Archive for September, 1999

Royal tours Of Canada are normally associated with official receptions, visits to public institutions, speeches, state balls, formal luncheons and fancy banquets. Besides such formalities, the itinerary usually offers the royal visitor an opportunity to participate in field sports and other diversions for pleasure and recreation. The early royal tours of our country–those of 1860, 1901 and 1919–were no exception as the inclusion of hunting, fishing and fast-paced rafting allowed royal visitors a chance to escape from their hectic public duties. In 1860, [...]

by Bill Fairbairn “The happy part is remembering that after Normandy we advanced to victory.” So said Ken Sloggett in June, near the end of a 12-day pilgrimage marking the 55th anniversary of D-Day. The tour organized by Veterans Affairs Canada took 60 Canadian veterans and 10 youth and cadet representatives to France and England. Sloggett should know. The Niagara Falls, Ont., resident was a private with the Lincoln and Welland Regiment in 1944, that August in the thick of Allied forces fighting desperately to close what was known as the Falaise Gap, hoping to snare German troops by then in retreat. Only [...]

For the Canadian wine industry, spring 1999 was a heady time indeed. First, in late April, the Ontario government passed legislation that would make it easier for the province’s wineries to market their products abroad. Six weeks later, Brock university in St. Catharines, Ont., opened Inniskillin Hall, home to Canada’s first degree-granting programs in winemaking and grape growing. Throughout the spring, Canadian wineries picked up prizes in international competitions. The latest available figures, from 1997, showed that the 42 wineries tracked by Statistics Canada and Industry Canada employed 1,377 people and had annual sales totalling $480 million. When newer wineries and [...]

On July 30, 1944, Lieutenant-General Guy Simonds summoned the senior officers of 2nd Canadian Corps to his main headquarters at the chateau in Cairon, northwest of Caen. There was complete silence as Simonds described the deeds that had won the Victoria Cross for Major J.K. Mahoney of the Westminster Regiment (Motor) in Italy just a couple of weeks before. Mahoney’s company, with a troop of light recce tanks from the Lord Strathcona’s Horse (Royal Canadians), had seized a bridgehead across the Melfa River and held it against repeated counterattacks. There was an edge to Simonds’ voice as he spelled out “the [...]