Murray Wood: The poppy seems to be endangered in Canada these days
With Remembrance Day approaching, Murray Wood says he's not seeing as many poppies as he used to. Wood says he hopes the...
With less than a week before Remembrance Day, people with poppies over their hearts gathered for a short ceremony at the Legislative Building in Regina, as music flowed out of the rotunda on Wednesday.
Col. Jason Quilliam, the provincial government’s chief of protocol and the secretary of the Saskatchewan Order of Merit, said this year’s ceremonies mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War on Sept. 2, 1945.
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“Those dates are not merely historical footnotes,” he said. “They’re solemn reminders of the cost of peace. They speak to a time when the world was fractured by violence, and yet from that darkness, hope emerged, carried by those who served — many of whom never returned.”
Quilliam said he was reminded of something Second World War veteran Nick Kazuska said before his death in September of 2024 at the age of 104.
“Reflecting on his wartime experience decades later, he offered a simple yet profound truth,” Quilliam said.
“I quote: ‘There’s Remembrance Day just about every day for me.’ Those words remind us that remembrance is not confined to a single date on the calendar for those who served. It’s a lifelong reflection. A quiet, enduring tribute to the comrades lost and sacrifices made.”
Quilliam said remembrance isn’t passive; it’s an active promise to remember those who sacrificed their lives for the freedoms all Canadians enjoy.
Premier Scott Moe laid a wreath outside of the Legislative building at the Saskatchewan War Memorial on Wednesday in remembrance of those who died in the line of duty.
“I’m reminded of just how fortunate we are to have lived so long in our country without war at our doorstep,” he said. “But we must be reminded that with the current geopolitical landscape that we see today, that this could change at any time.
