By Connie Sampson

Red Poppy White Poppy

Nov 15, 2010 | 8:16 PM

It is my pleasure to greet Prince Albert readers from the pages of paNOW. After more than 12 years writing columns, I think I have the hang of it now and look forward to sharing my views with you every other week on these pages. As an official Old Broad, I look forward to the relaxing change from weekly to biweekly too.

As usual, I intend to express my views on just about everything with a few bits of history thrown into the mix.

A bit of my own history. I studied journalism at Carleton University in Ottawa, before transferring to Brandon University, graduating with a BA in History and Geography. I finished university studies at University of Saskatchewan with an Honors degree in History in 1969.

As some of you remember, I wrote for the Daily Herald for several years in the early >90s. After leaving the Herald, I began writing weekly columns for the Shopper.

At that point, I had been writing for various newspapers, magazines, radio and television for some 30 years. I had a book, Buried in the Silence, the story of the shooting of Leo LaChance by neo-Nazi Carney Nerland, published in 1995.

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Husband and I have four adult offspring and six grandchildren. Two of ours sons have served Canada in the militia. Our oldest son still does and is now a chief warrant officer. He also served as a peacekeeper.

And that brings me to Remembrance Day and a rant about poppies – the white ones, not the red poppies most Canadians have been proud to wear since 1921, in appreciation of the service of Canadian men and women in the armed forces.

I am happy to say that this year, the demand for the traditional red poppies was so great that several Royal Canadian Legion branches ran out of them. Usually, 20 million red poppies are for sale each year. There is a resurgence of celebration of all our veterans and serving troops. We remember and appreciate the thousands of military men and women who lost their lives defending Canadians and other countries that needed our support in the past. Millions of red poppies are proudly worn in Canada and all Commonwealth countries. Several European countries share Remembrance Day with us.

The recent loss of 152 Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan lends a poignancy to Canada's Remembrance Day.

Why then, since 2008, have white poppies appeared in Canada? They are a symbol of peace, according to the peace groups that distribute them. They believe there are ways to settle disputes without warfare. There are, and mercifully, some countries around the world s employ those methods from time to time – hence, we seldom hear about them. Some say, “No. The white poppy is in remembrance of all the civilians who died in wars.”

However, some of these peace groups indicate that they believe the red poppy is a symbol of militancy and war mongers. That is a major insult to all of those who have served, are serving and those who gave their lives to obtain peace. And it is an insult to those who lost family and friends in wars in Europe, the Korean Conflict and Afghanistan. If anything, the red poppy is the symbol of peace and the sacrifices of Commonwealth troops who fought to bring peace – not war.

These groups tell us the white poppy is not a criticism of veterans and those who lost their lives. But since some peace groups associate the red poppy with war mongers and militancy, their words don't ring true.

The white poppy came into being following the First World War. It was part of a reaction to that war and a strong fear that it would be repeated. The white poppy originated with the British Womens- Co-operative Guild in 1933. They believed that the red poppy represented only British war dead. The white poppy was to represent all the casualties of war, with a hope for the end of all wars. The white poppy was adopted by the Peace Pledge Union in 1933 as a symbol of promoting peace and is distributed now by peace groups.

The white poppy has its time and place – but its time is not on November 11 and its place is not in Canada as we mourn soldiers lost in Afghanistan.