Mr. Speaker, I am proud to rise in remembrance of the Canadian allied assault which marked the beginning of the liberation of Nazi occupied Europe 50 years ago today.
D-Day was a day of courage, a day of fear, when more than 15,000 Canadians landed on the beaches of Normandy not knowing whether they would be driven back into the sea or advance inland to capture the enemy posts. Soldiers from every province were part of that invasion and the Canadians fought with courage, unprecedented and unsurpassed.
On the home front, Canada was a woman's world with more than one million women in the factories turning out the products of war and running the farms. Canada was a unified nation, a nation with a focus, a nation with a goal, a goal of victory.
Today we salute our veterans for achieving that goal and we thank them for securing our future. In particular I salute the North Nova Scotia Highlanders whose Gaelic motto translated was "Breed of manly men". May we always remember D-Day.