Pride of Canadian Soldiers in Korea

All one needs to do is to think back to the little kids that we used to see. Noses running, coughing in the winter time, poorly dressed, poorly nourished, who’d been uprooted from their own community—in many instances their families devastated, many killed, kids ending up in orphanages, as you know, the Canadians sponsored orphanages in Korea. If you think of carving out a future for those kids, it was certainly worthwhile. I went back to Korea two years ago. I’d never been back. I went as part of my job and to see Seoul today as compared to what it was. . . . Just to set it in context, it was devastated when I saw it. Now flying into Seoul makes flying into Vancouver pale by comparison. The high rises, the office towers, the development, the industry. One of the things that struck me flying in was these white circular structures that I saw on the ground and I couldn’t wait to ask Koreans what they were. They said, “Oh, we grow all our own vegetables in the winter time. Those are our hot houses and we start our seedlings there.” I said, “Oh, that’s interesting. How do you generate your power? ” “From Canada, Mr. Dixon. We get almost all our power from Canada. The CANDU reactor and we bring in natural gas by ship from Canada so that’s how we, our economy evolves.” To see the economy of South Korea today and to talk to South Korean people who are really grateful for what Canadians did, even if they weren’t born at the time, makes it worthwhile.