Mr. Speaker, a new dawn broke over Europe's wartorn land 56 years ago. The crash of shells and the burst of bombs were replaced with church bells tolling for peace. Peace at last to a Europe engorged for six long years with war. A war so cataclysmic that tens of millions perished at the blade of the war sword and in the gas chambers designed by Hitler's mad men.
The cannons of war would now point to the Far East where soon a minute atom would in turn extinguish Hirohito's will for war.
Victory in Europe was a celebration for a continent, a pause on the road to a world free of war. Canada had over one million in uniform to help quell the rage of World War II. We remember today the price of this peace, those who fought and lived and those who never returned home. Lest we all forget.