Veteran brings message of unity at New Glasgow ceremony
An air force veteran urged Canadians to put aside their differences and instead focus on serving both their country and fellow citizens at the Remembrance Day ceremony in New Glasgow Saturday.
Michael Simmons, who served in the air force as a military policeman from 1952 to 1980, was posted throughout Canada, Cold War-era Western Europe and the Middle East.
“Stand tall as a Canadian. Stand tall, shoulder-to-shoulder with each other and don’t look at each other [for] what colour you are, what language you speak, but look at them as Canadians,” said Simmons in his Remembrance Day address at the Cenotaph.
He spoke in front of several hundred people gathered around the Cenotaph, including members of the Royal Canadian Legion, Nova Scotia Highlanders, Army Cadets, police, firefighters and others.
Simmons reminded his audience that those veterans who fought and died in both world wars and later conflicts fought for a vision of unity, and it was now up to the today’s generation to carry the torch forward.
“We shall survive and we owe them the debt,” said Simmons.
He also told The News that Canada’s federal government must set aside politics and make sure that Canada’s military has the equipment it needs “to get the job done.”
But Simmons said the military is a still solid career choice for Canadians – and his message for anyone thinking about it was simple.
After the ceremony Hamm, together with local war memorial society president Gerald K. MacDonald and the Hon. James L. Grant, a former judge.
The panel charts the East River Valley’s military history from 1776, when the 84th Royal Highland Emigrant Regiment was granted land after fighting for Britain during the American Revolution.
Through the late 18th and into the 19th Centuries men from the valley defended Atlantic Canada from hostile French, American and Irish Fenian forces.
In the last 100 years, men and women from the East River Valley served in the First and Second World Wars, as well as United Nations peacekeeping missions.
One local war veteran was Ronald Ellsworth MacDonald, who passed away in 1993, five decades after fighting in the Second World War.
His son Blake MacDonald laid a wreath in Ronald’s honour.
“He didn’t talk too much about it,” said MacDonald. “He didn’t tell us nothing really about it, but Mum used to say he had a hard time.”
Three new names were added to the Cenotaph. These were Lieut. Edna Christena Margaret Hattie, Pte. Bert MacIntosh and F/O Robert Gerard Hattie.