Dear Editor
The time has come to rename the long weekend in May "Victory Day" rather than the appellation Victoria, which refers to a deceased English Queen. The Second World War ended in May 1945 and the heroes who served deserve recognition more frequently than once a year on Nov. 11, which properly refers to the First World War armistice.
Times change, we no longer need to care about old stuffy monarchs and we do need to give more recognition to the Canadians who served our country so well.
My father, A. John Gibbons (1919-2013), served with the Royal Canadian Engineers in Holland and was a member of an army band; playing in 1945 while others boarded ships to go back home. My brother, just a baby when he left for Europe, asked his Mom in 1946 who the strange man was and when he would be leaving his home.
It is only recently that Canada has been given recognition for Juno Beach on D-Day; before that we were a part of the British Army. I didn't hear the English say "Really old chap, we rather should correct the record, it was after all the Canadians (2,931 casualties, 1,017 dead ) on that beach not us Brits." Maybe the "colonials," in their view, really didn't need recognition. They did then and they do now.
Always, "we will remember them."
Richard A. Gibbons
North Battleford
