Independence

There must have been a better way. There would have to be a better way. This ... we lost a lot of men. I think the Canadians lost, well, the Queen’s Own Cameron’s of Winnipeg lost over 400 men. And it’s a unit of a thousand. There would be, probably, 1,600 casualties, injuries that would be enough to put them out of the war. Now, and the reinforcements, you know, they were reinforced and reinforced so that that thousand would represent 2,000 anyway. And even then, when the war was over, they were down to half strength. I certainly grew up a lot, and I think everybody else did too. You know, we felt, everybody was depressed by the Depression. Emotionally depressed by the Depression. It didn’t look as though the future had anything to do with us. But when the troops came back, everybody had that business they were really going to show things, show people how to do things. They came back as winners, really, and that made all the difference in the world, you know. I think it made Canada an independent country for the first time. We went over as a colony, and came back as independent Canadians. Everyone felt that way, it was just obvious.