{"id":16636,"date":"2017-02-22T17:37:49","date_gmt":"2017-02-22T22:37:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=16636"},"modified":"2017-02-22T17:37:49","modified_gmt":"2017-02-22T22:37:49","slug":"vimy-ridge-anniversary-to-be-marked-by-rangers-with-lt-gov","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/vimy-ridge-anniversary-to-be-marked-by-rangers-with-lt-gov\/","title":{"rendered":"Vimy Ridge anniversary to be marked by Rangers with Lt. Gov"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

One hundred years ago this April, Canadian troops emerged victorious at the Battle of Vimy Ridge, a battle which has become synonymous with the development of a unique Canadian identity.
\nTo mark the 100th anniversary of the Battle, students, cadets and Canadians at large \u2013 including those from here in Aurora \u2013 will be making the trek to that unique patch of Canadian soil in France to pay tribute those who made the ultimate sacrifice in the First World War.
\nFor those unable to make the pilgrimage, however, there will be an opportunity to mark the historic milestone close to home.
\nOn Saturday, April 8, the eve of Vimy Ridge Day, Lieutenant Governor Elizabeth Dowdeswell, the Queen\u2019s representative in Ontario will be the guest of honour at the Aurora branch of the Royal Canadian Legion as the Queen\u2019s York Rangers Regimental Council hosts the Vimy Centenary Evening.
\nThis black tie affair is intended \u201cto honour the sacrifice and victory of the 20th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force at the Battle of Vimy Ridge.\u201d
\nThe countdown to the Vimy Centenary Evening was launched at Council last Tuesday in the presence of two serving members of the Aurora-based Queen\u2019s York Rangers, donning uniforms representative of what would have been worn by serving members when the foundations of the Regiment were lain during the American Revolutionary War, as well as what serving members would have donned at Vimy.
\n\u201cThis year is the 150th anniversary of Canada and it is also the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge,\u201d said Regimental Council member Ferguson Mobbs. \u201cOver 65,000 Canadians will be going to Vimy Ridge this year [and] the Regimental Council and the Queen\u2019s York Rangers presents a special commemorative evening of the Battle of Vimy Ridge.
\n\u201cAs of today, I can confirm Her Honour Elizabeth Dowdeswell, Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario, past Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario David Onley [will be present] with special guest speaker, the Hon. Peter Mackay.\u201d
\nPeter MacKay, the former Member of Parliament, served as Minister of National Defence from 2007 to 2013 and knows firsthand the experiences Canadian soldiers experienced during the Afghanistan conflict.
\nTickets for the April 8 event are on sale now for $125.
\nMoney raised over the course of the event will benefit the Queen\u2019s York Rangers Regimental Council, which is composed of volunteers to \u201cpromote, support and assist in the maintenance and development of the unit and the welfare of soldiers of the Regiment.\u201d
\nThe Regimental Council provides advice and counsel to the Commanding Officer on a wide variety of issues but perhaps more pertinently the evening raises funds to support individual soldiers on deployment and returning soldiers returning to civilian life.
\n\u201cThere are many different reasons why we give money back to the troops,\u201d said Mr. Mobbs. \u201cA lot of those reasons are private. A lot of times it is in order to assist them in different areas, so it goes back to the troops in a very tangible way. Their quality of life is foremost in our concerns.\u201d
\nNoting emcee Sean Cullen, Mr.Mobbs added, \u201cThroughout the night we will have special poetry readings and things throughout the night, some of those which I will hold back because there will be surprises later on. The whole evening is an event, it is not just a dinner.\u201d
\nNews of the Vimy Centenary Evening was greeted warmly by Council, who hailed the service the Queen\u2019s York Rangers, a reserve regiment, have provided here at home and abroad.
\n\u201cI think this is excellent that you\u2019re putting this together,\u201d said Councillor Jeff Thom. \u201cIt is such an excellent piece of Canadian history and along with the 150th anniversary of Confederation it is certainly something that is worth noting and remembering as well, being the 100th anniversary of Vimy Ridge. Many historians say it is a birthplace of Canadian identity and Canadian nationalism throughout our history so it is very important and I am very honoured that you\u2019re putting this together in our Town.\u201d
\nAdded Councillor Sandra Humfryes: \u201cWe are honoured that you are going to have such incredible dignitaries at the event and we\u2019re looking forward to it. It\u2019s my wedding anniversary and I am going to be going there for dinner! I think it is a great way to give back to our Queen\u2019s York Rangers.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more information on the Queen\u2019s York Rangers Regimental Council, visit www.qyrang.ca. To purchase tickets for the Vimy Centenary Evening, go to the website and click on \u201cKit Shop.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One hundred years ago this April, Canadian troops emerged victorious at the Battle of Vimy Ridge, a battle which has become synonymous with the development of a unique Canadian identity.
\nTo mark the 100th anniversary of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":16589,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/2017-02-23-04.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-4kk","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-14 09:06:00","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16636\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}