Archive for January, 2010

It was a day of mixed emotions for Captain Simon Mailloux. In the morning he became one of the first 46 individuals to be recognized with the new Sacrifice Medal presented by Governor General Michaëlle Jean and that evening he was shipping out for another tour of operations in Afghanistan. Walking now with a prosthesis that uses the latest high technology, he was philosophical when speaking to reporters after the Nov. 9 ceremony at Rideau Hall in Ottawa. “Going to war is not something we like to do, but it is something we have to do,” he said. Mailloux, then a lieutenant [...]

How typically and wonderfully Canadian it is that the origins of our navy can be found not in some grand idea to build an all-powerful ocean fleet, but in the practical need to protect our national interest in cod and turbot. And how typically Canadian is it that when our tired and soaked corvette crews—returning from service on the stormy North Atlantic—encountered American sailors who could not help but wonder why the Canadians manning those sea-battered little escort ships weren’t receiving submariner’s pay. Canada has a proud and storied naval history, and while it is true that our ongoing interest in enforcing [...]

One hundred years ago, on Jan. 12, 1910, the government of Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier introduced the Naval Service Bill. After third and final reading on May 4, the bill received royal assent and Laurier, who had been prime minister since 1896, achieved one of his fondest dreams: the establishment of a Canadian navy. Laurier’s plan called for a fleet of five cruisers and six torpedo-boat destroyers. This was a tidy little squadron capable of effective patrolling off Canada’s coasts, and big enough to establish a Canadian service, with a shipyard to build and maintain the fleet, operational bases, recruitment depots, [...]