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But the project has many distinguished patrons, as it turns out, among them former Liberal prime minister John Turner, former Liberal Quebec premier Jean Charest, former Liberal premier of New Brunswick Frank McKenna, current Liberal MP Mark Eyking and current New Democrat MP Peter Stoffer, to say nothing of the project’s very distinguished “ambassador,” retired major-general Lewis MacKenzie. Whatever would possess these people to attach their names to such a thing?

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Both projects are private initiatives.

As part of the Never Forgotten National Memorial Foundation’s multimillion-dollar proposal, a 24-metre-tall Mother Canada would be installed to commemorate war victims in Cape Breton Highlands National Park.

The Memorial to the Victims of Communism would be erected on a prime site in Ottawa, next to the Supreme Court of Canada.

Quito Maggi, Mainstreet’s president, said the negative response to the Ottawa memorial should ensure it is never built.

“While the level of disapproval may not seem extremely high on the surface, among those who express an opinion, that amounts to 77 per cent disapproval, with over 53 per cent strong disapproval,” he said.

“It’s a pretty clear signal.”

Jonathan Vance, research chair at the department of history at Western University in London, Ont., believes the results do not reveal opposition to war memorials, but concern about the use of public space.