THUNDER BAY – Port Arthur Branch No. 5 is hosting the Royal Canadian Legion Manitoba/Northwestern Ontario Provincial Command Convention which commenced on Friday with a memorial service held at Waverly Park.
This is the first Manitoba/Northwestern Ontario Provincial Command Convention to be held since the beginning of the pandemic and Dominion president of the Royal Canadian Legion, Bruce Julian, says that members have been waiting with excitement to return to in-person events.
“Legion members are by nature social people, so we like to gather. We like to be a part of the community and lead the community in so many different ways,” he said.
“And not being able to do that was tough, we had to come up with some innovative ideas on how to keep things rolling with drive-through lunches and dinners and things like that, but it’s great to be back meeting and talking to people again and just being social.”
During the COVID-19 pandemic, many of the functions of the leadership of the Royal Canadian Legion were suspended including the complaints processes and leadership elections, and Julian says that it's good to be back handling business in person.
“We’ve had officers in place for over three years, four years in some cases, and we do have a complaint process and that had to be suspended, so those things dragged on, which wasn’t a good thing,” he said.
“It’s always good to get problems solved straight away, but we did what we had to do. We still did a lot of work through Zoom, A lot of official meetings and committee meetings were done through Zoom, but, it’s not the same as meeting in person, especially on a beautiful day like today.”
Robert Cutbush, vice president of Manitoba/Northwestern Ontario Provincial Command and local arrangements committee co-chair says that this convention’s theme celebrates the history of Thunder Bay.
“The theme of our convention is the adoption of the poppy as a symbol of remembrance to raise funds for veterans and carried on by the Royal Canadian Legion,” he said.
“The poppy was adopted by the Great War veterans at the Prince Arthur Hotel, you know, by the Great War veterans and carried by the Royal Canadian Legion.”
From June 17 to June 19, accredited delegates from Manitoba and Northwestern Ontario will meet at the historic Prince Arthur Hotel and will be dealing with nominations for elections, changes to the constitution and Bylaws, etc.
