This year marks the centenary of two significant battles of the First World War in which Canadian troops participated. A new Ipsos survey for the Vimy Foundation found that half of Canadians (49%) know that one of them is the Battle of Vimy Ridge, though only one in four (25%) can identify Passchendaele as the other battle marking its 100th anniversary this year.
Canadian machine gunners dig themselves in on Vimy Ridge. Canadian Department of National Defense/Library and Archives Canada. No. PA001017.
The survey also found that awareness of the Canadian National Vimy Memorial in France has strengthened in light of the increased attention paid to the battle on its centenary: two in ten Canadians (18%) can correctly identify the monument from a photograph, without any written prompts or clues.
Battle of Passchendaele knowledge low
By contrast, knowledge about the Battle of Passchendaele is less strong. Given a list of battles in different wars, only one in three (35%) are able to identify that Passchendaele was fought in the First World War.
Millineal engagment high, but knowledge low
Knowledge about Passchendaele varies significantly by age, with Millennials (27%) being much less likely to associate it with the First World War than Gen X’ers (32%) or Baby Boomers (44%). The same holds true for awareness of the centenary of Vimy (36% of Millennials, vs. 46% of Gen X’ers and 60% of Boomers).
Millineals are the most likely to support the building of a memorial dedicated to Vimy in Toronto. Eight in ten (83%) agree (33% strongly/50% somewhat), as do 83% of Gen X’ers, while support among Baby Boomers drops to 72%.
Millennials are also just as likely as older Canadians to say that one day they’d like to visit the Canadian National Vimy Memorial in France: two in three (66%) agree (24% strongly/42% somewhat), in line with 67% of Gen X’ers and 68% of Boomers.
Strong support for better maintenance of war memorials, graves
Government of Canada auditors have found that more than 45,000 grave markers require maintenance. Prior to 2003, the federal government allocated $5 million annually to the care of these grave markers. Since then, the budget has been reduced to $1.2M, where it remains today.
Most Canadians (76%) support (31% strongly/45% somewhat) increasing budget for the maintenance of these sites, including majority of every demographic studied.
Many also perceive a need to restore war memorials at the community level: half (48%) of Canadians agree (10% strongly/38% somewhat) that the war cenotaph or memorial in their community is in need of repair and/or restoration. This is up 8 points since 2015.
Please don’t take this as a cynical point of view–it’s not meant to be. Perhaps the fact that Passchendaele is so much more difficult to spell makes it less easy to have learned and, thus, less easy to remember. I am older than a baby-boomer, too old to have learned the battles of World War I in school, but not too old to forget the awfulness of that war.
You make an interesting point I hadn’t considered. Vimy also has a stunning memorial and a foundation that does a good job promoting the battle and the lives lost.