A ceremony was held in the Netherlands Thursday, where Prime Minister Harper visited a war cemetery to mark the 65th anniversary of the country's liberation from Nazi occupation and Canada's role in that victory.
The graveyard is in Bergen-op-Zoom, in the southern part of the country near the border with Belgium, where nearly 1,000 Canadians who died in the Second World War are buried.
Joined by Dutch Prime Minister Jan Pieter Balkenende and war veterans from across Canada, Harper spoke about the legacy that Canada's men and women helped establish for future generations.
"This army, more than 175,000 Canadians, reinforced by Dutch and Allied forces, fought its way from Normandy to Rotterdam, field by field, canal by canal," Harper said at the ceremony Thursday, according to the released speech text.
"They crossed deep, boot-sucking mud, they passed over ground heavily mined. And around them and before them always, the dreadful rattle of the machine-gun."
"…These Canadians did not fight for their country's gain. It was not for the sake of our power in the world, for the riches of our citizens, or even hatred of the foe they faced. No, this army of Canadians fought then for the only thing their country fights to this day -- that which is right."
Harper is on a four-country, five day tour of Europe where he is attending a Canada-European Union summit.
