Mr. Speaker, 200 years ago tomorrow, an American squadron of over a dozen vessels lay off the mouth of the Humber River. As the sun rose over Lake Ontario, it sent 1,700 American soldiers ashore in the first amphibious landing in U.S. military history. They were opposed at first by aboriginal warriors, Mississaugas, Ojibwa, and Chippewa. Later they were charged with bayonets fixed by the Grenadier company of the 8th Regiment of Foot.
York and Toronto were lost that day to Britain and to Canada.
Almost 100 British Canadians and aboriginal warriors, as well as 50 Americans, died. A lot of properties, including the first designated provincial parliament buildings, were burnt.
The Town of York counted barely 700 souls in those days, but at the Battle of York, Toronto, like Moscow before it and Washington afterwards, became one of many cities around the world scorched by the fire of the Napoleonic Wars.
In defeat, Canadians found common cause. The fight for Canada forged a new nation. The last two centuries have given us the greatest bilateral economic partnership in history. I invite all members and all Canadians to join first nations and the regiments of Toronto in celebrating the Battle of York tomorrow.