The Portage and District Arts Centre in Portage la Prairie held a presentation today by executive director Paul Legris in honour of the Battle at Vimy Ridge. Legris outlines what inspired him about the World War 1 battle.

Paul Legris"I had the opportunity to visit the site a number of years ago with some folks in the federal government and we did an assessment of the whole site toward the development of a visitors centre. However, I gained more than just an opportunity to develop a visitors centre. It was a beautiful site -- spectacular history, very transformative event, and a key piece of Canadian history that a lot of Canadians probably don' really know about. Or maybe only know by looking at the back of a $20 dollar bill."

He explains the battle was the result of a Canadian developed strategy that took weeks of around-the-clock reconnaissance training to break the German stronghold that none of the allied forces could conquer. With the Canadian forces being a relatively inexperienced army, it was heralded around the world as a spectacular win and a key step in defeating the German forces.

Legris says it was one of the first battles to actually break through the stagnation of the trench system. The trench system caused a stalemate. Legris says if you stuck your head up, you'd be shot. If you tried to run over the top, you'd die. Both sides faced the dilemma. He notes the Canadians took the ridge and it was regarded as such an incredible victory that it made headline news across the world in April of 1917. "Canadians Take Vimy," and "Canadians Glorious At Vimy." Even the British were astounded.

Legris says this April sees the 100th anniversary of the Battle Of Vimy Ridge, and he looks forward to seeing what centennial celebration the Canadian government holds at that time. He says it explains a lot about the formation of Canada. At the time, Canada's population was very low -- about less than 14 million. Yet the years of the first world war saw 600,000 Canadians fighting overseas, and 10 per cent of them died. That's 67,000 Canadians, and 4,000 of them died at Vimy Ridge. Legirs notes it says a lot about a very new country when we were only 50 years old. He adds we didn't have much of an army, and an amazing fighting force was pulled together having been untested, and it became the toast of the allied forces in World War 1.