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I am a lucky man.

Now 91, Canada has always been a touchstone of sorts for me. I have had my challenges, but I always felt my country was in my corner, backing me up if I needed help. For that, I am forever grateful.

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I have been an author, an educator, an engineer, an administrator, a fund-raiser for charitable causes, a volunteer, a scientist, a politician, a cabinet minister and an Officer of the Order of Canada recipient.

I have also been in the Canadian military, serving in the navy in the Second World War. I guess serving my country was in my blood as my father and grandfather had been in the military in the First World War and my grandfather was also in the Boer War.

Being in the military is not an easy job. It is, at times, frightening and extremely dangerous. My father, at 16, was one of the 172,000 Canadians wounded in the First World War. A number of my colleagues in the Second World War became some of the 50,000 Canadians killed. More than 500 more Canadians were killed in the Korean War and 158 died in Afghanistan. Canadians also died in numerous United Nations peacekeeping assignments.