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The Hangar Flight Museum, formerly the Aero Space Museum of Calgary, began in 1975 as a non-profit association caring for aviation artifacts. Since 1985 it has occupied a former Second World War British Commonwealth Air Training Plan drill hall at Calgary International Airport.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: User:Jaydec · Photo licence: CC BY-SA 3.0 · Credit & context
Canada has kept a peacekeeping presence in the Golan Heights of Syria since 1974, when it joined the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force after the Yom Kippur War. It is one of Canada’s longest-running international commitments, and more than 12,000 Canadians have served there.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Spaceboyjosh · Photo licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 · Credit & context
During the Suez Crisis of 1956, Canadian diplomat Lester B. Pearson proposed a peacekeeping force, and the United Nations launched its first large-scale peacekeeping mission, the United Nations Emergency Force, commanded by Canada’s Major-General E.L.M. “Tommy” Burns. Canadians served with UN troops in Egypt from 1956 to 1967 and again from 1973 to 1979; Pearson received the 1957 Nobel Peace Prize.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Indonesian Ministry of Information and the Information Department of the Indonesian Army · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Members of the Canadian Armed Forces have served in dozens of peacekeeping efforts with the United Nations, NATO and other multinational operations. Peacekeepers are neutral international troops sent to countries in turmoil to reduce tensions and restore peace, monitoring ceasefires, patrolling buffer zones, clearing landmines and providing humanitarian aid.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Pierre André Leclercq · Photo licence: CC BY 4.0 · Credit & context
Operation IMPACT began as the Canadian Armed Forces’ support to the Global Coalition formed in 2014 to degrade and defeat Daesh in Iraq and Syria. Canadian CF-18 Hornets flew 1,378 sorties between October 30, 2014, and February 15, 2016. The mission then focused on training and building the military capabilities of Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Staff Sgt. Perry Aston · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
In 2011 Canada took part in the NATO-led Operation Unified Protector in Libya through Operation Mobile. It began in February with the evacuation of Canadians and other foreign nationals, then, after the UN Security Council imposed a no-fly zone on 17 March, became a combat operation involving naval ships and fighter, transport, patrol, helicopter and refuelling aircraft. It ended on October 31, 2011, after Gadhafi’s death.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: SAC Sally Raimondo / MOD · Photo licence: OGL v1.0 · Credit & context
After the attacks of 11 September 2001, Canada joined the international coalition against the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, which had sheltered Al-Qaeda. More than 40,000 Canadians served there, the largest deployment of Canadian troops since the Second World War, in a conflict that lasted more than 12 years, the longest in Canada’s history. Canada led Operation MEDUSA, its largest combat operation since the Korean War.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: ISAF photo by U.S. Air Force TSgt Laura K. Smith · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
In 1999 Canadian CF-18 pilots flew combat missions in NATO’s 79-day air campaign over Kosovo, Operation ALLIED FORCE, which ran from March to June 1999 to end violence and repression in Kosovo. Canada’s part, Operation Echo, had begun in June 1998 when CF-18 Hornets deployed to Aviano, Italy.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Staff Sgt. Jennifer C. Wallis, U.S. Air Force · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
After Iraq invaded Kuwait on 2 August 1990, more than 4,000 Canadians served in the Persian Gulf with a coalition formed to drive Iraqi forces out. Canada’s part, Operation Friction, was mainly warships and aircraft. It was the first conflict in which Canadian women played an active combat role.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Staff Sgt. Lee Corkran · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Germany’s invasion of Poland in 1939 began more than six years of fighting on land, at sea and in the air that ended in 1945. More than one million Canadians and Newfoundlanders served in uniform at home and around the world; over 45,000 gave their lives and another 55,000 were wounded.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Canadian Official photographer · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
When Britain declared war in August 1914, Canada, whose external affairs were still governed by the United Kingdom, was automatically at war. More than 650,000 Canadians and Newfoundlanders served in what was then called the Great War; more than 66,000 died and more than 172,000 were wounded. Canada signed the Treaty of Versailles separately from Britain.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Castle, W.I. (William Ivor), official Canadian War photographer · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
The South African War, also known as the Boer War, was fought in southern Africa from 1899 to 1902 between the British Empire and the Boers. More than 7,000 Canadians volunteered to serve alongside British forces, and five earned the Victoria Cross. In February 1900 Canadians played an important role at Paardeberg, the first major British victory of the war.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: D. Gordon E. Robertson · Photo licence: CC BY-SA 3.0 · Credit & context
Memorial University College was founded in St. John’s in 1925 to commemorate Newfoundlanders who died in the First World War. Its institutional history also traces the development of higher education in Newfoundland to the Council of Higher Education, established in 1893.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: User:Neelix · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Joseph-Israël Tarte, a brilliant polemicist, journalist and politician, took part in every major political battle of his time, working under various banners to protect French and Catholic minorities and strengthen Canada’s place in the Empire. Elected in 1891, he engineered Laurier’s 1896 triumph in Quebec. As Minister of Public Works (1896–1902) he improved St. Lawrence navigation and made Montréal the country’s leading port.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Jules-Isaïe Benoît · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Robert Tait McKenzie, born in Lanark County, Ontario, graduated in medicine at McGill and became its medical director of physical training in 1894. A pioneer of physical education, he served as a surgeon in the First World War and developed widely adopted rehabilitation methods. He won international acclaim for sculptures of athletes; his medallion The Joy of Effort was set in Stockholm’s Olympic Stadium in 1912.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Bain News Service · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Andrew Macphail, born at Orwell, Prince Edward Island, became a distinguished doctor and writer and McGill’s first professor of the history of medicine (1907–37). Knighted for his service with the Canadian Army Medical Corps in the First World War, he founded and edited the University Magazine and wrote books, plays and poems sharply criticizing the modern age, contrasting the rural life of his childhood with urban industrialism.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Unknown author · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Georges Vanier helped found the Royal 22e Régiment, served with it in the First World War and commanded it from 1925 to 1928. He represented Canada at the League of Nations, in London and in Paris, becoming Canada’s first ambassador to France in 1944. As Governor General from 1959 to 1967, the first French Canadian in that role since Confederation, he devoted himself to national unity.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Canada. Dept. of National Defence. Unknown photographer. · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
James Layton Ralston, born in Amherst, Nova Scotia, was a lawyer, provincial legislator and decorated First World War veteran. He became Minister of National Defence in Mackenzie King’s government in 1926 and again in 1940. His support for conscription for overseas service was opposed by King, and he was forced to resign from cabinet in 1944.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Harris & Ewing · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Maurice Cullen, born in St. John’s, studied sculpture in Montréal under Philippe Hébert and painting at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Returning in 1895, he taught at the Art Association of Montreal and in the First World War served overseas as an official war artist. His international reputation rests mainly on his impressionist views of the Canadian winter.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Unknown photographer; Archives of Ontario · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Sam Hughes, soldier, journalist and Member of Parliament for Lindsay from 1892 to 1921, helped create a distinctly Canadian army. As Minister of Militia and Defence from 1911 to 1916, he raised the Canadian Expeditionary Force that fought in the First World War and was knighted, but disputes with colleagues and subordinates forced him from Cabinet in 1916.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: William James Topley · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Sir Robert Borden, born at Grand-Pré, Nova Scotia, led the Conservative Party from 1901 and was Prime Minister from 1911 to 1920. He guided Canada through the First World War, imposed conscription for overseas service in 1917 and formed a Union government of Liberals and Conservatives. He is remembered above all for insisting that Canada act as an autonomous nation in international diplomacy.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Notman, Boston · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Davidson Black, born and educated in Toronto, turned from medicine to the study of fossil humans and took a post at Peking Union Medical College after the First World War. In 1927, from a fossil tooth found at Zhoukoudian, he described fossil material under the name Sinanthropus pekinensis, the “Peking Man”, a find later confirmed by excavations with Chinese and European scientists.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Photogravure; Wellcome Collection, V0026054 · Photo licence: CC BY 4.0 · Credit & context
Max Aitken, Lord Beaverbrook, was an important and controversial Canadian financier and the outspoken owner of a British newspaper empire. In the First World War he shaped how Canada’s effort was seen and remembered through the war art program; as Britain’s Minister of Aircraft Production in the Second World War he drove Spitfire production, and he was a leading benefactor of the University of New Brunswick and founder of the Beaverbrook Art Gallery.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: M. S. Kay, Bolton · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context
Charles Gavan “Chubby” Power, a First World War veteran and longtime Quebec MP, was Minister of National Defence for Air from 1940 to 1944. He oversaw wartime RCAF expansion, supported distinct Canadian squadrons, helped establish the Air Cadets and advanced the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, which trained more than 130,000 Allied aircrew in Canada.
Contributor: Citizen.ca
Photo: Canadian Government Motion Picture Bureau · Photo licence: Public domain · Credit & context