“The twentieth century belongs to Canada”
Sir Wilfrid Laurier – Canadian Prime minister 1896-1911
I spoke of our long fight for freedom and independence to govern ourselves earlier in my “It’s a part of our history” and my “A september to remember” posts. The speak in volumes to how Canada’s history continues to be huge impact on people’s lives not only in Canada but also around the world. However, in these posts I never spoke of how Canada went from small colony and dominion of the british empire into a great world power of the 21st century.
“Canadian nationalism is a subtle, easily misunderstood but powerful reality, expressed in a way that is not to state directed – something like a beer commercial or the death of a significant Canadian figure.”
Paul Kopas
As I have gotten older I have begun to understand what it means to be canadian. Over the many years I have built up my identity as a person but never really thought about when Canada came of its age. Over the course of the trip I would encounter the very moments in time that helped define and create the Canada that we know and love today. Of course we discussed Vimy Ridge as it arguably the day canada was born to the world stage but we also discussed other smaller events such as Passchendaele, the battle of the atlantic, the cold war, parliament hill and so many more events crucial to our growth as a nation and beyond.
Encounters with canada is government funded program in which high school kids from all across canada meet in Ottawa to spend a week doing a number of activities together. Each week has theme that the week will focus on and for us it was “Vimy Ridge; A birth of a nation”. As the week transpired we were hit with whatever we were doing on the day of instead of having time to prepare for the day ahead we were surprised. At first I thought I’d hate it but I quickly came to like unpredictability of it. As much as the events that we participated in were cool what I found the most interesting was the social element of the encounters, meeting kids from around country was cool. So many different people from the far reaches of canada. During the trip I began to talk the whole PLP group a lot more, to name a few Daniel, Melika, Luca J, Maggie and Lauren I would never really talk to ever before this trip but it brought me much closer to them and that’s what these trips are all about.
The Canadian war memorial is powerful symbol of all the sacrifice that canadians endured during the many great world conflicts. World war 1, 2, the korean war and the afghanistan war to name a few. Looking back it’s hard to understand the life of canada’s citizens in the early 1900’s. This monument can help bridge the gap between the very different reality’s that we live in today’s world. The monument pays its respects to all those that serve and to all those that served. Nurses, Infantry, Cavalry and all other branches of military are all represented in a large symbol as a statue found in the middle of the structure. One of the days we were there we participated in a memorial ceremony at the monument. The ceremony was to commemorate all those who served.
The Canadian war museum is another example of symbol of sacrifice. Throughout the museum there are many artifacts that symbolize canada and symbolize the history of war. Sections highlighting both world wars as well as the cold war. Visuals that seemed to speak the the very viewer himself. Reading the timeline of events was avery immersive experience. To add was the truly incredible architecture, every window and every support beam seemed to have a purpose to some end. We learned about in depth about the many wars that canada fought in. We began to understand the true complexity of war. I found the museum displayed the stories at micro level compared to what is generally displayed as big numbers that can’t be truly comprehended.
Visiting parliament was another experience we had the privilege of participating in. We took a tour of the whole parliament even getting to see the senate. The parliament building will start to be renovated in the next year so we saw a experience that wouldn’t be possible come another 5 years. Inside parliament we saw the parliamentary library which is huge symbol of Canada’s history as its construction goes back to when the original parliament building was constructed in the 1800’s. We also took an elevator up to the top of peace tower and we got view of the downtown of gatineau and Ottawa. The peace tower was constructed in between the 2 world wars and it was powerful symbol of peace for all canadians. At the base of peace tower is a room where every canadian who died in service since the first world war is engraved on the wall. The parliament building is a powerful source of pride for many canadians and I have to say I agree with their sentiments
Throughout the week we created a scrapbook style book on the app of book creator. As I worked on the book I struggled to convey the emotion and all the events of the trip but at least it paints a little picture of how the trip was. When creating the book I made sure incorporate my styles into the book. At times my style seemed to not fit but in the end I believe the pages blend well together, even if some don’t really seem to fit they look fine when put together. The book I created is a full of great memories from this trip and i hope i continue to remember it as such a great experience.
