Mr. Speaker, I rise to remember and pay tribute to those brave Canadians who served their country and those who lost their lives or suffered injuries or loss in the terrible wars of this century. On behalf of our party, our constituencies, our constituents and all Canadians who remember, we offer our profound respect and deepest thanks.
That reminds me that there are no French Canadians or English Canadians in cemeteries in Europe, only Canadians. I pray that this fact unites us in peacetime as in wartime.
At the same time we remember and pay tribute to the current members of our armed forces, many of whom have served or are serving as peacekeepers in the troubled places of the world. Again on behalf of our constituents and on behalf of all Canadians who cherish peace, we offer our profound respect and our deepest thanks.
November 11 is called Remembrance Day. Our children rightly ask what precisely it is we are asked to remember. If we ask the living, the loved ones and friends of those who served and fell in the wars, they will say we remember our loved ones and friends who gave their lives for freedom and democracy, and they will be right. However, if we could ask those who served and fell what they would like us to remember, I believe they would tell us to remember the great lesson their loss teaches us: the lesson that freedom and democracy cannot be preserved without self-sacrifice.
If each of us every day, year after year, makes the small sacrifices of time, energy and self-interest necessary to preserve our freedoms, that is enough. But if we neglect to make those small daily sacrifices then someday, somewhere down the road, a vast multitude of people like those we honour on Remembrance Day must make the ultimate sacrifice on our behalf.
Today I say let us make our tributes and on November 11 let us lay our wreaths. But, above all, each day after that let us practise the great lesson: that freedom and democracy cannot be preserved without self-sacrifice on our part. Such practice would be the highest tribute we could pay to those who fought and fell as well as to those who stand on guard for Canada today.