Commentary
On Nov. 11, 1918, the guns fell silent and World War I, the most horrific conflict humans had ever engaged in, came to an end. Almost immediately, thoughts turned to how to best commemorate and fix in the memory the battles and sacrifices of the war. Every nation (except Bolshevik Russia) that had participated in the struggle embarked on the design and construction of thousands of memorials, ranging from simple cairns or cenotaphs in villages, to triumphal arches and massive statuary groups in national capitals.
Canada was not exempt from this urge to solidify memory. At first, the government planned to memorialize battle sites in Europe with a series of identical monuments in Belgium and France and held a competition for designs. When over 160 proposals were submitted in 1921, what emerged was overwhelming support for a single spectacular construction, based on a design by architect Walter Allward, on Vimy Ridge in the Pas de Calais region of northern France. After negotiations, on June 29, 1922, France agreed to donate land to Canada in perpetuity for such a memorial, provided Canada was responsible for its upkeep….