Do Canadians Really Know?

I can’t relate to people that just go traveling, like a young adult like when they get out of high school and they decide to go traveling because this is the real world in your face like ugly, especially war. So coming home you really take advantage of what you have and what’s around you but then you start noticing how people take, how other people take advantage of what’s around you. So you could be in a coffee shop waiting for a coffee and the barista gets somebody’s order wrong and then that person just blows up at them. And you are just like, “Hey man, just wait ten minutes they are going to get you another coffee, your life ain’t over. You have your legs, you’re going to walk out of here.” So you really start noticing how people let first world problems get to them. For the first couple of years that was really hard for me. Just how people were not clued in to what really happens in the world. I was maybe two weeks home, two or three weeks home from deployment and I was at a beer festival in Victoria and I was talking to one of my buddies and this couple came up to talk to my friend and I didn’t know them and he was talking to them and he said, “Oh sorry, this is my friend Nick, he just got back from overseas.” And they were like, “Oh how was traveling?” And he was like, “No, no, no, he just got back from deployment, he’s with the military.” And they both looked at me and said, “Oh how was Iraq?” And I was like, “What, what are you talking about? We’re in Afghanistan man, we've had like twenty seven people like whatever it is, maybe fifteen to twenty some Canadians die, do you ever pick up a newspaper or watch the news? "What's gonig on?" So it really blew my mind how, especially young adults or just people in this day and age don’t really know what’s going on either in the world or the country itself.

After returning from Afghanistan, Corporal Kerr shares a story of an encounter where fellow Canadians really weren’t aware of our military connection to the rest of the world.

Nick Kerr

Nick Kerr was born December 2, 1981 in Victoria, B.C. His father was in the military and had a personal connection with Lady Patricia and Nick knew one day he would join that regiment. In 2003, he attended military training in Wainwright, Alberta and upon graduating went to Shilo, Manitoba. Nick joined with the 2nd Battalion Canadian Light Infantry holding rank of Corporal. In 2006 Nick accepted a deployment to Afghanistan. Returning from overseas, Nick continued serving and became part of the contingent for security at 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, B.C. as well as the 2011 floods in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Always willing to serve and volunteer his time, Nick became a huge part of the organization in which Highway of Heroes was born where he still commits twice a year to cleaning the highway. Corporal Kerr is a still serving member with the military and resides in the province of Alberta.