Pictures of Peacekeepers Park were on display at the Peacekeepers Day event in Calgary on 9 August 2003. All images courtesy of Canada Lands Company Calgary

Nearly fifty years ago, Lester B. Pearson, Canada's leading diplomat and later its Prime Minister, won the Nobel Peace Prize for his epochal plan to send troops from UN Member States to get between warring factions in international trouble spots. The legacy of that contribution is being implicitly honoured in several provinces and cities across Canada.

While Peacekeepers' Day in Canada falls on 9 August, specifically to commemorate the deaths of nine Canadian UN peacekeepers whose aircraft was shot down over Lebanon on that date in 1974, it also more contemporaneously remembers the 110 peacekeepers killed so far in far-flung places where the United Nations has intervened to save lives.

Five provinces and the cities of Calgary, Halifax, Winnipeg and Fredericton, New Brunswick over the past two years have recognized 9 August as Peacekeepers' Day. There was a small ceremony, organized by the Department of National Defence, mainly to present United Nations and Canadian service medals to families of the fallen peacekeepers.

When asked about his organization's origin, Col. (retired) Donald S. Ethell of Calgary, national President of the Canadian Association of Veterans in United Nations Peacekeeping, explained that Association veterans wanted to "pay tribute in a special way on a special day. It's a grassroots movement that's growing. We've expanded from 6 to 21 chapters across Canada over the past two years, but it takes time because we're also a volunteer organization. We hope it will go national some day." Ontario, Quebec and the federal Government have not extended recognition.

This year the best-attended Peacekeepers Day event was in Calgary, where more than 300 veterans, families, friends and the public gathered at the Museum of the Regiments on the former Canadian Forces Base (CFB) Calgary to hear speakers and a roll-call of the 110 fallen peacekeepers. Heather Forsyth, Alberta's Solicitor-General, noted that many of the honoured had been stationed at CFB Calgary, which was also "home to thousands of veteran and serving peacekeepers who have served bravely and with distinction in the theatres of Europe, Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Central America".

Art Hanger, a Canadian Alliance member of the federal Parliament (the official Opposition party), noted at the ceremony: "Our men and women who have served in peacekeeping roles over the decades have sacrificed a lot, and I don't think the Canadian public really understand or have come to grips with that. This day is long overdue."

The decommissioned military base was acquired in 1998 by Canada Lands Company, a Crown corporation which disposes of surplus federal property and is redeveloping it into a residential community. The recently completed first phase-Garrison Woods-commemorates the First World War battles through street names, commemorative walks and sculptures. Col. Ethell is one of thirteen former UN peacekeepers who will be honoured in the next phase-Garrison Green-by the installation of cairns bearing their names and street names, which will include, for example, Lewis Mackenzie Place (for Major-General Lewis Mackenzie, former Chief of Staff for the UN Protection Force in Yugoslavia during the Bosnian civil war in the 1990s) and Dallaire Avenue (for Lieutenant-General Romeo Dallaire, who commanded the UN Observer Mission in Uganda and Rwanda in 1993 and 1994). Two parks with commemorative sculptures and two memorial walls with the 110 names and the locations of their missions are also planned. Most of them are expected to be unveiled during the next Peacekeepers Day event at the site.

Col. Ethell, who has done fourteen UN peacekeeping tours during his 38-year career in Canada's military, says the August events do not detract from what his association does every year on UN Day, 24 October, and certainly not on 11 September. There are similar organizations in Australia, Austria, Finland, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Sweden and the Ukraine, but he does not know whether they have any peacekeeper commemorations.

Canada's involvement in United Nations peacekeeping dates back to 1948, when it contributed to the force sent to the Middle East to monitor a ceasefire between Israeli and Arab armies. Over the years, Canadian peacekeepers have participated in 66 missions in the Middle East, the Balkans, India-Pakistan, Africa and Central America.

Lester B. Pearson assisted in the formation of the UN Charter in 1945 and was President of the seventh UN General Assembly in 1952. He was an initiator of the idea of peacekeeping as a meaningful UN role and recommended that UN troops be sent to Egypt to restore peace during the 1956 Suez crisis, for which he was awarded the 1957 Nobel Peace Prize. He was Canada's Prime Minister from 1963 to 1968.