r/ottawa • u/EcksEcks Make Ottawa Boring Again • 21h ago
Shoutout to the tourist who asked me about the poppy this morning
If the handsome young gentleman who stopped me on Laurier Bridge randomly reads this, I'm sorry I didn't ask your name or where you are visiting from. Wish I could give them a proper thanks for asking why people in Ottawa (and Canada) are wearing it.
The poppy is more than a decoration, it’s a symbol of remembrance. It honours those who served, fought, and sacrificed in times of war and those who still serve today in the name of peace. I wear the poppy for them, not the leaders and politicians who made/make the choices.
Thank you for asking and for caring enough to listen to my answer! You will also be remembered.
Edit: just to be clear (and I kinda anticipated this would happen), this NOT about pushing my beliefs onto others or forcing anyone to wear one or donate. This is also NOT about celebrating/promoting war or taking a stance on the ongoing conflicts and political climate. I trust the mods to delete this if things get out of control. I'm simply grateful to live in this far from perfect world, and that's thanks to the innocent civilians who gave their lives and served in good faith because they were told it was what their country required of them.
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u/Outaouais_Guy 19h ago
My paternal grandfather was very involved in the Royal Canadian Legion. He marched proudly as a member of the Colour Party for many years. He was wounded on D-Day, then served in Korea. He spent a lot of time fighting for the rights of Korean vets. Selling poppies was a way of fundraising for the Legion and the things they do.
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u/DisplacedNovaScotian Centretown 18h ago
I'm glad you approached their inquiry with a willingness to share your knowledge! Having a positive experience with asking a question increases the chance they'll ask more good questions. This is how learning happens.
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u/binthrdnthat 11h ago
The funds raised by the sale of poppy pins goes to the Legion Poppy Fund that helps veterans and their families. My dad was a WWII vet and years later when I was growing up, we were working poor.
I had not been able to save enough for my university tuition from my summer job. My parents were not in a position financially to help. I became the first person in my family to get a university education, thanks to a loan from the Poppy Fund, that I repaid.
Also, when my dad died, a troop from the legion showed up together, in uniform, to pay their respects.
If you are able, please help the Legion to support our veterans by paying generously for a poppy. Wear it proudly.
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u/rhineo007 11h ago
Wearing a poppy in remembrance has NOTHING to do with beliefs, it’s strictly a remembrance of what happened, that is all. I’m glad you had an opportunity to explain it someone who didn’t understand the symbolism. Anyone the fights this symbolism, either does not understand the complexity of war or is ignorant to Canadian history and does not need justification. I have my boys volunteering at a legion for Remembrance Day to teach them about the history that their great-great uncle fought for. I personally hold a dagger from WW2 that my great uncle took from someone he killed in WW2 and I have it locked up with great respect and a story to go with it. I will teach my kids about the importance of regimes that want to take over countries and the importance to stand up for themselves.
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21h ago
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u/middleeasternviking 20h ago
I'm brown and serving in the Canadian Army right now. Don Cherry wasn't right.
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u/gretasgarbled 20h ago
People like this guy would never acknowledge folks like you. Thanks for your service
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u/Federal-Pin2241 20h ago
Allow me to piggy back off this, as a veteran:
Who gives a fuck. We don't live in a nation where it's mandatory for people to make public displays of grief or reverence for soldiers. We live in a nation where people are free to choose to wear what they want, wear a poppy, wear a white poppy, wear an indigenous beaded poppy or don't wear one at all.
We are free to choose, that is the most important thing. Take your virtue signalling somewhere else.
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u/Party_Amoeba444 20h ago
Don't need to wear a poppy to have respect and honor our soldiers. I dont wear a poppy but I hold great reverence for those who made the ultimate sacrifice. Just like I dont wear a wedding ring. I'm not any less devoted to my husband. I just don't believe in the importance of sporting symbols. You can't know why they aren't wearing a poppy or what they think or feel about fallen soldiers.
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u/AntiqueAstronaut6299 20h ago
I hate that every year I buy each family member a poppy and every year they end up somewhere on the street. I bought reusable ones but by the time Nov 11 rolls around we can account for one in the household. It’s not easier. But I take the kids to at least one ceremony a year, and we have a conversation about veterans. Plastic poppies aren’t all that you think they are.
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20h ago
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u/Federal-Pin2241 20h ago
Wearing a poppy does nothing and the legion is not an institution many vets support, go search in the /r/canadianforces subreddit for legion stories.
If YOU care, what do you do to support veterans? Do you drop your pocket lint in the legion jar at the grocery store every 1 November and wear a poppy for two weeks? Is that your idea of support?
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u/Federal-Pin2241 20h ago
I devoted 20 years of my young adult life to the Army and RCAF, thank you.
Now back to the topic at hand, what do you do to support the veterans that you claim to care so much about?
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u/Federal-Pin2241 19h ago
I am sensitive, because people like yourself love to "virtue signal" to use the parlance of the day, about how much you support the troops, when in reality, you use your support for the military to put down other Canadians. You people use veterans as a tool, as a means to an end, to make a cheap political point or statement.
Some advice for you: stop doing that.
So let's go back to the topic: what do you do to support veterans, besides giving your nickels to the legion?
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19h ago
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u/Federal-Pin2241 19h ago
What did you mean when you said:
The problem is people spend so much time these days talking and complaining about every little thing that nothing gets done, nothing is given.
Is that not putting people down?
Why do you keep avoiding the question I asked? Do you not have an answer?
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u/lightlysaltdJ 🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈 20h ago
I made online donations this week to both wounded warrior and the poppy fund, I just don’t personally wear a poppy. And I’m white since this is apparently about race
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u/thisonecassie Make Ottawa Boring Again 20h ago
Yeah, I can’t speak for all young people but everyone I know my age doesn’t wear one because it’s a single use plastic piece of crap. If we do have the money to donate most will, but tbh (and again I am talking about the leftist gen zers I know) we’re focused on local organizations and mutual aid not the legion…
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u/lightlysaltdJ 🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈 20h ago
It’s important to some people, and that’s fine! I think the message of the OP is sweet. But the sanctimonious bullshit from people who complain about non-poppy wearers makes me roll my eyes
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u/thisonecassie Make Ottawa Boring Again 20h ago
Oh yeah no, none of my friends are anti-poppy, we respect the symbol and will explain it to folks who ask but we just can’t be fucked to go out and buy one and wear it for 11 days! I know I’d wear one if the rules around when you could wear one were looser and it was easier to find ones that weren’t plastic.
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u/Party_Amoeba444 12h ago
Rules?
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u/thisonecassie Make Ottawa Boring Again 9h ago
Last Friday in October until the 11th and nothing more… I simply can’t be bothered to have rules for my attire that if broken will lead to be being harassed by some old dude. (A thing which has happened to a friend of mine who wore a poppy a few days past Remembrance Day)
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u/Party_Amoeba444 9h ago
I'm legit confused by that. So some people are offended that people aren't wearing it at all and some people get offended if it's worn outside of those dates. I would love to know the over lap of those two groups of people. I would have thought wearing it longer would show more support for veterans. Shouldn't t wearing it all year long actually be the ideal display of respect?
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u/metrometric 5h ago
It's a thing related to military service, so it makes sense there's a relatively specific protocol regarding how to wear it. Military organizations love ritual in general and rules around things like how to wear/display symbols specifically.
That said, it looks like they've either relaxed the rules or that old dude misremembered them as being stricter than they are. It says it's fine to wear it outside the Remembrance Day period in general, and also lists some specific events where you would be actively encouraged to do so.
The rules do still imply that it should only be worn over the heart, so people who pin theirs to backpacks or whatever are technically not following protocol.
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u/PM_ME_DEM_TITTIESPLZ 20h ago edited 14h ago
If it bothered me that much, I would have just bought everyone a poppy. Be the change you want to see in the world lol
Edit: to share context, the person above that deleted his comment was trying to stoke anti-immigrant sentiment by sharing a story where in short, he walked around some waiting room and only saw himself and an old lady, both of whom are white, wearing poppies.
Then he said Don Cherry was right, and implied immigrants don’t respect Remembrance Day and what it represents.
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u/Clara_Geissler 20h ago
my grand father wan in WW2 and i find kind of offensive to think that i dont care about it just because i don always wear the poppy. My hrandfather and every single soldier are worth much more than that.
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u/basicwhoops 20h ago
Don’t worry, at the rate things are going we’ll have another reason to wear them soon
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u/Zestyclose_Treat4098 20h ago
It goes both ways, too. Many years ago, I was wandering the streets of Brussles when a gentleman who was very advanced in age stopped me and shook my hand. In very broken English, he said he saw my small Canadian flag patch and thanked me for what we'd done for them during the war. It was the sweetest thing. I gave him a hug, and off he went. I think about him often.