The stories of Canadians in the Great War have long fascinated me, and as many of you know,

I once lived on a Canadian battlefield, a Corsolette on the Somme. This week I re-watched on YouTube, The Killing Ground,

a Canadian broadcasting company documentary from the mid-1980s

about the story of Canada in the Great War,

presented by Terence McKenna.

McKenna was, and maybe still is,

a controversial character in broadcasting,

and while much of the history in this documentary

is dated when we look back on it today,

its strengths for me are the presentation of Canadian voices

from the period of the First World War, from soldiers to nurses, to

chaplains, and including some of my Canadian Great War favourites, if you like, like Wilburne,

Canon Scott and Talbot Papineau. In fact, this film led me to find the books that they wrote or to tell their story,

whether in print or eventually here on the podcast.

It kind of set me on a Canadian journey across the Western Front that I continue one way or another to this day.

And watching it again, it struck a chord because

it mirrored our recent episode about the Great War slipping out of public consciousness.

McKenna in the 1980s noted how much of Canada's Great War art, for example, was just

locked away in vaults and never seen by the public.

And back then, Vimy Ridge, that magnificent memorial high above the Duay Plain in northern France,

wasn't lit up at night just to save a few tax dollars.

Today, much has changed, and in many respects everything has changed,

...