A Part of Our Heritage - Flanders Fields

[kpv22]

Colm Feore, what a dream. <3

[inyourdreams1000]

im in school right now <3 !

[cosmicexplorer22]

i remember this commercial!

[1988scottcarey]

What they ment to say is, soldiering is part of the canadian identity you killed one of us and he will always be remembered!

[lolzman228]

every Canadian knows Lt. McCrae was born in Guelph.......what matters more is the impact Lt. McCrae had/ has on anyone who reads his poem

[drewballs000]

Can u Beleive i actually had a teacher tell me that Canadians didn't fight in either world war??????????

[popFORfresh]

@drewballs000 are you sure your "teacher" is actually a teacher?

[corky7ca]

@drewballs000 seriously? I supposed your teacher was one of those that didn't think the holocaust happened either!

[94MaverickGT]

@drewballs000 I can assure you that MANY men fought in both world wars. To make sure of that, during WW1 men who had not yet signed up kept getting white ribbons pinned to them naming them cowards. They didn't have the rule of keeping one son in a family alive if the others have been killed so some mothers had ALL of their sons wiped out. I've been to John McCrae's house in Guelph a few times and the high school he attended; he just began practising medicine in Montreal.

[misskitty11000]

@wecanuseitforsoup

Well, what can I say..... I'm sorry you choose to feel that way.

[misskitty11000]

John McCrae is my third cousin on my mother's side. ;)

[WanderingRover]

"And I can't help but wonder, no Willie McBride,

Do all those who lie here know why they died?

Did you really believe them when they told you "The Cause?"

Did you really believe that this war would end wars?

Well the suffering, the sorrow, the glory, the shame

The killing, the dying, it was all done in vain,

For Willie McBride, it all happened again,

And again, and again, and again, and again."

While these wars did not end wars...the men who fought for their ideals and freedom are heros



[rockingbrowneyedgirl]

This poem always makes me so sad. 

[Jsouthwell2006]

thanks to all the troops who died in all the wars fighting for our freedom i thank you cus now canadians are free to do as we please and play hockey all we want :)

[Tucker3903]

@urlilshawty33 Hahaha nice try, troll

[vladtepes97]

no soldier ever started a war. in memory of all who died, on all sides.

[JesterNeil]

It doesn't matter where he was in the field, where he was born or where he was coming from.

He wrote an amazing poem that is well known and well respected, through out the world.

It only matters to me that he was a CANADIAN and that is what matters.

I am a Canadian and proud and honored to be one.

SO LEST WE NOT FORGET.

[spitfire690]

He was actually sitting on the back of a field ambulance when he wrote this; Sergeant-Major Cyril Allinson, who was delivering mail that day, saw McCrae writing, McCrae looked up as Allinson approached, then when back to writing while Allinson stood there. Five minutes later when he finished writing, he closed his note pad, took his mail from the young NCO, handed him his notepad and walked away without making eye contact or saying a word.

This is my all time favourite poem.

[filthyassmonkey]

Thank you

[tailspin37]

As an American Navy veteran, I am very proud to call Canadians my friends.

John

[MrFreedomrequired]

@tailspin37 From a Canadian Navy vet....Iam proud to call you my friend...cheers!

[spyware60]

It's kind of funny he is writing a poem when people are dying while he is a surgeon.

[fibreoptik]

@spyware60

yeah, typical Ontarian

[UtterlyMoot]

I was unware Colm Feore wrote that poem! cool!

[MizukiXian]

Is Allan Hawco the guy who played the soldier who had the facial injury?

[waterlilyqueen]

Why is a doctor sitting there writing a poem while others are working and people are suffering?

[cheesemongler]

im related to john mcrae hes my great great uncle or something like that

[GarGet1]

he didnt write the last 2 lines i think that guy who he handed it to did. he actualy didn't like that poem :D

[itsmabus]

@waivedwench Maybe it's just because I went to an elementary school on a military base but I would hope every Canadian memorized Flander's Fields in school at some point.

[happyslug]

omg omg!! it's colm feore!! I just saw this on tv... I'm seeing a heritage minute trend here.... tres cool!!

[arthurv2008]

I have not found the one on Nellie McClung and Emily Murphy either. These Heritage moments might be in your library. I found these in my library at the college I attend (on videotape)

[titaniumtori]

that poem always gives my goosebumps

[JackJeckel81]

i just figured out all this time that guy writing the peom was Colm Feore!!

[waivedwench]

Why do they keep saying he's from MONTREAL? The man was from Guelph, Ontario!! I grew up there and we had a John McCrae School and his house turned into a museum!! Memorizing "In Flanders Fields" was practically a requirement for graduation in Guelph schools!!

[DesertFox111]

This is an old version. They have an updated one on the historica website. It says he was born in Guelph.

[Boggle7]

He was a doctor at McGill, which is in Montreal.

[waivedwench]

Yes, but he was born in Guelph. The ad gives the impression that he was originally from Montreal.

[xxhintoftearsxx]

@waivedwench It's because he later moved to Montreal.

[TNO73]

@waivedwench maybe because he made his living as a pathologist in Montreal from 1902 onwards I believe. Still they should give Guelph the recognition it deserves.

[va3svd]

@waivedwench Hmmmm...really tough to figure out why a bunch of national politicians would claim he's from Montreal. It certainly wouldn't have anything to do with appeasing Quebec. No, no chance of that whatsoever. (Keep in mind that this commercial came out in 1996 under Chretien right in the build-up to the 1997 election.)

I'm from Guelph as well. This commercial ticked me off, but naturally Brenda Chamberlain (Liberal MP at the time) wouldn't do a damned thing about it.

[jconnor55]

@va3svd Where in Guelph do you live? I used to live in the "Ward" back a few years ;-) My parents lived across the river from John McCrae School, could see it from thier balcony.

[va3svd]

@jconnor55 I grew up in the West End, but my first apartment was in the Ward, too - on Neeve St, just across the bridge. Then I moved to Edinburgh & Wellington area.

[jconnor55]

@va3svd Eginburgh & Wellington? My Mom and Dad llived in the apartments on the corner of Raymond and Bristol.Mom passed away this past May.

[va3svd]

@jconnor55 I know them well. Small world!

[jconnor55]

@va3svd You know my Mom and dad? Dad is in a home up in Arthur now, he has really gone downhill since Mom passed.

Feel free to e-mail me direct.

[va3svd]

@jconnor55 No, sorry! I don't know your mom and dad, I just know the buildings you spoke of. Sorry for the confusion.

Arthur, eh? Not a bad little town. I love visiting Mount Forest so I go through there a lot. Big-time snow country. I wish the best for your father, though - and my condolences on your mother passing.

[spitfire690]

@waivedwench He spent a good portion of his life in Montreal, but yes he was born in Guelph.

[fibreoptik]

@waivedwench

BORN in Guelph. Lived, worked and taught in Montreal for many, many years. Read the rest of the Wikipedia article :p

[Eluzionz]

@waivedwench He was born there yes, but he did a lot of work in hospitals in Montreal. He also taught at McGill University. His legacy is known to be mainly in Montreal I guess.

[Batsh1tloco]

@waivedwench It's a requirement for EVERY school child to know this.

[waivedwench]

@Batsh1tloco I make damn sure my students do and the whole bloody thing, too!! I once saw a textbook where they had removed the line "Take up our quarrel with the foe" and it pissed me off!!

[waterlilyqueen]

@waivedwench Tht's my favorite line of the poem! It just sounds cool. I can understand why some people don't like it though because it takes away from the otherwise pacifist tone of the poem.

However, removing something that McCrae wrote is just wrong.

[cavinggirl]

@waivedwench Agreed. Those were HIS sentiments and he lived through it. For people to 'edit' somebody's feelings so that they can be portrayed as more politically correct is ridiculous. That's the way he felt...nobody has to agree with it or like it.

[lovelycaitie89]

@waivedwench

I think it's because he moved to Montreal because of his work before he went off to war that they may have said that...

[slugfly]

@lovelycaitie89 I've noticed over the years that if you're even a little famous, you only have to have lived in a place for a while for people to start saying that you're "from" there.

[cavinggirl]

@waivedwench YES! I went to that school and they had a reproduction of the poem hanging in the hall. Every time we had to line up in the hall I would end up reading it again. I can still repeat that poem word for word now, almost 40 years later.

[Boggle7]

There are still a couple of these heritage moments that are not on Youtube. I can think of one involving a woman in a prison (something to do with torture) and I'm looking specifically for the insulin one with Banting and Best. Can anyone help me out?

[arthurv2008]

The woman in prison:

Nellie McClung - Canada's first woman MP

Emily Murphy - helped Canadian women be recognized as person's in Law. She could not become a senator becuase under the BNA act as a woman she was not a person. Not until 1929.

[bushmen123]

Very haunting, very bitter-sweet, very proud to be Canadian is this lad.

[xtremefxguitar]

land** same

[danishcanadian]

John McCrae was born in my hometown of Guelph Ontario. His house is a museum just around the corner from my apartment.

[bananaeatinmonkey]

Imagine Whirled Peas

[katalie12345]

this is amaizing! i remember my teacher showed this to us in grade six! i remember it so differently!

[Nintendoholic07]

i know, eh...

[mayebella]

Hey..It's Colm! I have a huge crush on him..what a handsome man :)

[Leinad514]

Qu'ils lisent sur

Léo Major.

Ce gars de Montréal a libéré une ville de hollande a lui seule...

Fait prisonier

Malheuresement ont en parle pas parce qu'il a refusé de recevoir une décoration de Montgomery qu'il jugeait incompetent...sa du offensé le myth de Montgomery

Il a capturé 93 soldats allemands lors de la bataille de Scheldt Il captura à lui seul un plus de 150 soldats Allemands lors de la libération de la ville de Zwolle au Pays-Bas

faite un search Leo Major étonnant

[kylejones7]

well i've never heard that? where did you read that?

[triumphanator]

When I was in elementary school (baby boom generation) we SANG this song to the tune of "Eternal Father, Strong to Save" and she had us "Oo-oo" the last verse. Spooky. I almost expected to see ghosts of dead soldiers floating across the room.

[Montork]

how strange that in such a place of death flowers of bright red would grow

[holycow818181]

If Wikipedia is correct, poppies are a fairly common weed in Europe, and thrive in disturbed soil (as in, disturbed by things like the explosives in WWI).

[Montork]

i don't think that makes it any less interesting in a juxtaposition way,

[aaarrrggghhhh]

In the UK we buy paper poppies to wear each November, to remember those who died in all wars. The money donated goes to help ex-military personnell and their families. The amazing thing is that a poppie is so delicate it will die in a lightning storm. The London bomb sites also had an abundance of one wild flower after the war, sorry I can't remember which type though.

[Nintendoholic07]

Awesome name...

[canadassweetie]

Yupers, most commonwealth nations do. I beleive it started in Canada after this poem....

[waivedwench]

We do that here in Canada as well, aaarrrggghhhh. It's nice to think that a poem can have such an effect.

[AnnaHeidiBourne]

One can still visit the bunker where he wrote the poem. In Ieper (Ypres).

[cycimian]

I cant belive adawn? and Dubian?

Fighting about where he is from, Its who he was and what that means to today, Less we forget those who gave all for us,, Its pretty shallow debaiting GPS on the man rather then praising his heart.

[adawn]

At the heart of it, you are certainly right. It's just hard to not to fight for something your hometown takes so much pride in. I mean, if we're celebrating Canadian history, shouldn't that history be correct?

But again, at the centre it's not about the GPS point, it's about the man.

[JrJermz]

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from falling hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flander's field

Thats why I have to join the army and contiune the fight for freedom

[cycimian]

Freedom, Its an amazing feeling, i will never forget those who gave up everything for me, Will you?

[Doomfirefp]

yes

[Rocco540]

u did not just say that

[Doomfirefp]

yes

[stefansmom]

To all the veterans of all the wars... who fought and died for freedom. Thank you.

[luvmyctd]

@stefansmom Yes and today we shame them by allowing those very freedoms and rights they fought and died for to be squandered away by the fascist govts, corporations and foreign banksters. People better wake up soon, start paying attention to what is going on & fighting back or there won't be a Canada for the next generation. They will spit on our graves ... and rightly so.

[DXslilgangsta]

@stefansmom including the nazis?

[stefansmom]

@DXslilgangsta don't be a dumbass... but during the great war there were good and bad people on both sides.. and to mention the nazis to someone like me who had family members on both sides during the great war you sir should be ashamed.. my great uncles we forced to join the german army during the first worls war. Lucky for me my grandfatehr was only 6 at the time.. he immigrated to canada in 1926 from Hungary. my Mothers side are from antigonish county nova scotia, they fought on the .....

[stefansmom]

@DXslilgansta the side of the british empire and my great grandfather was in the royal flying corp as an observer! soo before you make comments about someone and the veterans from the great war do your research and know what you are speaking of before you open your uneducated mouth about things you have no idea about. BTW hitler was a ww1 vet and funny enough even with the progroms he put in place in regards to the jews and wiped them out he never desicrated the graves of any ww1 jew.

[jodyrea]

mmmmmmmmmmmmm opium

[adawn]

He wasn't from Montreal, he was from Guelph! Argh!

[Dublian]

He was born in Guelph, but lived in Montréal...

[adawn]

He lived his whole life until University (Mcgill) in Guelph. It's not like he left there when he was two.

[Dublian]

Yes but at the time of the war he was a resident of Montréal.

[adawn]

John McCrae "OF".

Of Guelph. Why begrudge us our heritage?  Do the "big" cities need it so much? I bet 90% of Montrealers have NO IDEA who John NcCrae is, 90% of Guelphites do.

[Dublian]

I doubt that, the majority of Canadians with half a brain from sea to sea; know who he is.

[stratfordct]

Ooh! Colm Feore! My favorite Canadian actor...

[crazycanadian123]

my favorite one