Madam Speaker, last Friday I joined Bill Reid at the Appleby GO train station in Burlington as he celebrated his 30th year of singing and pinning poppies on smiling commuters in honour of Remembrance Day. Every year the retired teacher, who served in Belgium during World War II, shares war-time songs and stories with commuters as they line up to be pinned with a poppy.
When Bill first started pinning poppies in 1988, a commuter told him about his father who had been a prisoner of war in Germany and that his dad loved a particular song, but no one in the family knew which song it was. Bill started singing “Coming in on a Wing and a Prayer” and, much to the delight of the commuter, he immediately recognized the song that his dad so loved. Bill also visits seniors homes to provide a short Remembrance Day service for them, complete with classic songs from the blitz.
My thanks to Bill for his service, infectious community spirit and sharing his voice and stories and love of our country.