Tom Hardy remembers Nov. 11 being a day when his mom would take him out to formal ceremonies in town, usually starting at Cochrane High School then walking down the hill to the Cenotaph.
“Yeah, even before I joined the forces, it was definitely an important thing,” he said from Canadian Forces Base Comox on Vancouver Island, where the 2nd Lieutenant has been stationed for the past year, training to be a Logistics Officer.
He said he understood the significance of the ceremony from an early age.
Now that he’s in the military, Hardy said he’s learned more about the day and its history.
“You really get a perspective on the sacrifice that everyone put in, and continues to put in to this day.”
Hardy said he’d like to encourage people, if they’re so inclined, to learn a bit about the history of the day.
“I would encourage people to really dig into the history of it because people that learn from history are the ones that don't repeat it,” he said.
While in basic training, Hardy got the opportunity to visit the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa, which left a deep impression on him. He especially remembers how significant it was to see an actual piece of the Berlin Wall.
The fall of the Berlin Wall on Nov. 9, 1989, during the Peaceful Revolution, was a pivotal event in world history which marked the destruction of the Iron Curtain. The wall had divided East and West Berlin for 28 years.
Hardy said it was good to see how Remembrance Day affects people.
“Last year was my first time actually attending a parade. And within the military, just seeing how much it means to people is very heartening,” he said.
He said when he was in the U.S. pursuing his Masters degree, he didn’t see the same importance attached to Remembrance Day that he sees in Canada.
“I really love to see what Canadians do with the whole day and how they don't forget the roots of where they've come from.”
He’s looking forward to the ceremony his base takes part in, which starts on Qualicum Beach.
“They have a lovely ceremony there,” he said.
That’s followed by a parade into the town ending at the local Legion branch.
Hardy knows what it means to serve. He ran for mayor of Cochrane in 2021.
Ever since basic training, Hardy said, there are sometimes people who will approach him to say things like “Thanks for your service.”
He said he tries to be polite, but the situation is a bit unusual.
“We take on such things such as unlimited liability – up to an including our lives. But at the end of the day, people are there to do a job, whatever that ends up looking like,” he said.
“No one’s really in this for the glory.”
