Better than the Best

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Happy Canada Day, folks!
If you’re raising a glass in celebration today, remember to raise one in remembrance too. For on this day in 1916, The Royal Newfoundland Regiment went over the top in the Battle of the Somme at Beaumont-Hamel.
Of the 780 men who went forward, only sixty eight were available for roll call the following day.
So raise a glass and say your thanks for this great nation, and save a thought for those who gave their all to make it so.

56 Replies to “Better than the Best”

  1. Thanks for the reminder Kate and here’s to all the great men and women past and present who offer their lives to defend us from tyranny and terror.
    They are all great Canadian heroes and it is because of them that we have this great country.

  5. Listen to Great Big Sea’s “Recruiting Sergeant” – the song references this battle.
    …in the trenches with the regiment, prepare yourselves to die. At the roll call next morning, just a handful survived… Enlist you Newfoundlanders and come follow me!”
    Youtube – http://youtube.com/watch?v=knxR-Q2VoBE

  6. Here’s a wish for a happy day to all the good people of Canada, whatever you choose to call the day!

  9. Yeah the boys from Newfoundland were brave souls indeed. Too bad they such inhumane commanders. The commanders were what I call, “we know best elitists”.
    Never forget the day I was promoted to 1st Lieutenant. I had 5 corporals loading tables onto a truck. Out of boredom and a desire to get the job done quickly and safely I began to help so that there was always one person on each end of a table. A few moments after I began a major happened along and asked to speak to me in private.
    I will never forget his words spoken with a British accent, “You are an officer in Her Majesty’s Canadian Armed Forces”. “You do not do manual labour!”
    I replied “Yes sir”, waited until he had left and went back to work loading tables. Safely, quickly and I might add with added respect from the corporals.
    I remain to this day a die hard republican and can’t wait until we as a nation shed the Ontario based elitist colonialism that so dominates the Liberal party today.

  10. Oh, AQS – for heaven’s sake, please separate. Leave. Go.
    We are tired of supporting you socially and legally, tired of funding your socialism to the tune of our, not your, tax billions per year, tired of listening to your rants of Gimme, gimme..or I’ll run away from home.
    For heaven’s sake. Grow up. Leave. Separate. Please. Since you clearly consider yourself enslaved, unfree, bonded and disparaged – then please go somewhere else. Please separate.

  11. Quebec is going anywhere. They are too cowardly. So Quebec, sit down and shut up.

  12. Happy Dominion Day everyone.
    In days of yore from Britian’s shore
    Wolfe the dauntless hero came
    And planted firm Brittania’s flag
    On Canada’s fair domain
    Long may she wave, our boast our pride
    And join in love together
    The thistle, shamrock, rose entwine’
    The Maple Leaf Forever!
    The Maple leaf, our emblem dear
    The Maple leaf forever,
    God Save Our Queen and heaven bless
    The Maple Leaf forever!

  13. By the way, with reference to the 1916 Newfoundland regiment’s battle – they weren’t fighting on Canada’s behalf; they weren’t part of Canada until after the next war.
    But we must remain vigilante, always, for what they and others were fighting for in our wars. Freedom. Freedom of the individual.
    We must resist the idea that there exists an elitist set of ”chosen thinkers’ who operate as moral, social, and political authorities in governance over us. Who decide for us what is ‘right’ to think and speak and do.
    We see the clearest example of this in the Human Rights Commissioners, a throwback to medieval censorship and thought-control.
    Freedom isn’t a gift; it’s a right and must be guarded and protected by, and for, the people.

  14. Forgot to put the quotes deserved of the French president D’gual leader of the Nation that sold Quebec Province (lower Canada) to the British for Trinidad and Tobago, oops
    “Franky” has no home.

  17. Thanks for the reminder Kate and here’s to all the great men and women past and present who offer their lives to defend us from tyranny and terror. They are all great Canadian heroes and it is because of them that we have this great country.
    Posted by: Phil at July 1, 2008 10:30 AM
    Bravo!
    Every country has it’s problems. I’m sure there are millions, if not billions of people around the world who would love to live in a country with Canada’s “problems”.
    I find the level of regional slagging in Canada disturbing and corrosive.
    The smug, self serving elitists in central Canada who view westerners in the way the 1700’s British nobility viewed it’s colonists in New England. These people dishonor the spirit of what a federation is all about.
    Equally tiresome are some of my fellow westerners who want to play the separation card everytime some Librano supporting latte slurper writes a patronizing column in the Red Star. Ask your nearest neighborhood American about the potential side effects of playing with secession matches.
    Beautiful day in Calgary. Bills are getting paid. We have a brilliant and common sense decision maker in the PMO. I haven’t come so close to actually feeling proud of being a Canadian for decades, if ever.
    DLTBSGYD.

  18. After watching his pro-forma “Canada Day” Address, I’ve sent the following to the PM:
    Prime Minister
    As a Conservative, Reform, Alliance, Conservative Canadian (and direct descendent of the Hon. Robert Baldwin), I send greetings on this Dominion Day.
    Thank you for your words of greeting to all Canadians, albeit, while wearing your rose coloured glasses.
    Mr. Harper, I believe the strong country you describe has termites at its base: namely, the several Human Rights (sic) Commissions.
    Their totalitarian zeal, their unaccountable and considerable powers—allowed by you and your fellow legislators—their kangaroo courts, and their entire lack of due process are a serious threat to law abiding citizens of this country. Those most at risk appear to be those on whose culture our democracy rests: observant CHRISTIANS.
    I am waiting for your government to take a principled stand on this issue in order to protect the rights of ALL Canadians. As long as, on your watch, Mr. Prime Minister, the mainly Christian victims of the HRCs are left to pay the heavy price of the vindictive harassment and harsh persecution they’ve endured at the hands of these AGENTS OF THE STATE, which would make a snug fit in any gulag, I will question your and your government’s sincerity about building a strong, united country. Without JUSTICE, Sir, such a vision is only a mirage.
    If you and your government are willing to include in your ideal of a just country the marginalization, persecution, and punishment, outside due process—an accurate description of the HRCs—of certain law-abiding citizens, you and your government are unworthy of support. Indeed, until there is some concrete action on this file, I have transferred any funds I might give to the CPC to the innocent victims of HRC persecution, in the guise of the jackboots of the state: CANADA, in this case.
    I’m waiting—and have been for some time—to know that the CPC is a cut above the other, always politically expedient, lefty parties in this country, which are more than willing to sacrifice the integrity and well-being of those Canadians who are politically incorrect. It is most distressing to think that the CPC may be no different.
    With best wishes to you and your family –
    My name
    I wonder if I’ll receive any answer of substance. I certainly do not hold my breath.

  20. During the coming months the Regiment grew as new members arrived. In time, the proud men of the Newfoundland Regiment were given the opportunity they had wanted, a chance to fight for their homeland.
    On the battlefield these proud soldiers solidified their place in history. The Regiment earned no less than 280 separate decorations, 77 of which were awarded to original members of the “first 500” of which 170 were killed in action. In fact, one in every seven men among the original force received some sort of military honour.
    Read the rest @
    http://tinyurl.com/4oep58
    On July 1st I wear a rememberance poppy with a NL flag pin in place of the poppy pin until noon and then celebrate Dominion Day after lunch. Thanks to Damian for posting this and thanks to Shane for a great song.

  21. Yeah, I have to echo some of the observations above. The RNR weren’t necessarily fighting for Canada back in 1916 but they were fighting for freedom and democracy for the western world, along with all the other brave souls of the British Commonwealth. Thank G*d the CBC wasn’t reporting the event.
    Not surprisingly, those brave soldiers’ families they left behind are still (for the most part) displaying the courage and fortitude to “get-R-done” in the modern world. Whining Danny excluded of course.

  22. Great country, great people, our’s to hold or to lose.I know which side I’m on! With steven Harper and Brad Wall I think we can make a start to take back this beautiful land of our’s

  23. I was a proud Canadian. The sacrifices that our vets from every corner of this dirt lot made are to be respected.
    Unfortunately a large demographic in this country hold different beliefs. That’s allowed but there are consequences.
    We are reaping those consequences with the extension of Ontario’s HRC powers and parameters in the face of public scorn.
    This isn’t over yet.
    Hence my lack of pride.
    Syncro

  25. I think of WWI whenever the Europeans try to tell us how sophisticated they are, and how their ways are better. The Treaty of Verseilles, the Peace to End All Peace, was they last time anybody should have taken Europe’s advice on anything. Drawing lines in the sand in the middle east we are still fighting over, to name just one.
    OT re Q atheist
    You ever see that movie “Good Cop, Bon Cop”? He is in flagrente delecto with the woman and she is shouting, at climax “Vive le Quebec libre!,Vive le Quebec libre!”
    No good deed is left unpunished. The Brits should have forbade the speaking of French the first time you conquered Quebec, never mind the second time. IMHO

  26. Happy Canada day,and some heart felt sympathies for any conservative stuck living in Toronto.It took me ten years waiting for a transfer,huge list of employees wanting to leave and nobody wanting to transfer in.I was there for Bob Rae and thought it couldn’t get worse,boy was I wrong.

  27. Consider it done DAMIAN!
    Thought the CBC blathering on this morning about it being “Stanley Cup” day on the rock rather inapporpriate this AM.

  30. Happy Dominion Day/Canada Day everyone! Perhaps this is the day to look at the great side of our country and suppress the ugly side; for just this one day. I’m not sure but I may just go out and put out that flag I have stored in the closet this afternoon. There is hope for the first time in my lifetime with the new CPC Government in Ottawa and the good possibility they will be re-elected with a majority.
    My $100.00 gift from the taxpayers of B.C. will go to the CPC. The best place for it.
    The RNR didn’t sit on their arses when the time came; I suggest we all do likewise.

  31. Thanks Damian, I stood today at the St. John`s War memorial for the Memorial Day Service and as a retired military man I was proud to see so many children, a sign that there are still folks who are passing on the values fought for so long ago. I even have to give credit to Our Danny who had two of his grandchildren help him lay a wreath.I met one of my aunts who walked over 5,yup, five miles to the ceremony and refused a ride home and she is suffering from cancer and osteoporosis. Tough or what! Almost every family has someone that was related who paid the ultimate sacrifice.
    For those who should keep quiet today, General Patton said, “I would rather have a German battalion in front of me than a French one behind me.“

  32. Dear (true) Canadians,
    Happy Canada/Dominion Day, from me and my gang –including my kid getting ready to deploy, she gives her warmest regards to her brothers and sisters in Canada — you guys rock!
    Sincerely,
    Midwestern American family who thinks they might have more in common with their western cousins to the north than they do with the loonies on each of our coasts

  33. Happy Canada Day Kate
    You have one of the most stimulating, outstanding Weblogs in Canada today.
    Keep up the great work!

  34. http://tinyurl.com/3scsz9
    Sergeant Craig Paul Gillam, C.D. (posthumous)
    Petawawa, Ontario
    Mention in Dispatches
    On October 3, 2006, Sergeant Gillam’s observation post in Pashmul, Afghanistan, was attacked by enemy fighters firing small arms and rocket-propelled grenades from an unidentified location. Without regard to his own safety, Sergeant Gillam immediately moved to a position from which he could identify and indicate the enemy position to the remainder of his patrol. He valiantly stood his ground and maintained suppressing fire until he fell to the enemy’s fire. Sergeant Gillam’s courageous actions and personal sacrifice during a devastating enemy attack contributed to saving the lives of his fellow soldiers through the rapid identification of the enemy position.

  35. To the family of Sergeant Craig Paul Gillam, sincere condolences and gratitude.

  36. Happy Dominion Day everyone!
    We should never forget that the name was illegally changed!
    Eventually, they got around to “tidying up” that little point.

  37. Thanks, Glenn.
    Lest we forget . . .
    (I think most Canadians have amnesia. “No problem, be happy.” NOT.)

  39. Just wondering AQS, are all quebeckers lazy arrogant neir do wells wanting to constanly suck off the public tit? Don’t you EVER feel ashamed that you have never done anything of any value for you community or your country? I guess after a while it just becomes second nature for you.
    Horny Toad

  40. Happy Dominion Day
    As I write this, I am thinking about human rights tribunals, just for one. If I praise a Canadian soldier who fought and died for me, will I offend someone? Will I be dragged before an hrc?
    Well, it seems to me, our greatest offense was allowing this country to slip so far down without a shot even being fired. All those boys and girls who died for FREEDOM OF SPEECH. I can’t help but think they are rolling over in their graves at our betrayal of their sacrifice. If we lose Free Speech, these young people who died for us will have died in vain. I’m feeling somewhat sheepish actually. Do I have their courage, to carry on their fight for freedom, or have I grown old and fat, justifying my betrayal of their honorable deaths?

  41. I’ll be drinking down some Alexander Keith’s, Moosehead, Big Rock, Kokanee and Blue. All to celebrate this great nation.
    Sorry Saskatchewan, but not even my swelling national pride can convince me to drink Pilsner…

  42. Happy Dominion of Canada Day!
    A bit of our heritage:
    “He shall have dominion from sea to sea and from the river unto the ends of the earth (From Sea to sea).” Psalm 72:8
    God keep our land glorious and free!
    And we’ll do what we can about the HRC.
    Thanks to our girls and guys in uniform,too…you have become a symbol of respect and pride for us!
    Thanks Kate for this forum.
    Firewoks tonight!Let’s celebrate that the left hasn’t taken us all the way down the drain yet!

  43. “I’ll be drinking down some Alexander Keith’s, Moosehead, Big Rock, Kokanee and Blue. All to celebrate this great nation.”
    Watch it YG, don’t mix yer suds.
    btw, Pilsner is brewed in Lethbridge as in Alberta last time I checked. Note of joy: Big Rock’s Grasshopper is available in Nova Scotia!

  44. Happy 141, Canada. I love and am proud of my beautiful country but today I am saddened at what Canada is becoming. As a country we are loosing our sense of moral decency. We are now on the verge of banning free speech. We allow immigrants to come live here and have them dictate to us how we should conduct ourselves so that we don’t “offend” them. Our governments set up human rights bodies to ensure that us WASP Canadians stay in line. And now, my country is going to give our highest civilian honor, the Order of Canada, to our pre-eminent Butcher of Babies. We are difinitely going in the wrong direction in this beautiful country of ours. Some say “God save the Queen”. I say “God save Canada”!

  45. a recent poll states that only 59% of Canadians feel patriotic
    probably because Canada is now a “fake” democracy….
    eventually they’ll have to build a wall around to keep people here

  46. To all my fellow Canadians I say – Not all Quebecers are like AQS, some of us are good and do despise the Left.
    Happy Canada Day!

  47. June 1, 1916: the day the nation of Newfoundland
    died
    My grandfather was a blue puttee (as was my great uncle) – one of the first five hundred to set sail out of St. John’s on the Florizel (that later would be involved in another tragedy – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Florizel) the best and the brightest of an entire generation was on that boat and very few returned – my Grandfather and great uncle being two of the few – and many of those were drastically diminished from what they were before. this book does an Okay job of outlining the scale of the loss http://www.amazon.com/Danger-Tree-Memory-Search-Familys/dp/0802776167.
    The horrors my grandfather witnessed (he apparently was an ambulance driver) he took to his grave…

  48. Happy Canada Day! From one of your downstairs neighbors in the States.
    Keep up the good fight my friends. Your country and our continent need you!
    “The True North strong and free!” – Indeed!

  49. Happy Canada Day, friends, thank God we share a common border. Canada is beautiful. It is in spite of the diminishing political era of misguided lefty weasels, an aberration, America’s best and valued friend. How many countries in history have shared a border this long, except for terrorist security in place now, with no fence or thought given to it.
    We are living in a scary world where shared values are becoming clearer and dearer. At the end of the day, Americans and Canadians will do the right thing together.

  50. If you think this is Dominion day you probably think Elvis is out in the barn.
    Canadians have just chosen Pierre Trudeau as number 11 in the eikons of Canada.

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