Where is our celebration of the Queen?

History informs us that the ideological foundation of a nation can be lost by wilful neglect or the systematic deconstruction of its institutions.

In the Platinum Jubilee year of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, Canadians are left with several questions.

What are the intentions of our current political and societal leaders?

Did not the United Empire Loyalists after 1776, the militia, Indigenous warriors, and the settlers in the War of 1812, live and die to maintain the monarchy?

Did the 45,000 soldiers buried in Europe, the thousands of sailors lost at sea, and the hundreds of aircrews and pilots who did not return to their bases, die in vain answering the call to fight for King and Country?

Was there a 70-gun salute on Parliament Hill, the awarding of the Platinum Jubilee Medal, or any municipal celebrations?

The Czech author Milan Kundera wrote, in “The Book of Laughter and Forgetting,” that “the first step in liquidating a people is to erase its memory. Destroy its books, its culture, its history. Then have someone write new books, manufacture a new culture, invent a new history. Before long the nation will begin to forget, what it is and what it was.”

Where are those today who set aside their individualism for the sake of community? Where are those who remember the words of Princess Elizabeth, who pledged that her life, whether it be long or short, would be dedicated to duty and service? Will Canada Day 2022 be a national celebration for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II? Richard D Christy Former Mayor, City of Kitchener Kitchener