November 10, 2005

Prime Minister Martin today issued the following statement for Remembrance Day:

“Brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, neighbours and friends, today we think longingly and gratefully of our loved ones serving Canada, at home and overseas – and of all those who have given their lives in the line of duty.

In the Memorial Chamber of the Peace Tower there are six Books of Remembrance, which contain the names of Canadian soldiers who died in the First and Second World Wars; the Korean War; during wartime service in the Merchant Navy and during the Nile Expedition and South African War; and of men and women from Newfoundland who fought and died for Canada before the Province joined Confederation.

This year, the Year of the Veteran, we are dedicating “The Seventh Book of Remembrance – In the Service of Canada,” in which the names of nearly 1,300 members of the Canadian Forces are inscribed: soldiers and peacekeepers who died outside of these campaigns since October 1947. Many of them gave their lives not in a war with a beginning and an end, but while standing on guard – for us, and for freedom, all over the world.

They will always be remembered. Not only as we come together this morning, lighting up our cities and town squares with red poppies on Remembrance Day; and not only in the quiet chamber of the Peace Tower, where more than half a million Canadians pay their respects to our war dead every year; but throughout the world, where a red Maple Leaf will signify for others, forever, what the poppy means to us: courage, hopefulness and peace.”