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Feeling grateful

November 5, 2026   ·   0 Comments

by SHERALYN ROMAN

Not to be confused with Thanksgiving, but I am feeling grateful. Family, health, all those things are important for sure, but today’s missive is grander in scale. I’m feeling grateful for the right to live in a society where I can express my opinion, vote in an election and move about freely. These things come at a cost, however, and a pretty significant one at that. So today, I’m also feeling grateful for the sacrifices made by generations of Canadians who made the choice to fight for our freedom. Such sacrifice also demands something of us. The responsibility to treat those sacrifices with respect.

By the time we go to press next week Remembrance Day will have come and gone. Here in Caledon, services at Mono Mills have already been held, and this coming weekend will see services take place at the Alton Legion on Sunday, November 8, at 10:15 am and in Bolton at the Cenotaph that same day at 12:30 pm. On November 11th, beginning at 10:50 am, services will take place at the Cenotaph located at Town Hall in Caledon East. If you are able, it’s a very small price to pay to stand in the cold (or snow, or rain) to take the time to honour those who endured days, weeks and months in terrible conditions, separated from family and who risked their lives daily to protect ours. For those who paid the ultimate sacrifice, such remembrance and thanks is literally, the very least we can do.

If you cannot stand alongside an outdoor ceremony, stand where you are. Stop whatever you are doing, even at work or while you are running errands. Stop for the moment of silence and remember. Turn on the TV and watch the ceremonies taking place in Ottawa and consider yourself lucky that in Canada, the only booming of guns you are likely to ever hear come from the 21-gun salute. Be grateful that for you, hearing their loud retort is unlikely to make you flinch, or run to take cover, because of your own memories of first-hand experiences in a war-torn country or from being in battle yourself. Spare a thought for returning service personnel who have experienced danger, bombings, IEDs, and more and are living now with PTSD as a result of those experiences. Many of those persons weren’t even fighting for Canadian freedoms but for the concept of freedom around the world. We owe that debt of gratitude to every single person who has ever taken up arms in the fight to preserve the kind of democracy we here in Canada are privileged to enjoy.

It seems appropriate today to share the following: Canada’s War Museum reminds us that the history and evolution of Remembrance Day is “a day to honour the fallen, but …also…… to remember the horror of war and to embrace peace.”

Additionally, history tells us that poppies have become an integral part of this solemn remembrance. The poppy, memorialized in Canadian Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae’s poem In Flanders Fields, has become the symbol of our collective remembrance and we stand at cenotaphs (meaning, in Greek, “empty tomb”) across the country to honour and remember those who have no final resting place, whose remains were never recovered or who are buried in lands far from home.

The Royal Canadian Legion shares the correct protocol for wearing your poppy respectfully requires that it is pinned to the left breast of your outermost clothing; unobscured, and unaltered by anything else, from the last Friday in October, until the end of Remembrance Day services on November 11. You may then choose to lay your poppy at the base of your local cenotaph after ceremonies end. 

Many Canadians across the country, and certainly here in Caledon, recently voted in municipal elections. It’s no secret that ours was a contentious one and many sharp words, barbs and criticisms were launched during the campaign with residents taking to social media, attending debates, and meet and greets with a vengeance. Our voter turnout could (and should) have been higher, but more people than ever DID exercise their right to vote. More people than ever exercised their right to freely engage in those debates, and to trade criticism and sharp words without fear of persecution. Personal attacks are never good, but having the freedom to debate, engage in democracy and to vote are. We have those rights because of those who paid the ultimate price for freedom. Never forget. Please stand in solemn Remembrance and with gratitude on November 11th.

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