My grandfather was one of thousands of soldiers who died in battle

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On Nov. 11, 2023, I went to the Victory Square Remembrance Day service in downtown Vancouver. It was well-attended and I got to thinking what I might say if someone were to ask if this day is important to me.

My response would have been that since my maternal grandfather, Pte. Alfred Brodie Swanston, was killed in France in 1918, Remembrance Day was a big deal in our house. I would have said that our mother took all three of her children to the Victory Square service until we were old enough to resist. I hadn’t been to the square since I was in my early teens.

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Our mother often related to us how her widowed mother suffered poverty on a war widow’s pension — particularly how her mom could only afford to keep one of her two children in school and chose her brother instead of her.

When my mother moved close to where I lived, I started taking her to the local service. For several of those years, I took my young girls. Every year my mother cried and told her granddaughters how lucky they were to have a dad.

After mother moved to Terrace to live closer to my younger sister, sometimes I would fly up there just to attend the Remembrance Day service with family. As I said, this was an important day in our family.

I think my mother was about 16 when she wrote the verse The Men in the Trenches, which included these words: “I think of the men in the trenches, cold, hungry and wet. With their feet so sore and blistered, listening to the big guns roar. They are the backbone of the army, without them, what would they do? … ”

My sister sent her verse to the local newspaper, which for several years published it just before Remembrance Day. One of the veterans read this verse at their local service.

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Perhaps our most significant act of remembrance was in 2018 when my sister, her partner and I travelled to France and visited the Vimy memorial where our grandfather’s name is engraved on the wall. Our visit was within a few days of the 100th anniversary of his death. He was one of thousands of soldiers who died in battle without an official burial site. The death certificate sent to my grandmother said he was buried in an unmarked grave in a field near some village whose name I can’t recall. My sister and I have a photograph of us holding his regimental cap and identification above his name on the wall. Yes, those artifacts had been passed down for two generations. Remembrance Day has always been important to me and my family.

Bryan McConachy, West Vancouver

It’s time to work together

Our provincial election results show the need to truly listen to each other.

Diversity of culture, economic position, age, religious affiliation, and so on, shouldn’t hold us back from tackling the long list of issues affecting our ability to lead healthy, happy lives.

Let’s see provincial leaders of all parties, in legislature and beyond, listening, collaborating and supporting actions to lift us all.

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It’s time to work together.

Jennie Nomura, Burnaby 

It’s party leaders’ responsibility to vet candidates

Re: Furstenau’s outburst at Rustad guts her clout in negotiations with NDP.

In response to Sonia Furstenau’s claim that statements made by several Conservative candidates are ” … racist, dehumanizing, homophobic and conspiratorial,” Sun columnist Vaughn Palmer argues that “after a democratic election, the usual response by winners and losers alike is ‘the voters have spoken.’ ” And John Rustad states: “Sonia is not obviously a big fan for democracy.”

But democracy is more than just votes. It also includes Charter rights, which sometimes, fortunately not very often, overrule votes.

Furstenau is right. It’s up to the party leader to vet candidates. Many voters vote by party with no further research. They expect their candidates to be on the up-and-up. Would people have voted for Marina Sapozhnikov if they’d known her racist views? Maybe not.

Yes, people should do more research on their own, but the reality is the opposite, which makes it the party leaders’ responsibility to offer responsible candidates.

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Bob Walker, Vancouver

Article was an enjoyable trip down memory lane

Re: This Week In History, 1968: Airport road named after aviation legend Grant McConachie

We very much enjoyed John Mackie’s article on Grant McConachie and CP Air in the Vancouver Sun.

After several years as a bush pilot, my husband joined Canadian Pacific Airlines in 1966 and I joined CP Air in 1976. We can say without reservation that these were our best and most enjoyable working years. My husband retired in 1997 and has said it was the saddest day of his life.

Thank you so much for the trip down memory lane.

Ralph and Peggy Baadsvik, Abbotsford

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