Mr. Speaker, on April 9, I was privileged to attend a ceremony commemorating the 97th anniversary of the Battle for Vimy Ridge, the site in France where four Canadian regiments first fought together as a single force and won one of the great tactical victories of the Great War, unfortunately, at the cost of the lives of more than 3,600 Canadians on a single day.
We spent the following day visiting other memorials in Belgium, where Canadians also played a major role: Passchendaele; St. Julien; Essex Farm, where John McCrae wrote In Flanders Fields; and the Menin Gate, in Ypres, where literally hundreds gather each evening for a last post ceremony.
I want to thank the Minister of Veterans Affairs for inviting opposition members to accompany him on this trip, thereby demonstrating that it is possible for us to rise above narrow partisanship in the service of Canadians.
Reading the more than 11,000 names, whose final resting place is unknown, on the monument at Vimy, or the names of nearly 7,000 Canadians, among the 54,000 names of the missing on Menin Gate in Ypres, one cannot help being reminded of the diversity of those who served Canada in World War I.
I remain grateful for the opportunity to represent Canada on this trip, not to glorify war but to honour sacrifice. Lest we forget