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It was a year highlighted by a royal visit, a special ceremony at Dominion Command and a year when change to a more progressive Legion started. Dominion President Patricia (Pat) Varga started the Focus on the Future Committee to look at where The Royal Canadian Legion was headed and how it could get there. A marketing strategy was commissioned and new initiatives started. But throughout the year the regular committees and departments went about their work.

New President, New Approach Proactive, progressive, positive and productive—key words that sum up the year—and they started being used at the dominion convention by a new Dominion President. The 43rd dominion convention of The Royal Canadian Legion in Winnipeg was preceded by a short historic meeting of the Dominion Executive Council (DEC) in Marlborough Hall of the Marlborough Hotel where the Legion was founded. The meeting was followed by a plaque unveiling ceremony by the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada which recognized the founding as an “event of national historic significance.” A private member’s statement was also read into the business [...]

Royal Visit Headlined Year A little after 11 a.m. on November 11, 2009, His Royal Highness, Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales, placed a wreath at the National War Memorial in memory of all Canadians who have died in the military or merchant navy services of Canada. Dressed in his Canadian Forces uniform—he is Colonel-in-Chief of six regiments in Canada—he joined Michaëlle Jean, the Governor General of Canada and Commander-in-Chief of the Canadian Armed Forces, also resplendent in her green army uniform. They formed the vice-regal group, with the national Silver Cross mother, the Prime Minister of Canada, the speakers of both [...]

Year Highlighted By Passing The Torch Ceremony The year marked the 90th anniversary of the end of the First World War, and with one Canadian veteran remaining from that war, there was a special tribute at the National Remembrance Day Ceremony in Ottawa. More than 25,000 attendees and four million TV viewers saw 108-year-old First World War veteran Jack Babcock pass the Torch of Remembrance to Second World War veteran George Dunlop with his wish to “Hold it high.” Dunlop passed the torch to Korean War veteran Al Tobio who passed it to United Nations peacekeeping veteran James Robert O’Brien. Sergeant Randy [...]

In 2007 veterans and Canadians marked several important anniversaries. Fifty years after Canada became a country its troops found themselves at Vimy Ridge, where many say the nation was really born, and Canadian soldiers swept to victory where others could not. It was the first time that Canadian units served together as a Canadian formation.

 

Bob Butt