White Poppies Provoke White Hot Rage

Something's got Canadian Legions very upset this Remembrance Day, and no, it's not that Ku Klux Klan Halloween costume thing.

There is real anger in the op-ed pages today over the white poppy campaign, which seeks to replace or augment the red Remembrance Day poppy with a white one. Activists say the red poppy has been used to glorify war, and the white version is a plea for peace.

“Do such activists … actually know so little about Canada's history and the sacrifice of our veterans that they can convince themselves such twaddle is true?” demands the National Post. “The red poppy is a symbol of remembrance of those who made the ultimate sacrifice … not a political or ideological statement.” It’s also an important fundraising tool for veterans, argues the Post, and the white poppy campaign detracts from that noble cause.

The level of outrage at the white poppyistas is most evident in the Ottawa Sun, which declares “Neville Chamberlain tried resolving conflict by waving something white around back in 1938. It was called the Munich Agreement, and it didn’t deliver peace for his time any more than white poppies will today.” If activists “want to wear a white poppy on Remembrance Day they should do so in their own homes, with windows shut and the blinds drawn,” the editors advise, surely envisioning the kind of free society that our veterans fought so hard to protect.

To us, the most level-headed argument against the white poppy comes from the Calgary Herald, which proclaims “There are plenty of other symbols the peaceniks can use to get their message across, and they should stop insulting veterans by appropriating the poppy.” There would certainly be less backlash against activists’ message if it didn’t appear to be taking a direct run at a symbol veterans consider sacred.

As there is virtually no support for the white poppy campaign in the papers, allow the Mark to play devil’s advocate for a moment. One of the avowed purposes of the white poppy is “to commemorate all victims of war,” including civilians. It certainly strikes us as odd that we don’t set aside a day to remember the millions of noncombatants killed in war, along with our soldiers.