I'm going to weigh in here for a few moments and if I screw it up, please forgive me.
As an American, albeit one who lived in Canada for two years and have many, many Canadian friends, I would feel honoured and humbled if Canadians chose to fly the American flag in remembrance of those Canadian citizens who served in a conflict which their country was not directly involved in or, even supportive of. They made a choice, they were there and many did not come back.
As that same American, I can understand and frankly, support, the wishes of the many that Canadians should remember the 11th of November in the context of Canadians who served, were wounded or died in the service of Canada.
Canada has, as have most all of the former British Empire and now, I guess we still call it the Commonwealth, been drawn into many conflicts since, let us say 1900, that were not of your choosing and in many cases causes that you did not absolutely support but you did because of loyalty to your
British heritage. Given my US Marine Corps background, I can understand that and support it.
To fast forward to more or less the present:
Post 1945 and here I refer to the virtual collapse of the British Empire over a period of years after that year, most American politicians and probably most Americans assumed that Canada would align itself with the US due to the geographic proximity to us.
From 1945 until roughly 1965, I think that this was more or less the case. VietNam changed that and in my opinion put Canada on a more independent path which I think was probably for the better for Canada. Over the ensuing almost 40 years we managed to patch things back together again and then came the Iraq situation.
It is not my intent to get into the bully pulpit, even if I could, about the Iraq situation but I see it as a contextual parallel to the VietNam situation vis a vis our relationships (Canada/America).
I think what I am trying to get to here is that it is sad that outside influences seem to colour our immediate reactions to a lot of day to day things that we have to deal with.
If the question of which flag to fly in Canada for this year's Veterans Celebration had been asked in 2001, or, well, pick your non confrontational year, the conversation may have well been a bit different.
As a total side note, I watched the first half of "They were Soldiers" with Mel Gibson last night and intend to watch the last half tonight. Great film and it could have well been Canadians, Brits, Anzacs and, yes, maybe even the "bad guys".
Reminds me of my father.
I do expect a good response from GWB. I am perhaps the only one who does not prostitute his unfortunate legacy of family names which seems to be the latest great sport on this board.
Bill