That's right. GPS, so you can find them.
Here's the outline. Basically, I'm going to cover the five Ws in a specific order. We'll get to that through each of these bullets. I welcome questions throughout, or if you don't mind, you can hold them until the end. Hopefully, I'll answer your questions during the presentation, but I'm happy to take questions anytime.
We'll start out with the where.
As you can see on the map, Nijmegen is a small city, really, with a population of 165,000, located in the southeastern part of the Netherlands. It is the oldest city in the Netherlands, dating back to AD 5, so there's a lot of history there.
Nijmegen wasn't the original host of the marches. It has moved around a bit throughout the Netherlands, but since the Second World War, the 1946 timeframe, Nijmegen became the main city hosting the marches, hence the name.
You will also see on the lower left corner the city of Lille, France, which is basically our airport of debarkation when we deploy to Europe for the Nijmegen marches. It puts us in very close proximity to Vimy Ridge, one of the highlights of our trip to Europe. It's only about 30 minutes away.
Now I'll move to the what.
Nijmegen marches originated in 1909 with the Dutch army. It was basically to provide physical fitness and endurance for the infantry. It evolved into the largest marching event in the world and is known as the Walk of the World. It includes 45,000 people marching from over 50 countries. That number includes about 5,000 military members from over 30 countries.
It consists of four consecutive days of marching. Each day, on average, is about 40 kilometres. You'll see that there are two different categories, both military and civilian. In the military, we are locked into a specific military route. We must carry weight, just 10 kilograms, and we have to start and finish with that weight, plus any other weight you might be carrying in terms of extra rations, water, and so on. Civilians have a choice of routes: 30, 40, or even 50 kilometres a day. You'll see people who are 60, 70, or 80 years old marching 30, 40, or 50 kilometres. I've seen a few of them actually wearing wooden clogs while marching those distances. I guess if you're comfortable with your footwear, it works for you.
Canada has been participating since 1952. Originally, our participation was based on our presence in Europe, out of Germany. Since we repatriated back to Canada after the Cold War, we've been deploying from Canada since then. My first year as the commander of the contingent was 2012, which happened to be the 60th anniversary of the Canadian Forces' participation.
The marches really are important to both Canada and the Netherlands. We have a very close relationship with the Netherlands. It basically hearkens back to the liberation of Nijmegen in 1944, and to the overall Netherlands in 1945.