Bring Them Home

We will be in the Ottawa River Valley for a week, first in the Upper Ottawa area around Petawawa/Pembroke and then riding down to the capital city of Canada, stately Ottawa. The Ottawa (Outaouais) is a huge beautiful river that forms the border between Quebec and Ontario. It was once the main route of fur-trappers travelling out each spring to the Canadian Shield and back in the fall to Montreal with their precious cargo of pelts and we will follow it in stretches almost to Montreal.
Petawawa and Pembroke are side-by-side cities of about 15,000 inhabitants each that have both used their river frontage well by incorporating many beautiful parks and leisure areas. Petawawa, a newer city than Pembroke, includes a large Canadian Forces (Army) Base that drives the economy of the city. Pembroke, has many historical buildings including magnificent churches, and the first-rate Champlain Trail Pioneer Village and Museum that documents the areas lumbering and settlement history. It is hard to believe that Samuel de Champlain was this far northwest in 1614 as we will run encounter many other places he explored as we travel east and south. We enjoy the Pembroke Heritage Murals, some good restaurants, including the Nook Creperiere, and the delectably rich ice cream at Brum’s Diary.
Canadian flag banners billow proudly on the main streets in Petawawa, where “Welcome Home Troop” signs and the yellow ribbon symbols that support our troops are everywhere. We wonder what it’s like to live in a community where so many members have been killed in Afghanistan since Canadian troops entered the war. The mood is upbeat the day we visit as the troops from Petawawa are just home from their tour-of-duty and it is the Vandoos turn in Afghanistan. But how can there not be great sadness too in this community, as in all of Canada, when so many have not come home safely and so many will suffer for years from Post Traumatic Stress disorders?
We have a special nephew who has done a tour in Afghanistan and one of Marlene’s “little” brothers and our niece’s partner will be deployed to Afghanistan in the fall so we have some personal experience of the courage and sense of duty that takes Canadian servicemen to this war and also the worry and conflict of their loved-ones left behind. Neither of us can remember when Canada began the slippery slide down the slope from the peace-keeper role that Lester B. Pearson envisioned for Canadian soldiers to the full-combat role they currently hold. We hope that Canadian soldiers can become peacekeepers again and in the meantime we wish them safely home!