Gravelle helps launch this year's north-side poppy campaign

Launching this year’s poppy campaign at the Prince Arthur Hotel is especially meaningful for MPP Michael Gravelle.

Not only was the first poppy campaign launched there in 1921, the hotel lobby also houses a 1940 portrait of local soldiers marching off to war, an image that includes his father Edmund Gravelle, wounded three times in combat overseas.

“Obviously my father is a 19- or 20-year-old man,” said Gravelle, pointing to a young soldier at the front of the pack, marching with hundreds of other soldiers down what’s now known as Red River Road, hundreds of onlookers saluting and cheering the men pledged to protect the world from the German onslaught.

“He went off to war. He was wounded three times and was certainly a noted veteran for many people. He came back to Port Arthur, married an English war bride and had a number of children, including me. It was through him I learned the importance to recognize the contributions of our veterans to our country and to our freedom.”

Seventy-five years after the iconic photograph was taken, the younger Gravelle was chosen on Friday to be the honourary recipient of the first poppy pinned in this year’s campaign.

Keeping those memories alive is important, he said, and not just looking back to the ever-distant past.

“I actually believe that over the last number of years, the younger people, students and schools, are having a better understanding of how important it is to remember. Years have gone by. It’s now 70 years since the end of World War II, so people tend to think people will forget.
“But I think there’s a greater effort by everyone to make sure we do remember. And certainly if you don’t remember, history has a tendency to repeat itself.”

Poppies have stood symbolically for Remembrance Day for the past nine decades. Money raised from their sales is used to help veterans in need and their families.

Last year the Royal Canadian Legion Branch No. 5 raised $23,000 alone.

“We always like to exceed the previous years for our donations,” said Sharon Scott chairwoman of the north side campaign, adding they plan to keep hosting their launch at the hotel for the foreseeable future.