Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to rise today to speak to this motion which states that the government should consider reinstating the executive curl on the navy's uniforms. By all accounts, it has unanimous support in the House, so I will try to reflect that.
I do want to say at the outset though that I was concerned about some of the comments made by one of the earlier speakers. I know the MP to be a very intelligent member, but I think it is rather unfair to the member who introduced this motion, with the best of intentions, to be reflected on in that way. I have read the notes, and the notes that were negative came from a man who ran against the MP in the last election. It is not really the best idea, in my opinion, to be reading and following up on notes of criticism against the MP who has brought forward this motion with the best of intentions.
Who are we to decide what his issues should be in his riding? In his view, this is a very important issue for him. He has the opportunity, as we all do, to introduce as many private members' resolutions and bills in this House as he wants. Some of us have none; some of us have 20 of them, but it is our choice as to which resolutions and bills we introduce. A defeated candidate who has some issues and maybe wants to run again against this MP passes on the comments and then another sitting MP brings them up and tries to belittle the efforts of the member. I applaud the member who moved the motion for sticking to his guns and dealing with what he wants to do.
As a final aside to that, there were members of this side of the House who drew very low numbers in the draw for private members' bills and chose to introduce a resolution. The member for Papineau did exactly that in his first attempt here. I did not see anybody from either side of the House in any way question his choice of that particular topic and of a motion over a bill.
Having said that, I did want to make some comments about the actual resolution itself. I did note, and the previous speakers have noted, that in 2010 the Canadian navy will mark its centennial. The distinctive loop on the upper stripe of naval officers means little to some Canadians, but it means a great deal to those who currently serve in the navy and who had previously worn the executive curl for decades in the service of their country.
Its origins can be traced back to 1856 when it was introduced by the Royal Navy. It was worn by officers from the early days of the Canadian navy, most notably the Battle of the Atlantic, when the Royal Canadian Navy together with the merchant navy and the Royal Canadian Air Force played a pivotal role in the defeat of Nazi Germany.
Canada underwent military unification in 1968, and we all know how traumatic that experience was at the time. There were many people opposed to the unification of the forces. It was a traumatic experience not only for the forces but for a lot of people in the country. The navy's executive curl was lost, along with all the other distinctive elements of the naval uniform. The restoration of this unique insignia would serve to build morale, which is always in short supply and something that is always needed, and would pay tribute to past sacrifice.
The unification of the forces, as I indicated, was a controversial issue in the 1960s, but traditions have endured for many years and then faded into history never to return. This was one of those.
I too had access to ReadyAyeReady.com which outlines some history of uniforms in general and the curl in particular. It indicates at one point that what is known as the executive curl, which is the ring above an officer's gold lace or braid, is said to date from the Crimean War when it was called Elliott's eye, in commemoration of Captain Elliott who carried his wounded arm in a sling under heroic conditions.That term also refers to an eye in a hemp rope said to be a memento of the Hon. William Elliott, a member of the board of the admiralty from 1800 to 1801. It is worthy of note that of almost all of the seagoing nations of the world, the French and the Americans are the only navies whose officers do not wear the Elliott's eye. That was pointed out by one of our other speakers.
The curl was originally worn only by executive officers, but in 1915 engineer officers adopted it, followed by officers of other branches in 1918.
Although in the British navy the curl is now common to all officers, some of the navies that copied the custom have restricted its use to their deck officers. While in some navies the insignia was placed above the braid to indicate specialist branches, Commonwealth navies used coloured cloth of gold lace. Coloured branch distinction first introduced in 1863 went out of use except for the medical nursing, medical administration and technical branches on December 31, 1959.
From 1879 to 1891, British naval officers wore three brass buttons between the lace and several navies still do the same.
There is a lot of history regarding the uniforms in the forces going back hundreds of years. The universal colour of the naval uniform is blue, presumably as a camouflage against the sea itself. For this purpose the sails of Roman ships around 55 B.C. were dyed blue so that men dressed in blue standing near the sails would be almost invisible to the enemy.
I found it very interesting that during the 14th century, when breast armour was worn in action, armour was rarely worn at sea even by soldiers for the reason that the steel plate was an obvious disadvantage as a bathing suit.
A more modern version which does not exclude the first is that King George II, who lived from 1683 to 1760, was so attracted by the dark blue riding costume with brass buttons worn by the Duchess of Bedford that he ordered the adoption of this colour scheme for the officers' uniform. Until the king's wish became known in 1748 through the first British uniform regulations, the most popular colour for dress in the English and the foreign navies had been red, but from there on it was blue. The admiralty ordered promulgating the uniform regulations of April 13, 1748.
With that I will draw to a close. I sense that we have unanimous agreement in the House to pass the motion and I will be very happy to see when that happens.
