What D-Day Still Teaches Canada

Commentary Every year on June 6, Canadians gather to remember D-Day. We remember the young men who climbed into landing craft in the darkness before dawn. We remember the soldiers who crossed the English Channel knowing that many would never return. We remember the Canadians who stormed Juno Beach and fought their way inland through machine gun fire, artillery barrages, and determined German resistance. We call them the Greatest Generation, and rightly so. It is easy to look back on those men and women with admiration. It is harder to ask a more uncomfortable question. Could Canada still produce such a generation today? Many Canadians have their doubts. We live in an age of political division, declining trust in institutions, and growing cynicism about public life. We hear constant claims that Canada is fragmented and that our sense of national purpose has weakened beyond repair....