Clearview's Tulip bloom celebration marks liberation of Holland
Nearly 80 years after the liberation of Holland, Clearview Township is doing its part to mark the occasion.
On Thursday, the township celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Stayner Garden Club with their Tulip Bloom Celebration, with the flower sharing a double meaning.
"As a special gift in 1945, the Dutch government provided tulips to the city of Ottawa and to the Canadian people," Said Amanda Murray, Clearview Townships Culture and Tourism coordinator.
The flower has also become a symbol of the liberation of the Netherlands.
For one Canadian Armed Forces veteran who grew up in Germany, the tulip is a bright flower with dark memories.
"At the end of the war, I was twelve years old," said Manfred Leimgaret, with the Grey and Simcoe Foresters Brigade. "We were one of the dumb kids standing on the side roads watching things go by."
In 2014, Leimgaret travelled to his wife's homeland of Holland. While she visited family, he visited a local cemetery.
"There is over 2,000 Canadian boys buried, and that strikes a note," he said.
Many residents and veterans celebrated the Garden Club and its relationship with the Dutch community. Leimgaret said he spent hours at that cemetery noting the gravestones of young men from Simcoe County who never got to go back to the country he now calls home.
"I don't know if it was the imagination," he added. "But you could hear the boys whispering, talking to each other."
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
More than 115 cases of eye damage reported in Ontario after solar eclipse
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
Toxic testing standoff: Family leaves house over air quality
A Sherwood Park family says their new house is uninhabitable. The McNaughton's say they were forced to leave the house after living there for only a week because contaminants inside made it difficult to breathe.
Decoy bear used to catch man who illegally killed a grizzly, B.C. conservation officers say
A man has been handed a lengthy hunting ban and fined thousands of dollars for illegally killing a grizzly bear, B.C. conservation officers say.
B.C. seeks ban on public drug use, dialing back decriminalization
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
OPP responds to apparent video of officer supporting anti-Trudeau government protestors
The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) says it's investigating an interaction between a uniformed officer and anti-Trudeau government protestors after a video circulated on social media.
An emergency slide falls off a Delta Air Lines plane, forcing pilots to return to JFK in New York
An emergency slide fell off a Delta Air Lines jetliner shortly after takeoff Friday from New York, and pilots who felt a vibration in the plane circled back to land safely at JFK Airport.
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau on navigating post-political life, co-parenting and freedom
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says there is 'still so much love' between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as they navigate their post-separation relationship co-parenting their three children.
Last letters of pioneering climber who died on Everest reveal dark side of mountaineering
George Mallory is renowned for being one of the first British mountaineers to attempt to scale the dizzying heights of Mount Everest during the 1920s. Nearly a century later, newly digitized letters shed light on Mallory’s hopes and fears about ascending Everest.
Loud boom in Hamilton caused by propane tank, police say
A loud explosion was heard across Hamilton on Friday after a propane tank was accidentally destroyed and detonated at a local scrap metal yard, police say.