Mr. Speaker, I would like to pay tribute to those brave and courageous Canadians who fought side by side in the Battle of Vimy Ridge 88 years ago.
On April 9, 1917 our soldiers were to make history. The task before them was formidable. All previous attempts by allied forces to take this fortified ridge had failed.
General Byng, commander of the Canadian corps and later a governor general, would write:
There they stood on Vimy Ridge, (on the 9th day of April, 1917.) Men from Quebec stood shoulder to shoulder with men from Ontario, men from the Maritimes with men from British Columbia, and there were forged a nation tempered by the fires of sacrifice--
The assault turned out to be the swiftest and most complete of the war. Within three days the battle for Vimy Ridge was fought and won by 100,000 Canadians who, for the first time in the great war, fought as a unified corps.
The cost of nationhood was high. In those three days there would be over 10,000 casualties and of those, 3,598 would lie forever on French soil. Their legacy of virtue and valour is one we will always appreciate. It is said that Canada was born on the fields of Vimy.