In 1918, Canadians turned to the duty of commemorating the dead.
Canada’s most prominent domestic war monument is the National War Memorial in Ottawa, which is the focus, on 11 November, of a nationally televised Remembrance Day ceremony, traditionally attended by the governor general, the prime minister, senior Legion officials and a large parade of veterans.
But perhaps more important than that national symbol are the over 7,000 war memorials that were built in the years following the First World War. Monuments commemorating the lives of Canadians who died in conflicts overseas occupy a prominent place in towns and cities throughout Canada. Most were erected in the 1920s and 1930s, they come in many different varieties: stone soldiers, rock cairns, bronze tablets and polished granite obelisks are among the most common. Each war memorial is unique.
The names of subsequent wars were later added to many of these memorials to include the remembrance of war dead from the Second World War, the Korean War and the War in Afghanistan, as well as from peacekeeping missions and other international military engagements. In all, more than 1.6 million Canadians have served in Canada’s Armed Forces and more than 118,000 have died in foreign conflicts.
Some of them were living memorials to the dead. They were called Roads of Remembrance. These linear tree-lined avenues had trees that were typically a single species, regularly spaced along each side of the avenue that would grow tall and stately. A small plaque was used to assign a particular tree to a specific fallen soldier. In some cases, the next-of-kin was involved in purchasing the tree and/or plaque for the deceased soldier.
In Toronto a living memorial, the groves of Coronation Park commemorate the service and sacrifice of Canada's military. The tree at the center of the circle, known as King's Oak, is the park's symbolic heart. Surrounding the King's Oak is a ring of maple trees representing the former British Empire's dominions and colonies. Trees in other groves commemorate Canada's military units, principally of the First World War.
In Victoria Shelbourne Street is designated as a Road of Remembrance or Memorial Avenue to serve as a tribute to fallen soldiers. The original intention was that Shelbourne Street should include one tree for every British Columbian who died in the war. The London Planetree was selected because of its longevity. Some 600 trees were planted but that number proved insufficient as ten times as many men and women from British Columbia died in the Great War.
Trees used as memorials are seen as symbols of life that embodied the spirit of idealism that emerged following the horrors of the First World War.
The tradition of planting trees as a memorial has not ended. In 2013 local Boy Scouts and adults in planted Maple trees as a tribute in Sarnia, Ontario’s Heritage Park.
While the immediate threat of war for Canada is low, fear of war has become more common. "Experts" warn of the heightened risk of being drawn into a regional conflict as a Western ally due to global instability. While a US invasion is highly unlikely public tensions have increased and many of those same experts suggest that we need to move to a wartime footing in all respects – economically, socially, politically as well as militarily.
New data from the non-profit Angus Reid Institute finds half (49%) of Canadians willing to fight for their country in the event of an armed conflict, but among this half, most say they would only do so if they “agreed with the reasons for fighting”. History teaches us that if armed conflict should erupt many will discover that, regardless of the circumstances, they do agree with the reasons for fighting
On this Remembrance Day let us pray that no more memorials will be needed, that no more trees will have to be planted.
They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;
They fell with their faces to the foe.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
