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From: "Melynda Jarratt" <>
Subject: Newspaper Article about Year of the War Bride
Date: Tue, 15 Nov 2005 10:44:13 -0400


This story was also covered by CBC News and Global Television so there is
definitely media interest in the Year of the War Bride idea. Please contact
your MLA and see if he / she will make the same commitment to introduce a
Private Members bill as has this New Brunswick MLA, TJ Burke, the grandson
of War Bride Jean Paul. Feel free to pass on this article through this
link:

http://www.canadianwarbrides.com/documents/tj-nov-11-05.pdf

Melynda
_____________________________

NB Telegraph-Journal | Provincial News
As published on page A3 on November 11, 2005

Remembering Canada's war brides
Liberal MLA TJ Burke, the grandson of a war bride, has joined campaign to
have 2006 named the Year of the War Bride

(Submitted Photo)
War brides arrive in Halifax aboard the Aquitania in 1946.

By Kathy Kaufield
Telegraph-Journal

Nineteen-year-old Jean Paul was likely more than a little nervous when she
and her baby daughter arrived by canoe on the shores of the Tobique First
Nation during the spring of 1946.

The young British war bride had, after all, just left behind her own family
and middle-class life to move across the ocean to a foreign land and start a
new life with her husband, Canadian soldier Charles (Buck) Paul, a Maliseet
from Tobique.

She had never met her husband's family, never been to Canada before and was,
in fact, the first non-aboriginal woman to live on the reserve besides the
nuns.

"She gave up (her middle-class life in Britain) to live on a little Indian
reserve where there was no running water, no electricity," says her
grandson, Liberal MLA TJ Burke.

Why?

That's easy, Mr. Burke says.

"My grandparents loved each other very dearly."

Ms. Paul and her Canadian soldier husband ended up living happily on the
reserve for the rest of their lives, raising six children, all of whom went
on to graduate from university - quite an accomplishment in those days.

Ms. Paul even learned to speak Maliseet fluently and is described by her
grandson as "the glue that held the family together" until her death in
1991.

Mr. Burke says he has a lot of admiration for the sacrifices made by his
grandmother and the thousands of other war brides who came to Canada after
the Second World War, which is why he didn't hesitate to become the first
MLA in Canada to support a campaign led by a Fredericton woman to have 2006
named the Year of the War Bride.

Melynda Jarratt, who has researched war brides since 1987, is urging Ottawa
to declare next year in honour of war brides to mark the 60th anniversary of
the arrival of the majority of them in Canada. She said it would be a
fitting tribute to these women, especially coming after 2005, which is the
Year of the Veteran.

"It's a no-brainer. The war brides are an indelible part of the Canadian
cultural mosaic. They are who we are. We look at them, they are a mirror of
us. They represent so much," Ms. Jarratt says. "They had a huge impact (on
Canada)."

Ms. Jarratt says about 40,000 war brides plus their children came to Canada
in 1946. About 3,000 came to New Brunswick. She says about one million
Canadians have a war bride somewhere in their family tree.

Ms. Jarratt says these women deserve to be commemorated nationally for their
sacrifices, their grit and their contributions to Canada.

"They were an unprecedented immigrant wave, a unique phenomenon that will
never occur again in Canadian immigration history," she says. "They married
for life. They stuck it out. They dug in. They adapted and they became good
Canadian citizens."
Burke

She said war brides, the majority of whom came from Britain, reinforced
Canada's connection to its mother country and strengthened cultural ties
between the two countries.

Ms. Jarratt says these women also changed the communities where they lived.

"There's very few people who grew up during that period who don't recall a
war bride in their community. They became leaders. They became very much a
part of their local community," she said.

War brides aren't represented by a national organization in Canada but many
of them keep in touch and informed via Ms. Jarratt's website. She said the
brides have talked for quite some time about launching a campaign for the
Year of the War Bride but no one took any official action until Ms. Jarratt
started quietly working on the issue several months ago.

She said she needs an MP to introduce a private member's bill in the House
of Commons declaring the year and then it must be passed, not exactly an
easy task with all the talk recently of an impending election. Ms. Jarratt
also wants provincial legislatures to throw their support behind her bid in
the hopes it will encourage Ottawa to do the same.

Mr. Burke says he will introduce a motion when the legislature opens later
this month, asking for the government's support.

"They need to be recognized as key contributors to our society and to be
acknowledged for all the sacrifices they made," he says.

Ms. Jarratt says she has approached Fredericton MP Andy Scott about the
matter but he didn't make any commitments.

She says the bill wouldn't have to be passed before the end of 2005 because
many of the commemorative events wouldn't be scheduled until later in 2006.
But she would like to see if it could be done as quickly as possible.

Some have told her she has taken on an impossible task but Ms. Jarratt
doesn't think so.

"They also said that it was impossible to bring 44,000 war brides and 21,000
children across the ocean. Anything can be done and it's not that hard to
do," she said. "I don't think that this is impossible. They can pass a bill,
one very important bill that will mean one helluva lot to alot of Canadians
who love their war brides."

More information about Ms. Jarratt's campaign and about war brides can be
found on her website: www.canadianwarbrides.com



Melynda Jarratt, BA, MA (History)
Diploma in Digital Media and Design
Webmaster: http://www.canadianwarbrides.com and http://www.project-roots.com
Voices of the Left Behind: Project Roots and the Canadian War Children of
World War Two is available in English at
http://www.project-roots.com/books.html and in Dutch at
http://www.uitgeverijpica.nl/index.html?page=achterbleven

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