The long path to Remembrance Day
The four decade journey to Remembrance
Well before there was ever an Armistice Day, there was Decoration Day. Held on the weekend closest to June 2 it honoured the Battle of Ridgeway Fought on June 2, 1866 in Ridgeway Ontario, the battle saw 850 Canadian go up against 750 Irish-American during the Fenian Raids.
In that battle, nine Canadians were killed, 37 wounded and another 22 died of wounds and diseases. That day of remembrance did not come about quickly. It took nearly a quarter century for something to happen.
The first Decoration Day was held in 1890, when flowers were laid at the foot of the Canadian Volunteers Monument at Queen’s Park in Toronto to honour the 24th anniversary of the battle. About 30,000 people participated and 50,000 watched the parade accompanying the event. It quickly became an annual event.
From 1890 to 1918, Decoration Day was the day to remember those killed during the Fenian Raids, the North West Resistance and the First World War were honoured in Canada.
After the First World War, MP Isaac Pedlow introduced a motion in the House of Commons to create Armistice Day, which would be held on the second Monday of November each year.
On Nov. 6, 1919, an appeal was issued to King George V He stated that Armistice Day should honour the end of fighting, with two minutes of silence at 11 a.m. on Nov. 11.
This was the case for two years until May 1921. That’s when in a very strange decision, an Act of Parliament declared that Armistice Day would be held on the Monday closest to Nov. 11 and that’s also when Thanksgiving would be celebrated.
This made two very different holidays into one, and as expected, this was unpopular with both the public and veterans.
Nonetheless, this new holiday continued until 1931 when MP A.W. Neil introduced a motion to have Armistice Day be observed on Nov. 11 and no other date. C.W. Dickie, another MP, then moved that the day be known as Remembrance Day, rather than Armistice Day, to put the emphasis on the soldiers, and not the end of the war.
That is how the Armistice Day Act was adopted, and Nov. 11, 1931 marked the first ever Remembrance Day in Canada.