We open our Policy-Historica Canada Heritage Minutes Remembrance Day package with the 1990 John McCrae Minute on what are arguably the most quoted words of remembrance ever written by a Canadian. In Flanders Fields was written by Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae on May 3, 1915, outside Ypres:

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Valour Road is a 3-kilometre street in Winnipeg. Originally called Pine Street, it was renamed in 1925 to recognize three young men — Corporal Leo Clarke, Sergeant-Major Frederick William Hall, and Lieutenant Robert Shankland — who all lived in the 700-block and all were awarded the Victoria Cross bravery during the First World War. The Valour Road Heritage Minute was produced in 1991.

The Battle of Vimy Ridge, fought in April 1917, is Canada’s most celebrated military victory — often mythologized as the birth of Canada’s identity as a nation. The battle took place on the Western Front, in northern France, where the four divisions of the Canadian Corps, fighting together for the first time, captured the ridge from the German army over three days of pitched battle. The Vimy Ridge Heritage Minute was produced in 2005.

Known as Canada’s first female war artist, Mary Riter Hamilton spent two years after the guns of the Great War fell silent documenting the experiences of Canadian soldiers. Living amid the abandoned trenches, mud, blood, disease, and desolation of post-war European battlefields, she created more than 350 paintings. The Mary Riter Hamilton Heritage Minute was produced in 2024.

An Onondaga distance runner from Six Nations of the Grand River, Tom Longboat was the country’s first celebrity athlete. In February 1916, he enlisted with the Canadian Armed Forces, serving as a dispatch carrier along the Western Front in France and Belgium. Longboat’s role as a messenger involved significant danger, and he was incorrectly reported dead at least twice. The Tom Longboat Heritage Minute was produced in 2022.

One night in 1915, Edwin Baker, a lieutenant in the Royal Canadian Engineers, was on duty in a trench in Mount Kemmel, Belgium, when an enemy sniper failed in his ultimate mission but still changed Edwin Baker’s life — and the lives of countless Canadians — forever. Baker was blinded, but came home to Canada and, in 1918, co-founded the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB). The Edwin Baker Heritage Minute was produced in 2024.

Nearly 3,000 Canadian Nursing Sisters served during the First World War. The Nursing Sisters Heritage Minute produced in 2015 dramatized one night in No. 3 Canadian Stationary Hospital in France in May 1918 and a young nurse from Montreal named Eleanor Thompson, who was awarded the Military medal for her bravery during a German air raid.

By the Second World War, the Canadians were considered such an intrepid fighting force that they were an integral part of the massive D-Day landings, storming Juno Beach on June 6th, 1944. Major Archie MacNaughton of New Brunswick had already served in the First World war, but re-enlisted and was killed in the Normandy town of Tailleville on D-Day. The D-Day Heritage Minute featuring his story was produced in 2019.

Born in Middleton, Nova Scotia, Mona Parsons — actress, Ziegfeld showgirl, nurse, resistance fighter — was the only Canadian woman to be imprisoned by the Germans. Parsons joined the Dutch resistance but was betrayed to the Nazis in 1941, escaped Vechta Prison during a bombing, and found her way to the North Nova Scotia Highlanders. The Mona Parsons Heritage Minute was produced in 2005.

Between September 1944 and May 1945, the Canadian Army was given the important, deadly task of liberating the Netherlands, clearing northern and western Holland of German forces and allowing food and other relief to reach millions of desperate Dutch citizens. More than 7,600 Canadian soldiers, sailors and airmen died during the operation. To this day, Canada is fondly remembered by the Dutch for ending their oppression under the Nazis. The Heritage Minute commemorating the Liberation of the Netherlands was produced in 2020.

We close our Remembrance Day tribute to all who served and serve with a Heritage Minute devoted to peace: The 1992 dramatization of the Iroquois Confederacy and the Tree of Great Peace, Peacemaker.

Historica Canada is a charitable organization that offers programs in both official languages that you can use to explore, learn, reflect on our history, and consider what it means to be Canadian. It is home to both the iconic Heritage Minutes and The Canadian Encyclopedia.

Policy magazine serves as an independent, nonpartisan platform for insight and analysis on Canadian, U.S. and international politics and public policy, written by policy and political professionals.