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Topic: How Would You Vote (Read 215 times)
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Jesse Reed
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Most believe new and old Canadian flags should fly at Vimy Ridge ceremony: poll MICHAEL OLIVEIRA
Fri Mar 23, 11:50 PM ET
TORONTO (CP) - A majority of Canadians want the wishes of veterans respected and two different Canadian flags to fly at next month's ceremony recognizing the 90th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge, a new poll suggests.
The poll, conducted by Ipsos Reid on behalf of the Dominion Institute, found 79 per cent of respondents support the idea of flying both the current flag and the old Canadian "Red Ensign" atop the monument during the April 9 ceremony in Vimy, France.
At the time of the famous First World War battle at Vimy Ridge, the Canadian flag was red with the British Union Jack in the top left corner, and the coats of arms of Canada's first four provinces on the right side. In 1965, the flag was changed to today's Maple Leaf design.
Government protocol dictates that only a Canadian flag can adorn federal monuments; the Vimy monument is considered to be on Canadian soil, even though it's in France.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper, however, has reportedly expressed a desire to see the Red Ensign fly as part of the special ceremony - and on Friday, a spokeswoman for Veteran Affairs Canada all but confirmed both flags would be raised.
"We at Veterans Affairs are working to obtain a Red Ensign from the Vimy period in order to fly it during the ceremonies alongside the national flags of Canada, France and the United Kingdom," Janice Summerby said.
Rudyard Griffiths of the Dominion Institute said he was thrilled that "common sense prevailed" and that history will live on.
"I don't think veterans are saying here that this is about replacing the Maple Leaf or not showing proper respect for the Maple Leaf," he said.
"Quite the contrary, I think it's more an appeal to historical accuracy and an appeal to the reality that this was the flag of Canadians (of that era) and we shouldn't be airbrushing our history. I think for them it's a matter of being true to the history they helped create for Canada."
The most support for the idea was in the Atlantic provinces, where 89 per cent of respondents wanted both flags used. The idea won the least amount of support in Alberta and Quebec - 76 per cent.
Ipsos Reid polled 1,000 Canadians online during a three-day period starting March 20. The results are considered accurate to within 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
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Jesse Reed
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Mike Blais
SSM (NATO Bar), CPSM, UN-Cyp, CD
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A ROYAL CANADIAN "NEVER PASSES A FAULT"
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Both.... I think Vimy Ridge was one of the major defining points of this nation and the precursor to a Canadian flag reflective of this nations honour as an individual nation, not a member of the british Commonwealth.
Queen herself keen to take in Canadian's riveting Vimy Ridge documentary
Lee-Anne Goodman
Canadian Press
Friday, March 23, 2007
Canadian soldiers returning from Vimy Ridge, France during the First World Warin this May, 1917 photo. (CPimages/National Archives of Canada/William Ivor Castle)
CREDIT:
Canadian soldiers returning from Vimy Ridge, France during the First World Warin this May, 1917 photo. (CPimages/National Archives of Canada/William Ivor Castle)
TORONTO (CP) - Considering there's some debate about whether the Queen has yet to see last year's hit movie about her, Canadian documentarian Elliott Halpern was quite chuffed to learn Buckingham Palace has put in a request for his "Vimy Ridge: Heaven to Hell."
After screenings at war museums in both Canada and the U.K., Halpern's 90-minute documentary is now considered an authoritative look at how Canadian soldiers wrested France's pivotal Vimy Ridge from the Germans during the First World War - a stunning military triumph that's considered a seminal moment in the birth of Canadian nationalism.
"Vimy Ridge: Heaven to Hell" airs Monday night on History Television at 8 p.m. ET.
"We've been told two things: that the Queen is going to the recommemoration of the Vimy Monument and for the 90th anniversary in France on April 9, and that Buckingham Palace has requested a copy of the film before she goes," Halpern said in a recent interview.
"And actually, so has the PMO (in Ottawa) and so has the Governor General. So that's pretty neat and very gratifying - they're all going, so I guess they want to see it to help them prepare for the day."
The documentary is a powerful look at how four divisions of Canadian soldiers did the impossible in 1917 - after months of intricate preparation and an innovative battle plan, they swiftly took the seemingly invincible German stronghold in northern France where thousands of British and French soldiers had previously perished in fruitless attempts to seize it.
"This was a 3-D battle - it was an incredibly unified vision for a battle in the air, on the ground and also underground," said Halpern, whose Toronto-based Yap Films produced the documentary.
"Our mission statement was to show how those three dimensions of the battle were brilliantly put together, and to attempt an explanation on why Canadians were successful in taking a ridge where 200,000 British and French soldiers had died."
The documentary follows historians and archeologists as they excavate large areas of the battlefield, discovering everything from the stray bones of soldiers who were clearly blown to bits and a relatively pristine pack of Craven A cigarettes, to some Canadian artifacts including a metal emblem from a uniform.
They also ventured into the underground spaces where many Canadian soldiers lived while awaiting battle - a network of tunnels that hadn't been explored in 90 years. It was the first time, Halpern said, that such an underground village had been constructed to spare soldiers the common fate of being killed in the trenches before ever going to battle.
The sight of the graffiti from Canadian soldiers adorning the underground walls is particularly moving since it's clear so many of them feared they would not survive the approaching warfare.
Numerous maple leafs were etched by men and boys from places as far and wide as Vancouver and New Liskeard, Ont., long before the symbol was officially adopted for the Canadian flag, suggesting a true sense of nationalism was developing for a country that was not yet 50 years old at the time.
"There were other major achievements after Vimy by the Canadian corps that some would argue were even bigger and more important ultimately to the winning of the war, but Vimy was this massive shift because it was the first and it was such an enormous success," Halpern said.
The intelligence of the battle plan, especially the Canadians' use of wireless communications between those in the air and the troops on the ground, also earned Canada worldwide respect.
"They rethought tactics that had been used before and they added to them," Halpern said. "They actually had observers and pilots in the air using wireless communication to directly send co-ordinates to gun batteries, and that was really extraordinary. As a result they knocked out 83 per cent of the German guns before the battle started, and that was huge part of the victory."
The documentary also follows three soldiers from Goderich, Ont., each fighting in a different dimension of the battle - one by air, one on the ground, and one working in the battlefield tunnels, adding a personal element to "Vimy Ridge: Heaven to Hell."
"The Canadian soldiers are known to be free-thinking, free-drinking, hard-fighting," one historian says during the film. "They're not very prone to saluting at the right times and they're a bit scruffy."
But as the battle loomed, the Germans cared little about the personal habits of the Canadians, according to some German intelligence unearthed during the documentary.
The Germans write of fearing the might of a particular segment of the British army: "Four of the best English attack divisions, the Canadians," the intelligence papers say.
In the end, they had every reason to fear.
On April 9, 1917, all four Canadian divisions attacked side by side, capturing the front line in 30 minutes, a second line two hours later, and within a day, the highest point on Vimy Ridge. The entire German stronghold had fallen by April 12.
"It was a stunning and complete victory, and that's where they became Canadians," Halpern says.
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1RCR 1977-79 Depot (Italy PL), B Coy, Mortars, Pioneers, D Coy (CFB London)
3RCR 1979-82 M Coy, Pipes & Drums, Sigs, Mortars. (CFB Baden-Soellingen)
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1992 Medical release. God Bless you all!
Pro Patria
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blackdog
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without any hesitation i would vote for both flags.
hugh mackenzie.
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george burrows
redpatch43
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2002
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I would vote for the Red Ensign if one is available. After all it was under this flag that our ww 1 vets went to war , fought and those who were killed , died fighting under it.
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ranrad
Ron [Andy] Andrews
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Yes , for sure .. please fly both flags, for thses guys , did fight , die and win for ultimately , both flags....i am sure they would all be pleased to see them both...ranrad
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RCAF,CAF, converted RCR?,1RCR 74-77 CD: SSM (Nato);CPSM,;UN-Cyp.; UN- Golan
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