Mr. Speaker, we can tell much about a country by its heroes and how it treats them.
This forgotten Canadian hero shot down 53 enemy aircraft during World War I. This forgotten Canadian hero received the Victoria Cross, the DSO, the Military Cross, the French and Italian military honours, six gallantry awards from King George V and others. Billy Bishop called him the deadliest air fighter who ever lived. This forgotten Canadian hero was the first president of the Toronto Maple Leafs and first acting director of the Royal Canadian Air Force.
Some 50,000 people joined or watched the mile long cortege at his funeral in 1930, yet his grave is marked as Smith in a family crypt with no indication of what he did for Canada.
Canada, it is time to give Lieutenant Colonel Billy Barker, VC, this Canadian hero from Dauphin, Manitoba, the recognition he deserves.