The smiles have been wide and constant over the past week at the Innisfail Legion. There is a sense that something big has been restored, something that no amount of money could ever buy.
Inside the Legion's museum two veterans point to a wall display of military hat badges, all bearing the title “royal” and once proudly embraced by the soldiers who wore them. At last the dust on these badges can be wiped away. The past has come back to seize the day.
The federal government's announcement it is returning to its “royal” tradition for the Canadian military and reinstating that moniker is an exhilarating shot in the arm to veterans who place the highest value to tradition and honour.
Canada's military has faced an erosion of these values since 1968 when the Trudeau government felt it was a time for the armed forces to be a symbol of unity, to be ‘one', to have a wholeness that was frustratingly absent with Canadians during a period of national struggle with identity and unity. Stripping its ‘royal” tag was also intended as one more shredding of Canada's colonial past, a move to appease rising republican sentiments, particularly within the Liberal Party of Canada, as well as with Quebec's testy nationalist forces.
Those that supported this move more than four decades ago are unrepentant today, feeling more strongly than ever that Canada should continue to “move forward” without ever holding onto the past.
"I'm very disappointed, actually very sad … I think it's really moving backward," said Paul Hellyer, former defence minister who initiated the changes back in 1968.
"We're not fighting the First World War over again, we're not fighting the Second World War over again," he said. "Those days are past, they're part of our history. … Today is different, and we have to think ahead.”
The fact remains, however, that Canada's military encountered rapid decline and demoralization for the next 40 years after Hellyer's initiative. So much so that Canada's military was the laughing stock of the world. Successive governments slashed budgets to the bone. It all came to a head at the start of the Afghanistan mission when Canada's bankrupt military was forced to swallow its greatly diminished pride and borrow equipment to fulfil its mission.
Thankfully, the Harper government rose to the occasion and Canada's military is on the road to respectability. But that alone was not enough. Honour and pride still had to be fully restored. The spirit of yesteryear had to be seized.
Defence Minister Peter MacKay's declaration last week that his government needed to correct a historic mistake by restoring the "royal" designation is an initiative that speaks of humility and shows a clear recognition and understanding of a national fact.
Canada will always debate to what degree the monarchy should be retained but to argue that this critically important part of its past should be shed altogether is simply folly. Canada is a better country today – strong, united, independent and more distinct than ever - because it has for the most part moved carefully into the future to secure its rightful place in the world without a wholesale forsaking of its past, as glorious as it truly is.
The role of the monarchy in Canada today is almost purely symbolic. It has been placed in the perfect position of not being intrusive in the daily lives of Canadians while remaining in a guarded place that is respected, and an inspiring source of reflection.
The move by the Harper government to return the military to its historic traditions does not in any way intrude on the lives of Canadians, not does it return the country back to a “semi-colonial” status, as ridiculous as that claim is.
What is does do, however, is ignite a lost spirit within Canada's sacred core of its heritage values.
In this case it is a place that will propel a great nation to move forward, while always honouring its past with more than just lip service.
