Every year on November 11th, there are always people in Canada wearing poppies to show their respect for the veterans who fought in the battlefield and people who were injured or killed in the First and Second World Wars. On November 11th, 2013, McGill University held the memorial ceremony for Remembrance Day. Veterans, McGill students and visitors from everywhere gathered together to celebrate and memorize this day. It was not hard to notice that almost everyone had a poppy on their collars. The red poppies remind people the brutality of war and efforts that Canadians had made to keep the homeland safe and complete. Accordingly every year on Remembrance Day Canadians wear poppies to show that they are not forgetting the history. Therefore, the poppy can be a symbol of Canada as it reminds Canadians the First and Second World Wars which had a deep influence on Canada in such ways that the wars gave Canadians a stronger sense of nation and that they promotes women to fight and gain their political rights, and as it is also characterized as peace that the soldiers risked their life to gain and Canada has always been a peace-keeper in the world stage.

(Red Poppy Field, by Irina Sztukowski, 2012)
Poppy is a kind of plant that can grow up to 4 feet tall and that often blooms in late spring to early summer. (Simon, Chadwick, and Craker, Herbs: An indexed bibliography). Its recognition as a symbol of remembrance of war originated from the poem “In Flanders Fields” by the Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae. In the poem, he wrote
“In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now we lie In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields.” (McCrae, In Flanders Field).
This poem was written during the second Battle of Ypres in May 1915. By writing this poem, Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae built a connection between the poppies and the dead soldiers from the wars. (Holmes, In Flanders Fields" Canada's Official Poem: Breaking Faith). He similarised the redness of the poppies to the redness of the soldiers’ blood. In the poem, poppies were metaphorized as soldier. Each poppy that stood in the Flanders Field represented a soldier that was buried underneath the ground. The poppies were so red as if they were dyed by the blood of the sacrificed soldiers. Moreover, in 1921, Mme Guerin, from the newly founded Legion and also the founder of The American and French Children's League suggested a sale of paper poppies as a fundraising for welfare support for the returning veterans from the war. However, Mme Guerin’s suggestion not only helped to raise fund for the welfare of the veterans but also gave people the sense of loss of sacrificed soldiers. This suggestion reinforced poppies’ symbolization of Remembrance Day. (Holmes, In Flanders Fields" Canada's Official Poem: Breaking Faith). Till today, poppies are still the commonly accepted symbol of remembrance for Canada and other Commonwealth countries.

As the First and Second World Wars have deeply influenced the world, they deeply influenced Canada as well. They gave Canada a stronger sense of nation. As in the lecture given by Winthrop Pickard Bell, he described that “the essence of the nation as an organic spiritual unity that grows or develops, and is thus not a product of will, and which becomes a unity by surmounting its parts. This unity is instantiated in a given nation by tradition. The particular character of a nation's tradition gives it a tendency to act in one way rather than another”. (Angus, The Idea of a Nation). Briefly, the idea of a nation is important for the stability and development of the country. To create a sense of being a nation, the individuals must have the chance to work together and then gradually start to have the feeling as a team and unity. Before the First World War, Canada troops had never worked together as one team. However, during the battle of Vimy Ridge, it was the first time that the four individual groups of troops from fought together against their common enemy. In the time that all the military personnel fought and together cooperated with each other against the same enemy, they gradually had a sense and a feeling of unity. (Greenham, On The Battlefront: Canadian Soldiers, An Imperial War, And America's National Pastime; Hopkins, Canada at War : A Record of Heroism and Achievement, 1914-1918; Journal of Military History ,Canada And The Battle Of Vimy Ridge; Thomas, World War I:1914-1918. (Canada At War)./ World War II:1939-1945. (Canada At War)). In this way, Canada built its idea of a nation which helped Canada’s latter development as a country. For this reason, poppy can be considered as a symbol of Canada as it symbolizes the wars that gave Canada a stronger sense of a nation.

During and after the First and Second World War, Women’s rights in Canada have changed and were gradually being noticed. In the wartime, since most men of the labour force were recruited and were fighting in the battlefield, women, who were formerly always considered to take care of the household, had to stand up and do the heavy labours that men used to do before wartime. During the wartime, women started to take men’s role and work in war factories to make bullets, uniforms, and weapons etc. for military needs. When the men came back from the battlefield from the wars, some women did not want to go back to their home and only do the housework. They wanted to get involved in the society and work as their male counterparts. Moreover, they wanted to have the same rights as men. Therefore, later they started women’s suffrage and campaigns for fighting for women’s rights. (D'Amours, Women And War; Pasolli, A Sisterhood Of Suffering And Service: Women And Girls Of Canada And Newfoundland During The First World War). After several years of women’s fighting for rights, the government gradually granted them rights little by little. Between the period of 1884 and 1888, nine different provinces and districts gave women part of the suffrage and it was only valid within the province or the district. In 1884, Quebec and Ontario granted municipal suffrage to property-owning widows and spinsters. Later in 1886, New Brunswick gave women not only the municipal suffrage but also the county councils suffrage. In the same year, Nova Scotia gave the municipal suffrage to all property-owning women except whose husbands were voters. In 1888, Prince Edward Island, British Columbia, Manitoba and the district of Alberta granted municipal suffrage to property-owning widows and spinsters. Saskatchewan gave municipal suffrage to women in general. (Orman, The World-Wide Woman Suffrage Movement). From now on, women in Canada were no longer only stay-at-home housewives, but also women with social and political rights. Getting granted for municipal and/or council suffrage was a significant progress in women’s suffrage and a great improvement of women’s social status, as it enabled that women’s voices were being heard as men’s voices. Due to the wars, women had the chance to get involved in their society and then finally fought to have their social status and rights. For this reason, poppy can be considered as a symbol of Canada as it symbolized the wars that gave a chance to greatly change women’s suffrage and social status.

As another aspect of the meaning of poppy, it symbolizes the peace that the soldiers and veterans have sacrificed and are sacrificing for. In this way, poppy can be a symbol of Canada, as Canada has always been working hard to keep peace for the world. Canada has a long history of helping other countries to keep peaceful. Since 1948, Canada has taken part in more than 34 United Nations peace-keeping and peace-observation missions. During the Suez Crisis in 1956, Jamal Abd en-Nasser, the president of Egypt, nationalized the Suez Canal. Egypt’s nationalization of Suez Canal gave Britain the fear that it would cause economic loss in Britain. Therefore Britain joined the forces from France and Israel to attack Egypt so that the president would stop the nationalization of the Suez Canal. Trying to preserve the peace and keep the NATO members together, the Canadian Under-Secretary Affairs replaced the British and French forces with United Nations’ force and created a buffer between Egyptian and Israeli forces and this became a peace-keeping model throughout the Cold War. During the conflict which was caused by the declaration of independence of the Republic of Slovenia and Croatia, the United Nations provided peace supporting operations and Canada participated in all the three major UN/NATO Bosnian peace-support operations. Canada took part in the NATO-led Operation Allied Force bombing of Serbia in 1999 and the UN-approved, NATO-led peacekeeping force in Kosovo. In fact, Canada has always been acting actively in United Nations’ peace-keeping missions. (Bouldin, Keeper of the peace: Canada and security transition operations). Ever since 1947, more than 125,000 Canadian troops have participated in UN peacekeeping operations (PKOs). This makes more than 10 percent of the UN total soldiers. (Dorn, Canadian peacekeeping: Proud tradition, strong future). Moreover, Canada has had policy about peace. The new guiding principle in Canada’s foreign policy is Human Security, which is designed to be “an effort to construct a Global Society where the safety of the individual is at the center of international priorities and a motivating force for international action . . . and where our global, regional and bilateral institutions present and future are built and equipped to enhance and enforce these standards”. (Bouldin, Keeper of the peace: Canada and security transition operations). Not only the Canadian soldiers have the willingness to keep the world peaceful but the majority of Canadians support the peace-keeping mission as well. Some Canadian public opinion polls have shown that most Canadians support Canada’s international peace-keeper role. Almost 90 percent of Canadians insisted that Canada should provide peace-keeping troops when they were demanded by the United Nations. A poll in the April of 2004 showed that approximately 80 percent of Canadians supported that Canadian military forces continued to involve in missions in Afghanistan, Bosnia, and Haiti. Angus Reid Polls in 1992 showed that around 90 percent of Canadians defined Canada as a leading role in international peace-keeping missions and Angus Reid Polls in 1997 showed that about 94 percent of Canadians believed so. The Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs reported that peacekeeping was the “sole military activity that Canadians fully support”. The peace-keeping spirit of Canada is not only presenting in international affairs, but also presenting in the littlest things in Canadians’ daily life. The peace-keeping spirit can be found on the Canadian currency. The spirit of peace-keeping can be found in the memorials and monuments in some cities. For example, in 2004, Calgary established Peacekeepers’ Park and Manitoba as well dedicated a Peacekeepers’ Cairn in Winnipeg to memorize the sacrifices of Canadian peacekeepers. On the ten dollars bill which was issued in 2011, there is a female soldier, who sports a UN blue beret, looking vigilantly through a pair of binoculars. Below the image there is a bilingual banner saying “AU SERVICE DE LA PAIX / IN THE SERVICE OF PEACE”. (Dorn, Canadian peacekeeping: Proud tradition, strong future?; Murray and McCoy, John, From Middle Power to Peacebuilder: The Use of the Canadian Forces in Modern Canadian Foreign Policy). In all the ways above, Canada shows its spirit of peace-keeping. As a result, poppy can be considered as a symbol of Canada as it represents the peace after wartime and Canada has always been the role of peace-keeper for the global society.

In conclusion, Canada has never forgotten what the wars brought to it. Canadians remember how the wars have brought them together to work as a unity; they remember how the wars have promoted women to stand up and fight for their social and political rights. Every year on Remembrance Day, Canadians wear poppies on their collars to show their respect for soldiers and veterans who have risked and are sacrificing themselves to protect this country. Moreover, Canadians are as well wearing poppies because they have never forgotten and will never forget the effects that the wars brought to them. As a result, poppy can be considered as a symbol of Canada, since that poppy symbolizes the First and Second World War which have largely influenced Canada in such way that they gave Canada a stronger sense of being a nation and that the wars encouraged women to fight and gain their social rights, and that the poppy symbolizes the peace after wars and Canada has always been an international peace-keeper.