywhere, whether it was in Ottawa or in my riding.
Mr. Sullivan, what can we do to encourage schools to have Remembrance Day events during Veterans' Week? To go back to Chesley High School, they have specifically stayed away from having their event on Remembrance Day itself, because the veterans want to attend events at the local cenotaph or legion. They are glad to participate if the school has it on another day. I can tell you that on whichever day the school picks, the auditorium is full of all the school children and dozens of veterans from the area. It's great.
That education, getting our young people to realize the importance of it, and getting them to attend--all that is very good. If they're at home they simply won't attend, for the most part. It's not because they don't want to; their parents are probably working, or whatever, or just don't choose to take them.
It's more a comment than a question, but what could we do to help encourage that kind of thing?