Vimy Ridge during WW1 was more than just a platoon of Canadians getting wiped out. In fact, the Vimy Ridge memorial is dedicated to Canada specifically from the King of Great Britain and is HUGE, over 250 acres. It was the first time where all the Canadian Divisions were allowed to operate together as one corps, and not just a part of a greater UK Corps. The attack was planned by a Canadian General, and was successful, employing walking artillery barrages in front of advancing infantry.
The German lines were pressed, then finally broken, and the allies were given their rupture in the lines, and exploited it, and began to take the fight to Germany from that point on. The Canadian General was Knighted by the King on the battlefield for his work.
You will find that most Canadians now a days under the age of say 30 don't even know what Vimy is, where it is, or what it represents. The older generations do however, and understand that it was "the" moment where our nation was forged in fire, and first stood on its own, separate from its parent.
IMO its your own country that doesn't like to talk about its contribution in any war. You're very non-war-like. Perhaps because you want to distinguish yourself from Americans; don't want to risk being mistaken as American while traveling overseas. When a Canadian made the longest ever sniper rifle kill in Afghanistan a few years ago, I absolutely couldn't find anything about it on the web sites of Canadian newspapers. It wasn't covered, as if it would be embarrassing to talk about Canada's military might.
This is(was at least) completely true IMO. Not only were the two shooters, Aaron Perry and Rob Furlong denied much deserved publicity, they were ordered by the Canadian government at the time, which was far from military friendly, to refuse the Bronze and Silver stars the USA attempted to award them. Later at least, when Bush decided to give the entire PPCLI infantry battalion the Presidential Unit Citation for their actions that week, they were allowed to pin that one on. Ridiculous or what?
This sentiment has slowly been changing over the last ten years or so, just a little, as Canadians became more accustomed to having to deal with our soliders killing and being killed in a real life war, not just watching the USA on CNN having to take care of business. A surprising number of Canadians have come out in support of our guys, and coverage is much more common now than it was back during 2002 when we first deployed into Afghanistan with the Rakasan guys.
Boilerdown, you EQ story reminds me of when 9/11 happened, and the airspace was closed down. I used to work as an air traffic controller in Gander Newfoundland back in the early 90's, my first real job that I started when I was 19. That small town has a runway and small airport, and when the air traffic was all suspended, all the enroute traffic on the routes inbound had to put down immediately, so dozens of heavies filled with passengers landed in little Gander. With only a couple small motels, few restaurants, and even less infrastructure, the towns people came together and opened their homes to all the travelers stranded for days, mostly Americans. There is a yearly anniversary where thousands still come back to thank the Canadians that helped them out during their most horrifying hours. 6600 people, as I said mostly Americans were taken care of for almost a week by only 8500 towns people, and only 6000 of those adults. Operation Yellow Ribbon it was called, you can read more about it online, and I know one CBS anchorman made a film about it, as he was one of the 6600.
