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November 10, 2010
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Pine prince
Cannot forget
Veteran remembers combat in the Second World War
Bernice Trick Citizen staff btrick@pgcitizen.ca
At 89 years, Prince George veteran Charles Hardy doesn’t hear so well any more and the names, battles and places overseas are somewhat fading from his memory.
But there are aspects of the Second World War and fighting on the front lines that he will never be able to erase from his mind.
“I remember there was lots of shell fire. Many friends went down the tube,” he said.
“My worst memory was when one of my buddies was in front of me . . . I heard him scream. He had stepped on a mine and it blew him apart.
“I dragged him to a level spot.
He came to for about 30 seconds before he died.
“There was no time for either of us to say anything,” Hardy said, when asked if his friend had any last words.
The army veteran was in Holland on the day the “order” came that the war was over.
Was it a joyous time with hats being thrown into the air and hugging going on like you see in the movies?
“No. We didn’t do that. I just remember a loud holler going up,” said Hardy, who made it home to North Battleford, Sask. in good shape.
He was 18 years old when he signed up with the Regina Rifles Regiment in June, 1940, and did his training at the Dundurn Military Base close to Saskatoon.
Hardy, who said his job was as in artillery communications, running signals and forward observation of artillery targets, travelled by boat to Palermo, Italy, where he was stationed for about a year before moving on to Belgium and
Chuck Hardy shows his 26 man Intercommunication Platoon -Saskatchewan.
Citizen photo by David Mah
Holland, where he was when the war ended.
For the past few months he’s lived at Rodica House for senior citizens in Prince George.
He doesn’t get out much any more, but in younger years he was an active participant in the Royal Canadian Legion events, and encourages those who are able to attend the Remembrance Day services on Nov. 11.
“It’s important because its Canadian history. We need to honour the people that we lost and those who fought in the wars,” said Hard,y who came from Saskatoon to “gorgeous Prince George” to be closer to three sons and their families who live in the region.
Regina Rifle Regiment in 1940, in Dundurn,
Remembrance Day services
Royal Canadian Legion, Branch 43, will hold Remembrance Day services on Nov. 11 at the Civic Centre beginning sharply at 9:30 a.m. Participants need to be seated by 9 a.m.
■ The parade forms up at 10:35 a.m. for the march to the Cenotaph in front of City hall.
■ The ceremony at the Cenotaph begins at 11 a.m. fol
lowing which the parade goes back to the Civic Centre via Sixth Avenue.
■ Celebrations at the Legion following the services include pipers, live bands, dancing, old time singing, foods, and beverages.
■ This year there is a free shuttle service available from the Legion within city limits.
— Citizen staff
Mark Nielsen Citizen staff mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca
The Stephen Harper Conservatives in Ottawa are just as much to blame for the harmonized sales tax as the Gordon Campbell Liberals in Victoria, federal New Democratic Party leader Jack Layton said Tuesday during a stop in Prince George.
Had the federal government not dangled $1.6 billion as an incentive to accept the proposal, the controversy would never have erupted in the first place, said Layton, because B.C. would never have agreed to harmonize its provincial sales tax with the federal goods and services tax.
“The H in HST stands for Harper and people need to understand that,” Layton said while he and Lois Boone, who is seeking the NDP’s candidacy for Prince George-Peace River, stood in front of the con-
stituency office of Jay Hill, the now-retired MLA for the riding.
He pointed to legislation passed in Dec. 2009, with support from the Liberals, that made the HST possible in B.C. and Ontario as the smoking gun. “It was done just before Christmas, nobody was watching and it was rammed down the throats of the people of British Columbia and Ontario without them having been asked and that is what,
I think, has people so upset,” he said.
But Cariboo-Prince George Conservative MP Dick Harris said the Tories are obligated to provide the $1.6 billion after other provinces took advantage of old legislation passed in the 1990s by the Liberal government to receive a pay out for harmonizing. Under the constitution, the federal government must treat all provinces equally, Harris noted, and therefore could not refuse to give B.C. and Ontario a tran-
LAYTON
sition fee when they agreed to sign on.
“It’s not a bribe, it’s an obligation that the feds have under the legislation and they can’t not do it because under the constitution there would be a challenge that we’d be treating some provinces different from others,” Harris said.
Should the HST go down in the coming referendum, Layton assert-
music
Tories lured B.C. into the HST: Layton
ed the Conservatives have an obligation to help Victoria make up the ensuing budget shortfall.
“They’re certainly going to have to work something out because they’re the ones who rammed it down the throats of the people of British Columbia and so there’s going to have to be some kind of accommodation, some kind of strategy worked out,” Layton said.
But Harris said Victoria will have to forego the $1.6 billion.
“It’s as simple as that,” he said, and noted Layton was among the MPs who voted against lowering what is now the federal side of the HST to five per cent from seven per cent.
Layton also called on Harper to immediately call a by-election in Prince George-Peace River, to match the province and eliminate the federal share of sales tax on home heating and to reinstate the tax credit program for home renovations.
Sound of the North now on CD /17
history
Pipers' past /5 trees, please
P.G. reponds to Christmas request /3
No Citizen
Thursday
The Citizen will not publish Thursday, Nov. 11, in recognition of Remembrance Day. The business office will also be closed. The newspaper will return Friday, Nov. 12.
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