{"id":8960,"date":"2014-11-12T17:55:27","date_gmt":"2014-11-12T22:55:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=8960"},"modified":"2014-11-26T22:55:43","modified_gmt":"2014-11-27T03:55:43","slug":"view-from-queens-park-remembrance-day-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/view-from-queens-park-remembrance-day-week\/","title":{"rendered":"VIEW FROM QUEEN’S PARK: Remembrance Day Week"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

It has been a moving week.
\nThe older I get, the more powerful Remembrance Day becomes. Perhaps, with the passing of time, I more and more realize the true nature of the sacrifices made by our soldiers and their loved ones.
\nMy Remembrance Day week began last Saturday evening at the Aurora Legion\u2019s Remembrance Day Dinner, followed by Remembrance Services last Sunday at the Newmarket and Aurora Cenotaphs, and Remembrance Day ceremonies at each location.
\nOn October 3, 100 hundred years to the day when the first contingent of Canadian troops was deployed to England, I was asked to help open the Ontario Archives exhibit, Dear Sadie \u2013 Love, Lives and Remembrance from Ontario\u2019s First World War. It\u2019s a powerful story that tells the war-time stories of Ontarians whose lives are forever changed because of the conflict.
\nIt tells the story of Sadie Arbuckle, an office worker, and Lieutenant Harry Mason, who wrote to each other throughout the Great War, and whose relationship grew with each letter \u2013 until his death in action in 1917.
\nThe Ontario Archives is located at York University. The exhibit is free. I recommend you visit.
\nThis year I was also thinking about a relative I never met \u2013 my great uncle James Frank Ballard. His story has been more fully researched, thanks to work done by his great-grandson, Paul Ballard.
\nPrivate Ballard, died in the Battle of Aisne, France, on September 14, 1914. Age 28.
\nLike many men of his era, without chance of higher education or good job, James enlisted at age 22, before WWI began. He served in numerous locations in peace time.
\nHe did not have the chance to settle down and start a family before being sent to France \u2013 and to his death.
\nHis grave is lost. He was wounded in action and died of his wounds. His name is listed at La Fert\u00e9-sous-Jouarre memorial, east of Paris, along with the names of 3,700 British and Irish soldiers who fell in battle between August and October 1914 in the area.
\nLast week in Parliament, MPP Arthur Potts read a poem written by his uncle, Lt. Col. E.H. Shuter. Lt. Col. Shuter served in WWI and lived to his 100th year. He passed away in July. He wrote The Canadian Volunteer when he was about 90 years old.
\nWith MPP Potts\u2019 permission, let me leave you with his uncle\u2019s poem \u2013 a man who was there.<\/p>\n

The Canadian Volunteers
\nBy Lt. Col. E.H. Shuter<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Let us all at this time of year \u2014 Pause\u2014
\nTo remember the fallen Canadian Volunteers.
\nTo Arms! To Arms! Our leaders cried and volunteers
\nIn thousands promptly replied \u2014 that they might
\nJoin the fight in a war which was just and right.
\nConscription, was not then, a serious care
\nBecause the Volunteers were there.
\nThey volunteered to die.
\nTo die? Oh no, surely not you, dear comrades nor I, but-
\nSome other guy?
\nWe would go to do our duty, and to win honour and glory.
\nWell,\u2014 honour and glory there may have been.
\nBut the price of misery, and death were too often seen.
\nSo many “other guys” did fall, but you as well, dear comrades all.
\nIn unit groups you were laid to rest, wrapped in blankets G S
\nIn roadside graves, which the Padres did bless.
\nYour comrades seldom saw this sad sight,
\nThe battles raged on, and they must continue the fight.
\nSo no pipes did wail, no bugles did call
\nJust a wee wooden cross with your name, that’s all.
\nSome comrades could come later to visit the sites
\nTo say farewell to the friends they had lost, and weep
\nTo see the battle’s cost.
\nThen came peace, and you were collected and moved with thousands more,
\nAnd laid to rest again in ordered rows, with crosses of stone, and flowers galore.
\nI saw these places, both old and new; an awesome view,
\nAnd in the search, found the grave of the kid brother I hardly knew,
\nHe volunteered, fought and died with those other brave men.
\nWe blessed his cross at Adagem.
\nSo there, in your thousands you lie, a sight to bring tears to any eye.
\nAnd those who care to visit there, are wont to exclaim –
\nThat your sacrifice must not be in vain!
\nTrue, and the volunteers that remain
\nWill stand at your grave and shed a tear, as they feel you near
\nFor they remember you as you were, and weep that the lives
\nYou should have lived were denied to you, over there.
\nThough in foreign fields you lie
\nIn the hearts of those who remain, you will never die.
\nBut, as our numbers, over the years, must shrink,
\nWe pray that others will continue to think, \u2014 at times,
\nOf the Canadian Volunteers, who lost their lives over there
\nTo preserve the freedoms for which we care.
\nSo give a cheer, shed a tear, but at least this once a year-
\nDo remember and thank those Canadian Volunteers,
\nWho died for you.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Our community office has moved to 238 Wellington St., Aurora, just east of Industrial Parkway North. Hours: Monday-Wednesday 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.; Thursday 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.; Friday 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. Phone: (905) 750-0019. Email: cballard.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Chris Ballard, MPP Newmarket-Aurora It has been a moving week. The older I get, the more powerful Remembrance Day becomes. Perhaps, with the passing of time, I more and more realize the true nature of the sacrifices made by our soldiers and their loved ones. My Remembrance Day week began last Saturday evening at […]<\/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":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-2kw","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-23 00:13:01","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\/8960","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=8960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8960\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}