Ken MacAskill says he dreams of a day when Remembrance Day is not necessary.
MacAskill, a Second World War veteran and director of the Thunder Bay Naval Officers Association, said the conflicts that have killed 118,000 Canadians since Confederation are man-made affairs and should almost never be fought.
“You have to remember that these things shouldn’t happen,” MacAskill said. “We shouldn’t have wars. But inevitably we have them all over the world. As soon as you get over one you’re into another. When people get together in solidarity and decide there won’t be any more wars, then we won’t have to go to the cenotaph to remember things like this.
“We’ll go other places and have fun and enjoy life.”
MacAskill , who followed his father, a veteran of the First World Ward, into military service, said as the years pass,
Remembrance Day grows more and more important in his heart, and more importantly, to his memories of the past.
“As I look around, not only the navy barracks, but the armory, I think about the boys I went to school with, who lived in our neighbourhood, and aren’t here anymore. All of them weren’t killed in the war, they passed in the interim,” he said, following the ceremony at Waverly Park on Friday morning.
“It brings back more than wartime memories, but childhood memories. Having gone to that school across the road and having been baptized in this church, it brings a lot of things together.”
Justice Helen Pierce, an honourary colonel with the Lake Superior Scottish Regiment, was also in attendance Friday morning, and said it’s important to recognize those who served their country in battle.
“It’s important for all Canadians to remember the sacrifice of those who served. So it’s what we do,” she said, hurrying into the Remembrance Day service at St. Paul’s United Church.
Once again the ceremony was well attended, with hundreds of people of all ages lining the park as Silver Cross Mother Caroline McMinn and Royal Canadian Legion Branch No. 5 president Roy Lamore laid the first commemorative wreath at the base of the cenotaph, encircled by a somber honour guard who remained in place until the final wreath was set in place.
Four-by-four they marched until the 11th hour was reached, when a military bugler began the haunting notes of Taps, followed by a 21-gun salute to honour those who died in war in service of Canada.
The ceremony also attracted visitors from south of the border.
Edward Gryskiewicz, 80, served in the Korean War in the United States army, and said he makes the annual trek to Thunder Bay because Americans don’t pay much attention to Veteran’s Day.
“They only lay three wreaths, from 15 organizations, and there are about 15 people, that’s all there is. There are no kids or nothing, only those who come with their parents. But otherwise there are no high school kids or anything participating.”
This year marked the 97th anniversary of the end of the First World War and the 66th of the end of the Second World War.
Canada’s last remaining veteran of the First World War died last year, and MacAskill said it won’t be long before there are none remaining from the Second World War, making the next few Remembrance Days important opportunities for the generations that followed to learn the tragedies of war from those who saw it firsthand.
“There aren’t too many left,” he said.
