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This article was published 4/1/2015 (2085 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Brian Mayes believes the city should commemorate the 100th anniversary of the start of the First World War.

The councillor for St. Vital is planning to ask the administration Monday morning to consult local veterans groups about how best to mark the beginning of one of the most important periods in Canadian history.

Brian Mayes

Like many other Winnipeggers, Mayes has a personal tie to the Great War, as his grandfather, Pte. Ralph Mayes, was a stretcher-carrier for ambulances on the front line.

"He was a university student at Brandon College at the time. He and his friends didn't want to kill people, but they wanted to serve their country. They retrieved the wounded from the battlefield and took them back to the field hospital," he said.

"He came back shell-shocked then, what we would call post-traumatic stress disorder now. It was trench warfare. They were out there for long periods of time."

Mayes said he realizes the war's centenary was actually last year -- Austria kicked off the military hostilities when it declared war on Serbia in July 1914 -- but he was only appointed head of the downtown development, heritage and riverbank management committee in November, plus many city employees were preoccupied with the fall election.

He was quick to note the city can't mark every battle in the Great War, but at the same time, it shouldn't wait until November 2018 to commemorate its end.

"The centenary is a one-off thing. You're never going to have another one. We should mark the major campaigns," he said.

Ideally, Mayes said he'd like to see a report completed in 60 to 90 days, along with a proposed plan of action.

Mayes said he has run the idea by the mayor's office, and Brian Bowman said he's interested in seeing the report and getting guidance on what commemorations could be done.

geoff.kirbyson@freepress.mb.ca