As a local newspaper the role of this small space each week is to provide food-for-thought of particular relevance of readers in Yorkton and area.
That means focusing on issues relating to our community.
So each year when the month of November arrives, the one overriding item we should be thinking about is the contribution of our veterans.
That of course is what Remembrance Day is all about, but increasingly many may be losing touch with the significance of the day.
The number of veterans involved with the Royal Canadian Legion, the driving force behind the solemn ceremony each year’s declines.
A veteran who was 20 in 1945 is today 90, so time catches up even to the stalwart veteran.
There are the veterans of the Korean War, but the number of Canadian soldiers was far less than those of the two world wars, so the number of veterans is correspondingly small.
The same is the case with Canadian soldiers serving as peacekeepers, and more recently in the war in Afghanistan.
So the Legion ranks of veterans today is a thin one.
But it should not fall to veterans alone to organize a day to remember those who gave their lives on behalf of their country.
The service of those who died on foreign battlefields, and those who returned to live with the memories of war, should be honoured by everyone who lives in Canada. This great country is in-large part the place of freedoms and tolerance and acceptance that it is because our Armed Forces have stepped into the breech whenever called upon to do so.
Our country would be a very different place had either of the Great Wars been lost.
The world around us decidedly different and more volatile had the line not been held in Korea.
The way Canada is viewed around the world would not be as it is if not for Canada’s repeated willingness to stand as peacekeepers in hotspots.
Or the times Canadian forces took to the role of providing humanitarian aid, like they did not so many years ago in Haiti.
The Canadian Armed Forces are in many ways exactly what such a force should be. They are ready to aid in disaster, patrol to keep the peace, and only as a last resort ready to be a force in war.
For that we should be proud.
For that we should pause each Nov. 11, to remember those who died in their roles for their country.
There are few things more relevant to any Canadian, and why we should each try to attend the ceremonies at the Nexera Flexihall next Wednesday.
