The Ben Mulroney Show - Lest we forget - the stories we should know

Episode Date: November 11, 2025

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For more details, visit hope in the city, Toronto.ca. That's hope in the city, Toronto.ca. You're listening to The Ben Mulroney Show. Welcome to the Ben Mulroney Show. It is Tuesday, November 11th. Today is Remembrance Day where we stop and we take stock and we have a moment of silence to remember those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice so that you and me and everybody that we know can enjoy the life that this country affords us.

The freedoms that we have were paid in blood by generations of men and women. who put on the uniform to defend our values and promote democracy and human rights around the world. And a little bit later in the show, we're going to be digging into those stories and different ways that we can remember the courage and sacrifice that has defined the brave men and women who have served in our armed forces. But that's a little bit later. I got to tell you, I'm a little bit, I'm behind the eight ball today, guys. I'm not at 100%. What happened? Oh, I'll tell you, Amy.

And please, let's welcome everybody to the show who makes the Ben Mulroney show possible. Please say hello to our intrepid producer, Mike Adrolet. Good morning. Yes, indeed. My video producer, Amy Siegel. Hello. And technical producer, Dave Spargala.

Hello. Guys, thank you so much for being here. I'm going to be depending on you quite a bit today. There's only so much coffee can do. Let me just explain to you. Maybe a shot of adrenaline or something. I like wearing poppy socks. Yes, he is.

Oh. Let me, let me explain to you the drama that was my post show, my post show yesterday. So I got done at the office of 1230. I got to be on a plane to be in Montreal. In my capacity, as a national ambassador for B'nai Brith, which is the oldest human rights organization in the country, 150 years young. I was supposed to be in Montreal for a gala where the guest of honor was Jonathan Conruchas, the former spokesperson for the IDF. He's been on everybody's social media feeds

for the better part of two and a half years. And I was to conduct a fireside chat with him. It's the third gala that they have every year. They did one in Calgary, where I spoke with Stephen Harper, one in Toronto last week, spoke with Noah Tishby, and Jonathan Conriquez yesterday.

So I was supposed to fly out of Pearson. I was going to drive up to Pearson, fly there, do the thing, fly back, drive home. That was what was supposed to. to happen. Here's what happened. Flight out of Pearson canceled. So, no problem. Why? It's snow? Yeah, of course. The snow. And flight was canceled. And so that's okay. Flight out of Billy Bishop. So nowhere to park at Billy Bishop. So I left the car here. Walked to Billy Bishop. Get to Billy Bishop. I get there. Flight canceled. It's okay. They put me on the next flight. Delay, delay, delay, delay, delay.

finally get on the plane. I land at 6.45. I'm supposed to be on stage at 7.45. I make it there with 15 minutes to spare. Wow. Yes. Oh, no, we're not done yet, Amy. This is just the beginning. I have so much anxiety for you. I literally jump on stage, do my thing. As soon as it's done, I told them, I was like, I don't have time to order an Uber. You have to have a car for me. So, because I cannot miss work. And they said, no problem. They were very fortunate. There was a car to take me to the airport. I get to the airport. Flight delayed. Delayed. Delayed. It's the last flight of the day. It's supposed to leave at 10.30. I don't get on the plane till 12.30. We don't leave. I can't remember what time we left because I passed out on the waiting. De-icing. I can't tell if we've even even in the air yet. I look back. It's a zombie flight. Everyone's passed out. We are so tired. I don't land at Pearson until 2.000. Oh, my God. 2.45, I then have them drop me off here to pick up my car to drive so I can drive home. I got in bed at four. I got in bed at four. I got up at 6.30. So, uh, you're tired. I'm tired

today. I'm tired. But before we get into the important stuff, and I was sure, I think we were all shocked by the weather. I think compound, the weather in Montreal was awful, white out. It was a white out. There's like 10, 20, 20 centimeters of snow on the ground. And it was coming down hard, even into the wee hours of past midnight last night. We had a storm here, but you're saying that storm in Montreal was. Infantly worse. Infinitely worse.

And when you factor in, these planes are coming from the United States, which are delayed because of the air traffic controllers, because of the government shutdown, that's the thing. But it does feel to me, and maybe we'll have a conversation about this one day, like, It feels to me like weather is affecting our flights more than ever. Way more than ever. It was, there was a sprinkle of snow here. Yeah, but listen, I get it. It's not just what happens here. It's a network effect, right?

I get that. But the fact they also happened on the 10th of November, I'm just like, come on, man. This is too early. Way too early. Way too early. I mean, the record snow yesterday, almost 10 centimeters, the previous record was set 1971, just over one centimeter. Way to blast through the records.

Yeah. I mean, I remember when it used to be called global warming and then they changed it to climate change because they realized in some places it was. I get it. And the weather is getting crazy. I'm not denying it. It is, absolutely, it is.

But I always love sort of like the word smithing of it all. Yeah, yesterday was a bad day for a lot of people. But an incredible conversation with Jonathan Conricus about the messaging behind sort of the misinformation that so many defenders of Israel and defenders of sort of Jews across Canada

have had to deal with and it was a really really insightful conversation and later on in the show we're going to be talking about Donald Trump's $1 billion lawsuit against the BBC we showed yesterday we aired the original clip

of his January 6th speech and the doctored BBC clip that made it sound like he was going to march all the way up to, anyway, they really, they changed the tone and the tenor and the content of what he actually meant. And now he's suing for a billion dollars. And simultaneous to this, there is an uncovering of a of a rabid strain of anti-Semitism that has been, that has taken root inside the BBC. And it feels to me like there is a day of reckoning coming for that organization. And they have done a great disservice to the notion of journalism. And

the calling of journalism, uh, in, uh, all around the world. And, uh, I think all they have to do is apologize in this lawsuit. I do. But there was one guy, there, there is a story of one, what, a very high up executive saying, oh no, I'm not like a journalist or maybe an editor who said, yeah, I realized that I, uh, put out some information that was false, but, uh, I don't, I'm not losing any sleep over it. Uh, yeah. Yeah. But see, these are that, when, when, when, when you when people say that they mistrust the media at a higher level today than ever before, it's because of stuff like this. It's because of stuff like this.

And it's heartbreaking for me. I've worked in the media for my entire career. Yeah. And you have to plumb the depths of human, like unethical behavior to lose the moral high ground to Donald Trump. Yeah. When Donald Trump gets to look down at you and, People like me, who I think I'm a fair arbiter of Donald Trump, there's stuff to like

and there's stuff not to like, when I can look at him in this scenario and say he is absolutely right, and I hope he takes you to the cleaner. And I think a lot of sensible people are saying that in this moment. And more than that, the damage that they have done to the reputation of all journalists is incalculable. Well, I noticed a huge change after Donald Trump took power in 2016. before that. It was while he was running where, I mean, I'd be out

in the field and I'd get people using the whole, they would be quoting him, the whole fake media, fake news sort of thing. And it was, it was... What is that? What is that clip, if not fake news? What is it? Well, that one certainly is. And again, and I'll go back, I'll go back to the one that preceded it.

The lie that we were all fed and that I bought, that Donald Trump, you know, there were good people on both sides of the Virginia Tech protest? No Virginia Tech. Protest. Sorry. No, it was the...

Anyway, it was somewhere... It was after that horrible... Accident where the guy drove through... It wasn't an accident where he drove through the crowd. Yeah, anyway, but the good people on both sides, the fact that that clip was stopped right there, if you listen to the rest of it, he literally says, in his next sentence,

I'm not talking about the racists. I'm talking about these other people. And that was cut out. deliberately to make him sound, let him hang himself with his own words, right? He says plenty of dumb stuff, and instead you did that, and you made us by a lie. That is by definition, fake news. Anyway, we didn't get to the most important story of the day, but we've got lots of different angles that we're going to be celebrating and remembering our fallen heroes.

Today is Remembrance Day. Don't go anywhere. This is The Ben Mulroney Show. Down the highway of heroes, people above, with the flags flying low. Carry me softly. Down the highway of heroes, true patriot love, there was never more. This is the Ben Mulroney Show. This is the Ben Mulroney show on Remembrance Day, November 11th.

In 1931, Canada commemorated its first Remembrance Day. Sadly, eight years later, that we had to be reminded again. Don't forget, the First World War was dubbed the War to End All Wars, only for us to be thrown right back into the cauldron of global war just a few short years later. Remembrance Day is a time for Canadians to honor the more than 118,000 Canadians who have died in military service and all those millions others who have served and have been injured in the pursuit of a better world. You know, when you say injured, it's interesting. I've always said that too, but when I spent a lot of time with the military over the years, they would say they'd correct me.

No, no, no, no. It's wounded. Wounded, wounded. Why? Because you get injured falling out of a tree. Okay. When you get shot, you're wounded. Okay. That's absolutely fair. I've never forgot that. Consider myself educated.

Interesting. Yeah. Okay, so what should we remember? What are we commemorating? On June 6th, 1944, that was D-Day. Yeah. Where Canadians acquitted themselves with a level of bravery, the likes of which, I mean, It's the stuff of legend. Juno Beach. Juno Beach.

That was Canada's part. 14,000 Canadian soldiers, along with naval and air force support, stormed Juno Beach, facing heavy German defenses. By the end of the day, the Canadian forces had pushed further inland than any other allied division successfully achieving their primary objective, despite suffering over 1,000 casualties, including 359 killed. And this is what keeps getting lost in the narrative. If it keeps getting consumed by this push by certain people to marginalize the warrior culture, as if that's, by the way, as if that's a bad thing in favor of, no, Canada is a peacekeeping nation.

Two things can be true simultaneously. We can be wonderful stewards of peace, but we can also be the hand of justice and righteousness in the face of evil. And we have been, we have proven that. We have proven that our soldiers, when pushed and forced into a position of defending what is right, we will win, we will win despite heavy odds against us. We have done it before. And to not honor that sacrifice and that aspect of what it means to be Canadian is to deny our history, our shared common heritage.

and that is why to me spending time talking about these things today is so important so we have this one guy Jim Parks he was the Royal Winnipeg Rifles I interviewed him a number of years ago wonderful wonderful guy he just had his 101st birthday in September

when you get to that age in life it's not it's not rude or callous or disrespectful to wonder if that person is still with us and you were you were Googling to see if he was still with us. And the way you discovered that he just celebrated his 101st birthday, as you saw a post by my sister honoring his 1001st birthday. Let's listen to this brave man who sacrificed so much and was willing to die for this country. Let's listen to his recollection

of Juno Beach. First of all, our Landingscroft hit a mine and he pushed up further and we hit a shoal. It was before the actual, the shoal, and it was water. deep, but he thought it was, we already hit the land. So he dropped the landing craft off and it dropped us in the water. We had to swim the shore because we went under the water. It dropped us right in the bloody water. It was too deep. So it was eight or nine feet of deep water. So we had to swim in. We got in and I plopped down beside this guy, corporal scape, whom I knew, but he was mortally wounded. So I lost everything, so I grabbed his stend gun. He was the stengun is? Yeah. I grabbed the stengun and moved into the, what they call the sandbanks. I mean, he's 100. And that was

before the hell. Yeah. Yeah, but he's 101 now. How old was he then? I mean, was he, was he 25? I doubt it. Well, you can do the math, but I don't do math. I don't do math. But no, he was younger than anyone in this room. Yeah. Right. And he in the face of like he he recognized he still remembers his comrade in arms who was killed essentially on impact

and he took his rifle to then continue the fight. So it's like how many how many these guys that fought in the Second World War tried to enlist before they were 18? Yeah. So many of them. Who do we remember on Remembrance Day? Well

as of November 11th, 2025, Veterans Affairs Canada estimates there are 3,691 Second World War veterans still alive in Canada. We are losing them each and every year, and it is incumbent upon us to listen to their stories, to hear the words of someone like Jim Parks, who was part of the Royal Winnipeg Rifles. By the way, Jim, he was 15 when he enlisted. He was 15? Yeah. He just turned 19 before landing on Juno Beach.

but he lied about his age. People did that back then because it was a different, different time. God love him. But it's incumbent upon us to hear the stories of the Jim Parkses of the world. Remember them, share them because these men will at some point be gone. And their stories need to live on. We need to remember the sacrifice paid by these people for us to enjoy the world we have today. There's, oh, well, here's another, another voice here.

How do you pronounce his name? Burdette Sizzler? Burdette Sizzler, Canada's oldest man. He was 110 years old. Oldest Second World War veteran, proudly calls Fort Erie home. Do we have some audio of him? No, no audio. It's just basically, I saw this post by his family.

Yeah. And I thought it was worthwhile mentioning. I mean, he's the oldest man. The oldest Second World War veteran. Well, if he's the oldest man in Canada, then that would stand to reason. Here's a, yeah, it's a beautiful picture of Bredette Cicillor at his Fort Eerie home, wearing a poppy on Remembrance Day. He says, is a personal way of saying, I remember and I care, lest we forget.

And his whole family is there, or some of his members of his family are there. And we have to remember these people. We have to remember them. We are not here. We're not for their sacrifice and their bravery. And other conflicts to keep in mind, the Korean War, the First Gulf War. the war in Afghanistan, all the peacekeeping missions. Those are brave men and women as well who have done their part when they're,

here's what you've got to remember. No one wants to go to war. At some point, your country calls upon you. The government makes a decision that something somewhere has changed and it requires a course correction and it is incumbent upon the good and the just and the morally righteous to take up arms against those influences. Sometimes it's a country. Sometimes it's a concept.

And sometimes it's about preserving the peace that was fought for. Those are the people who are deserving of our respect today. And if going back to World War II is too far for you, then let's look back just a few years. years to Afghanistan. Let's listen to what soldiers experienced during the conflict in

Afghanistan. We were always very aware of our security. Your head was on a swivel when you were in a vehicle. I mean, you were just looking constantly. We're looking for suicide bombers for number one, but sometimes the bad guys can use donkeys, donkey born IEDs. Sometimes it's a guy on backpack. Sometimes it's a guy in a wheelbarrow. Sometimes it's a kid that wants just to throw a grenade. It's, uh, you, you know, Mike Drillet, you were in Afghanistan embedded with, with soldiers. And I think it's, we only have like 30 seconds left, but tell us about sort of, even if soldiers didn't see any combat, they were still putting their life on the line each and every day. Well, they were. There's the people that were in those convoys. Those were,

That was the terrifying one. That clip there brings back so many memories because you'd be driving along and kids would be putting on the side of the road. They put their fingers in their ears and act as if something's going to explode. Just messing with you. You're doing that each and every day

during your deployment is... I can't imagine the guys had to do that every day multiple times a day. Yeah. God love them. Up next, what Remembrance Day means to one of our listeners whose father helped liberate the Netherlands.

Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney show on this Remembrance Day, Tuesday, November 11th. My producer, Mike, and I have been sort of wondering how best to share Remembrance Day with you, the listeners and the viewers of the Ben Mulrooney show. And there are so many different ways that we will be tackling this over the course of the morning. but we something popped up on Mike's radar yesterday where a listener of the show went to Normandy for the very first time and was sharing the story of that sort of personal discovery and self-discovery. And so we thought, you know, let's get a first person account of what Remembrance Day means to somebody who has a real connection to it. So please welcome to the show, Linda Stewart. Linda, thank you for being here. Oh, thank you for having me, Ben.

It's an honor. And, well, it's an honor to speak to you. Your father, James Ross Stewart, was enlisted at 17 and joined the 48th Highlanders and helped liberate a portion of Holland. So on behalf of myself and everybody here at the show, thank you and thank your family and your father for his service. Oh, thank you. And I must say similar to many people in Europe, but especially the Dutch, are always paying

such tribute to the Canadian forces, in particular. The children maintain the graves and, you know, place flowers and poppies every Remembrance Day. It's really something spectacular to see. Well, talk to me about what Remembrance Day has meant to you and your family over the years. And then let's, we'll then pivot into, you know, you going to where, to hallowed ground, really, in Normandy. So, you know, you obviously grew up knowing that your father had been a soldier. father and five uncles all served and all returned home without injury

yeah it was miracles and it's miracles and I'm the stories that I know of soldiers as some of them are reticent to share their experiences on the battlefield when they come home what was your father like when you spoke of when talk of his time in the service

came up very reticent to speak about it similar to my uncles I was saying to Mike, one of the few things is that all of them did mention that they were proud to serve, you know, with fellow Canadians, but especially with First Nations and indigenous people, that they were always paid such tribute to their strength and courage. And that, you know, it's not lost on me, but sadly it's lost on a lot of people that, you know, First Nations Canadians stood shoulder to shoulder with, you know, people who look like you and me. to defend this country and what it stood for and stands for. And those are stories that should bind us together. And instead, we go out there and we seek out reasons to create division.

And so I'm so glad that you mentioned that. Okay, so you're, but you were, you know, as the daughter of a soldier and as the niece of soldiers, what was your feeling about Remembrance Day? What was your feeling about their sacrifice growing up? Was it a sense of pride? Was it foreboding? Oh, my gosh. Such pride.

And so different nowadays, sadly. In what way? What do you mean? So we used to have Remembrance Day, November the 11th, if you recall, maybe you're too young to recall, but it would be a school holiday. And our entire street was filled with children who, at quarter to 11, you were called in from outdoors because you weren't to play at all. 11 o'clock. You were to come inside and pay tribute to those that sacrifice so much for

our freedom to be able to play in the street. Well, nowadays, you know, you should go out and nobody stops at 11 o'clock for, you know, one moment of silence. No, it just doesn't happen. And it's people forget that, you know, we always refer to Canadians as the hidden warriors. People forget that, sadly. And so talk to us that now, about your first trip to Normandy. When did it take place and walk me through sort of the high points for you? It was the most powerfully poignant experience in our lifetime, my husband and I. Never.

I mean, we've done a lot of traveling. Never. From the moment that we arrived and heard about, I mean, it was so wonderful to hear the tour guide. We're on a bus filled with British people, American people, and the two of of us Canadians wearing our Canadian flags. We land, you know, we see the two beaches that the Americans have, you know, Utah and Omaha, the British with gold and sword, and then we see Juno Beach, which, by the way, the name came from a general whose wife's name was June.

Oh, wow. I didn't know that. I didn't know that. Fall back from my dad. And, yeah, it was just the lump in my throat. had the entire day just to see everywhere we pass, Canadian flag, Canadian flag, Canadian flag, and the number of Americans that were coming up as they're describing what the Canadians did when they landed at Juneau. They didn't have to climb cliffs like the Americans did,

you know, the brave Americans, but they had to get off the ship in some cases eight and nine feet of water swim soaking wet to a beach where Germans were set up. with machine guns as snipers in these bunkers, protected bunkers, just shooting them down like fish in a barrel. Yeah. We had some audio a little bit earlier of Jim Parks. He was part of the Royal Winnipeg's rifles. He celebrated his 101st birthday in September. And we literally just heard some audio of him recounting exactly what you just described about finding themselves not on the beach itself, but submerged in so much water and having to fight the tides just to get to the beach

to then fight the Nazis. Yeah. And of course, their backup got stuck in sandbars and highways. And so they just had to run onto the beach without completely open. You have to see it to believe it. And yeah, and so they're just running for their lives. And it doesn't end there. And I think you and Mike actually pointed that out. We all think, of Normandy as, okay, well, you know, it was the end, 150 troops, you know, 15,000 Canadians. No, our Canadians were then tasked with going into the small villages and towns to retake them from the Germans. So the battle continued for weeks with more and more casualties.

And, yeah, the other incredible site to see, we've been to Arlington, and, you know, that's something to see. But to see the cemetery, the American cemetery and the Canadians ones, but the American cemetery, they're 172 acres with 11,000 beautiful marble markers. And what was really important to us is how many of them had the star of David on them. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Beautiful to see. What I want our listeners to realize is that what you've just described is important. Oh, it's incredibly important.

And if this isn't important, then nothing is important because everything flows from what you're talking about. The sacrifices that go all the way back to the First World War, all of it, all of it has given birth and has given birth. and has given Canada the possibility that we have today. If you don't care about today, then you care about nothing. You really do. You cannot pick and choose. Time flows in one direction and actions have consequences. And these are the most seminal, pivotal actions that a country can take to take the youngest of us,

the future of a country and to be willing to sacrifice it. sacrifice those young men and women is as a country saying nothing is more important to us that's this how important this battle is this is how important it is we are willing to sacrifice our youngest generation

for the future that's that's how important it is and if you cannot wrap your head around that then you then nothing is important to you and you have to ask yourself some very serious questions about how you view yourself in the world and I don't think I'm overstating it

Not at all, Ben. Freedom is not free. Remember the sacrifices. It is not. I want to thank you so much, Linda Stewart, for joining us recounting the sacrifice of her father, James Ross Stewart, as well as her. Did you say five uncles? Five uncles. God love you. God love the Stewart family. Thank you very much. And I just, I'm in awe. I'm in awe of your family. And I thank you yet again for their service and their willingness to sacrifice for this. nation. Thank you, Ben. All right. Up next, let's hear from you. How are you teaching your kids? Are you passing down stories? Are you going to remember today? Don't go anywhere. This is the Ben Mulroney Show. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney show. Time now to pass the microphone to you. you, the listeners of this show at 4168-8-8-7-0-6400, or 1-3-2-2-5 talk. It's Remembrance Day, and I'm looking for best practices here.

I'm hoping to hear from you. How do you remember? How do you share stories? What does today mean to you? So give us a call. Before we get to the calls, we've got a couple of texts. I want to read one of them to you right now. Good morning, Ben.

My mother's uncle is buried in Acton. He was a doctor in Toronto. I have copies of his letters. He wrote to his wife while fighting the job. Japanese in Burma. The bitterness towards them, you can feel in one of the letters, signed William. And it's not just fighting the Nazis,

the Japanese were brutal. Now, let me just be very clear. I'm not suggesting that our great Canadian who have who have who are of Japanese extraction are in any, or anything like what this man experienced.

But his experience was necessary for us to get to a place where we as a country can come together with German Canadians and Japanese Canadians and Canadians who came from Afghanistan and Iraq and any place we have been at war at, the fact that we can come together as a nation with people who come from countries that we were at once war with is something that we should be proud of. And I thank this man for his sacrifice. I am sad that that was his experience with those people. And I am glad that his experience led us to where we are as a multicultural nation today. Let's start this call our phone call conversations with Joe.

Joe, welcome to the show. Good morning, Ben. I was just telling your screener that, you know, I'm 66 and I've had a different experience with Remembrance Day than my 28-year-old son. And the word that I used was, it's been diluted over time. When I was in school, Remembrance Day was promoted. It had meaning we read in Flanders Field. It was a very important thing, and we had to honor the dead of not just the Second World War, but the First World War and the Korean War, et cetera.

So for my son, I don't think there was the same type. of promotion or emphasis or value placed on it. Well, he was going to school. And so I think, yeah, Joe, I think, I think it's, I think it's gotten, it's probably gotten even more diluted today. We were sharing the story yesterday of a Nova Scotia school that had asked veterans who were going to come in for Remembrance Day not to wear their military uniforms that they had earned in the sacrifice that they were willing to make.

Because that might trigger the children of new Canadians who had had bad interactions with the military in their home countries, which is nonsensical on its face because those, the military garb of our Canadian military are responsible for creating the country that gave safe refuge to those new Canadians. These are not the same. One is not the other. As a matter of fact, one is the diametric opposite of the other. And for a school, a source of education that cannot teach the difference has no business teaching kids. How about the poppies in the courts? Oh, yeah. That's another one.

We've gone hard on that, Joe. Thank you, my friend. All the best. And I hope you spend some time remembering in a way that is befitting of our fallen soldiers today. Thank you. Aaron, welcome to the Ben Mulroney show. Good morning, Ben. Good morning today.

I'm well. Thank you. Well, thanks for doing this. show today. This is great. Great tribute. Thank you. As I said to, I believe it's Mike. Yes. I had said to Mike that, well, I'm a schoolbuster. My wife's a teacher.

And I know at her school and the schools in which my kids both attended and they're 18 and 21 now. But their schools always have done a Remernerous Day ceremony within their gymnasium. It might not be at the Senate half, but always there. And Remerner's Day is always important to us.

Well, and you know, it doesn't have to be a the fact is this entire country the school gyms included are here because of the brave men and women who put the uniform on and did what it was required what their country called on them to do you know it's not about just it's not about just remembering the fallen it's about remembering anyone who put on the uniform and and and and and when the country called on them to serve they served. Every single one of those men and women are to be remembered.

In my humble estimation, are to be remembered today. Aaron, thank you very much. Thank you. So give us a call. 416870-6400 or 1-8-225 talk. How do you feel that we're remembering

as a nation? Are we doing what is required? Are we doing what is owed to those men and women who have suited up, warn the Canadian military, the uniform in furtherance of

Canadian values. The Remembrance Day ceremonies are certainly taking a change in terms of what we see. There's so few of these Second World War veterans. Less than 400 left. 4,000 left.

And how many of those can actually make it out for the ceremony if they're over 100 years old? But we have a lot of the vets from Afghanistan. And it's, again, you don't celebrate war. Nobody, none, I didn't meet anybody when I was over in Afghanistan who wanted to be there. No, no. You have to celebrate the fact that they had the courage and the conviction to do what

they were told to actually, you know, represent the flag. And those amongst us who try to twist Remembrance Day to fit their political agenda, do not realize, or maybe they do and they just don't care, how privileged they are. You know, the word privilege is used all the time to suggest unearned advantage. Your unearned advantage to sit and criticize a nation that exists because of the sacrifice of these men and women, all while you try to besmirch that sacrifice itself is the height of privilege. And you think about the sacrifices. We got, we did get another text. We got a whole bunch of texts. But read the last one there. Hey, Ben, my grandfather served in World War II. He paid a heavy toll. It dramatically affected

my mom's family. He had bad PTSD and became an alcoholic. The trauma is multi-generational. I will tell this story to my 14 and 15-year-old. The burden that these men and women carry, though, what they've witnessed on the battlefield, or like I said, even if they were never, they never saw live fire. Mike's story from before the break of convoys, in Afghanistan as they drive by communities of young kids on the street and they would hold their fingers in their ears suggesting that an explosion was imminent. Imagine seeing that and feeling that every single time you went out on patrol. That is traumatic and it was unrelenting.

Let's welcome Marv to the conversation. Marv, thanks so much for calling in. Good morning. This is for any pleasure to speak with you. Just call me, Ben. Ben, a great fan of your dad's. Thank you. I happen to be fortunate enough to be in Antwer, Belgium on the Remembrance Day in 2018,

which was the 100th anniversary of the signing of the armistice. And I'll tell you that I literally was brought to tears. The entire city stopped. The bells did not stop. It had to have gone on for 45 minutes. And then from there, I went on to a cemetery in Arnhem in Holland. So I did sort of a World War II. it. It really hadn't planned it that way, but it was absolutely amazing. And I traveled alone that

time, and it was a very, very reflective time for me. And I think we really, really take for granted the sacrifices that were made. And to have been in the place where those sacrifices were made in that moment, I'll never forget it. Yeah. Well, thank you for sharing that story. And thank you for going on that journey to discover the value of what was given and what was what so many Canadians were willing to give of themselves so that we could be in this ironic position of being willing to forget what we should never forget. It's a sad day, it's a bittersweet day, and I thank you for your call. We've got a lot more to get to on the show today.

We'll be coming back to Remembrance Day over and over. You know,