News & Events - News Room

By MWO Normand Marion, 16 Wing

The Royal Canadian Legion's famous poppy, traditional symbol of Remembrance Day, has been given a bit of a facelift this year.  The 2002 version of the poppy is being produced with a black centre instead of the green that Canadians have become accustomed to in recent years.  The change of colour is in fact a return to the original black centre that had been changed to green in 1980, apparently to symbolise the green of the hills where much of the fighting took place during the First World War.

Unfortunately, this latest change of colour has raised a few questions from the public, even some controversy.  People want the new poppy, not the obsolete one, and that could mean bad news for the Legion with its stock of more than a million poppies with a green centre.

"Green or black, it's still the same poppy," says Chief Warrant Officer René Couturier, Wing Chief Warrant Officer at 16 Wing.  "This year, members of 16 Wing will wear either colour on their uniforms.  It would be totally irresponsible to throw out last year's stock just because of the change in colour, especially when you think of the reason behind the sale of the poppy."

Indeed, the main purpose for wearing a poppy is to perform an act of Remembrance to honour the war dead.  But at the same time, the proceeds from the sale of the poppy are used to offer assistance to ex-service personnel in need, whether it is to provide shelter, food, medical assistance, or many other types of support.

As a symbol of Remembrance, the poppy was first distributed in Canada in November 1921, although its link to battlefield deaths goes back even further.  Already in the 19th century, during the times of Napoleonic wars, there were mentions of the small blood-red flowers thriving on battlefields after the fighting had ended.

After the First World War, when Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae's poem In Flanders Fields became popular, the poppy gained even more fame as a symbol of Remembrance around the world.  Written in the aftermath of one of the fierce battles that took place around the town of Ypres in Belgium, the poem that begins with "In Flanders fields the poppies blow," speaks of the fear of the war dead that their sacrifice might have been in vain, perhaps forgotten.  "If ye break faith with us who die, we shall not sleep, though poppies grow in Flanders fields."  Thanks to the small scarlet paper flower that blooms on our clothes every November, the war dead will not be forgotten.

Today, more than thirteen million Canadians, almost half of the country, wear proudly a poppy during the days leading to Remembrance Day.  And green or black, the poppies still mean the same act of Remembrance that honours the 117,000 countrymen who gave their lives on battlefields around the world.  To them, we owe our freedom, and wearing the poppy shows that we do remember.