REASONS TO COMMEMORATE JULY 1
July 1 in this province is celebrated as Memorial Day and Canada Day. Some celebrate this day as Memorial Day only, some as Canada Day only, and some as both Memorial Day and Canada Day. And for some, this day is a simple holiday.
I like to celebrate July 1 as Canada Day as I have lived and worked in three provinces and visited 10 provinces on many occasions, on business and pleasure. I first set foot in Canada in Montreal in 1967 after a relaxing seven-day voyage across the Atlantic on the Carinthia from Liverpool. I enjoyed another three relaxing days visiting Expo 67 before travelling westwards by train on the CP line.
I like to celebrate July 1 as Memorial Day for two reasons. At the beginning of the First World War, my father and his elder brother joined the armed forces. My father aged 16 joined the Royal Marines and his brother (my uncle) aged 17 joined the army. The latter was assigned to a regiment in France and he was killed at the Battle of the Somme, along with many Newfoundlanders at the time.
For part of the First World War, my father served as part of the North Atlantic fleet protecting supply ships and looking for enemy ships. He became quite familiar with the eastern shores of Newfoundland and Canada. After that war, he was assigned to HMS Hood until the beginning of the Second World War. He finally left the armed forces in 1946.
Secondly, I like to celebrate July 1 as a graduate of Memorial University, which was built to celebrate Newfoundlanders who sacrificed their lives during the First World War.
Some years I was out of the province on July 1 on holiday with my family visiting friends and relatives. On such occasions my thoughts were elsewhere, taking advantage of the situation at the time. Some holidays were a reminder of war zones; on some visits to Northern Ireland, my family was frequently stopped by military, fully armed, at unscheduled stopping points and questioned and on one occasion the car searched.
It is a pleasure to live in a country and a province where we are not in armed conflict and where we can go about our business and pleasure in peace, notwithstanding an invasion of COVID-19.
Ian Mcmaster
St. John’s