{"id":17615,"date":"2017-06-21T17:07:02","date_gmt":"2017-06-21T21:07:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=17615"},"modified":"2017-06-21T17:07:02","modified_gmt":"2017-06-21T21:07:02","slug":"view-from-queens-park-decoration-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/view-from-queens-park-decoration-day\/","title":{"rendered":"VIEW FROM QUEEN’S PARK: Decoration Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Chris Ballard, MPP
\nNewmarket-Aurora<\/strong><\/p>\n

On June 11, I had the honour of participating in the 69th annual Decoration Day ceremony, hosted by the Newmarket Veterans\u2019 Association at the Newmarket cemetery.
\nSince then, I have heard from several people who told me that they had never really understood the history behind this important date, so I thought I would share some of the history in this week\u2019s column.
\nThis is from the Decoration Day website: On June 1, 1866, after nearly 50 years of peace since the War of 1812, what is now Canada was invaded from the United States by experienced soldiers, Irish-American Fenians, determined to expel the British from Ireland by taking Canada hostage.
\nAn 800-man, heavily armed vanguard of battle-hardened Civil War veterans from the US and former Confederate army, seized the town of Fort Erie and began moving toward the Welland Canal, threatening to destroy it.
\nOn the morning of June 2, near the village of Ridgeway, west of Fort Erie, they were intercepted by a brigade of militia from the Queen\u2019s Own Rifles of Toronto and the 13th Battalion of Hamilton in what became Canada\u2019s first modern battle to be fought exclusively by Canadian troops and led entirely by Canadian officers: The Battle of Ridgeway.
\n33 solider were wounded. Nine lost their lives \u2013 three of them University of Toronto students who hastily left their final exams to join the Queen\u2019s Own Rifles.
\nTwenty-two more Canadians would die of either wounds or disease sustained during the fighting or on frontier duty during the Fenian Raids. Those raids would also extend into Quebec. Beginning with the first casualty, Ensign Malcolm McEachern, killed in the early minutes of the battle on June 2, these 31 casualties were the first 31 of nearly 120,000 Canadian servicemen and women to fall in military service, including Afghanistan.
\n\u201cWe will remember them\u201d is the call heard at military memorial ceremonies and parades these days, and especially on Remembrance Day, November 11, chosen by the Government of Canada. That day marked the end of World War I, the Great War, on November 11, 1918.
\nBut for some 30 years before that date was chosen, Canadians had a different memorial day, called Decoration Day. On that day, Canadians commemorated their war dead by laying flowers, on the weekend closest to June 2 \u2013 the anniversary of Canada\u2019s forgotten first modern battle, the battle of Ridgeway in 1866.
\nDecoration Day had begun as a protest in 1890 by veterans who had fought at Ridgeway, but had received no acknowledgement from the Canadian government. Decoration Day was born of protest \u2013 a protest of veterans\u2019 sacrifice forgotten or ignored by their government and the public.
\nIt stands as a lesson to us all that we must never forget. Every year that I attend Decoration Day ceremonies the number of attendees continues to grow, I truly hope that next year you will remember the sacrifices of these early veterans, and all who serve today, and attend a service to honour them.<\/p>\n

York Region Pride Parade
\nThis past weekend I walked with family, friends and colleagues in the fifth annual York Region Pride Parade. It was the largest parade I\u2019ve been in. This year\u2019s route was down historic Main Street in Newmarket and ended with a celebration at Riverwalk Commons.
\nI was moved to see the many individuals with their families and friends who came out to celebrate love, to celebrate pride and to celebrate respect for one another.
\nI was moved at the welcoming reception given the parade by residents and Town of Newmarket Council.
\nWhat better place to celebrate peace and love than in Newmarket, founded by peace-loving Quakers. As I looked around at the attendees, participants and organizers, I was reminded of something that our premier Kathleen Wynne said, \u201cWe live in a country that, even though not perfect, strives to be more inclusive, we strive to be more equitable.\u201d
\nOur riding of Newmarket-Aurora embodies all of those values, regardless of our different points of view. We come together to support all individuals of all sexual orientations and of all genders. Celebrating in events and parades like the pride parade promotes community, respect, diversity and it contributes to changing hearts and minds.
\nI encourage individuals within our community to learn from each other, to support and encourage ourselves to remember who we are, why we are here, and how we can be the very best version of ourselves.<\/p>\n

Celebrating Seniors
\nI would like to thank everyone who attended my community BBQ at the Seniors Information and Active Living Fair. We served over 400 burgers and hot dogs. The fair was hosted by the Aurora Seniors\u2019 Centre, Club Aurora Fitness Centre, Activate Aurora and the Aurora Seniors\u2019 Association.
\nThis annual event host seminars and activities that promote health and wellbeing for seniors. I always enjoy these community events. It\u2019s always a great time to catch up with old friends and make some new ones.<\/p>\n

As always, I invite you to contact me on any issue. Please call my community office at 905-750-0019, or visit my website at www.ChrisBallardMPP.ca. My email is: cballard.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org. I look forward to hearing from you.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Chris Ballard, MPP Newmarket-Aurora On June 11, I had the honour of participating in the 69th annual Decoration Day ceremony, hosted by the Newmarket Veterans\u2019 Association at the Newmarket cemetery. Since then, I have heard from several people who told me that they had never really understood the history behind this important date, so […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"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":[29,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columns","category-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-4A7","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-10 12:20:28","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\/17615","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=17615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17615\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}