Prime Minister Stephen J. Harper was in Holland on this date in 2010 to take part in ceremonies marking the 65th anniversary of that nation’s liberation from the Nazis. Canadians, of course, played the major role in ridding the long-suffering nation from the tyranny they have lived under for five years.
"This army, more than 175,000 Canadians, reinforced by Dutch and Allied forces, fought its way from Normandy to Rotterdam, field by field, canal by canal," Harper said during his speech at a Dutch cemetery where 1,000 Canadians are buried. "They crossed deep, boot-sucking mud, they passed over ground heavily mined. And around them and before them always, the dreadful rattle of the machine-gun..."
"These Canadians did not fight for their country's gain,” he continued. “It was not for the sake of our power in the world, for the riches of our citizens, or even hatred of the foe they faced. No, this army of Canadians fought then for the only thing their country fights to this day -- that which is right."
Arthur Milnes is an accomplished public historian and award-winning journalist. He was research assistant on The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney’s best-selling Memoirs and also served as a speechwriter to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as a Fellow of the Queen’s Centre for the Study of Democracy under the leadership of Tom Axworthy. A resident of Kingston, Ontario, Milnes serves as the in-house historian at the 175 year-old Frontenac Club Hotel.