I guess we have different points of view on this very issue. I believe that if a nation or a society is not able to commemorate, remember, or pay tribute to those who have sacrificed so much, we as a society probably don't value the quality of life that we enjoy here, the freedom, the respect for human rights, and the rule of law.
I guess I move to also argue back. I don't know if the member has been to Vimy. There are over 11,000 names of Canadian soldiers who fought in the First World War, Canadian soldiers, young men, some as young as 16 years of age, whose gravesites are unknown. We don't know where they're buried. There are 11,000 just on that Vimy memorial. I can enumerate cemetery after cemetery in Europe where our young men are buried, who fought for a cause: to enable us to enjoy the quality of life, the freedom that we have in this country.
I think commemoration is not a trivial thing. It's not a waste of money. It's a duty and a responsibility we have. I'll make the point even more profoundly, if you will. We have upward of 100-and-some World War II veterans who landed on June 6, 70 years ago, on the beaches in Normandy, who are going back to commemorate that experience. It will be the last in-decade opportunity those folks will have to revisit the place from which so many of their colleagues never came home.
I'm sorry, but November 11 to me is a sacred day. Visiting a war cemetery is a sacred opportunity to commemorate their sacrifice, whether it's in South Korea, in Italy, in Germany, in the Netherlands. It's a duty we have. It's certainly not a waste of money.
I'm sorry you see it that way. I can't understand that thinking.