The provincial government has officially dedicated a section of Highway 40 in Sarnia to veterans.
Sarnia-Lambton MPP Bob Bailey, parliamentary assistant to the Minister of Transportation Vijay Thanigasalam, and other dignitaries gathered Wednesday morning in Heritage Park to unveil the sign for the new Veterans Parkway.
A four-kilometre stretch of Highway 40 from Highway 402 to Plank Road has been renamed in honour of those who have served in the Canadian Armed Forces.
The Veterans Parkway Volunteer Committee, including city employee Chuck Toth and authors Tom Slater and Tom St. Amand, came up with the idea for a road dedication about a year ago.
"Once we started the process, we were kind of overwhelmed with the amount of support we had from the local military organizations," said Slater. "Whether it was the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 62, Royal Canadian Naval Association, Point Edward Ex-Servicemen's Association, Aamjiwnaang First Nation, everyone was on board immediately, so we thought this must be a good idea."
Slater said the committee was formed following a Second World War storyboard unveiling at Veteran's Park in 2018.
"We always have to remember those men and women who were willing to sacrifice everything, leave home, leave their job, leave school, leave everything to go to some foreign country to fight a war for the freedoms that we have, and fight for the rights of those overseas. A lot of them never came home, and that changed Sarnia-Lambton forever," said Slater.
MPP Bailey said this committee deserves a lot of credit for their efforts.
"They're kind of like the unsung heroes. I know they don't want any media attention, but they've done a ton of work on the different veterans here from Sarnia-Lambton that served, and they work every day to keep this front of mind, and yeah, enough can't be said for the work they've done," said Bailey.
Highway 40 was selected because it's a well-travelled, high traffic road and Heritage Park, the second park in Sarnia dedicated to veterans, is at the halfway point.
Ontario has more than 700 kilometres of provincial highway dedicated to commemorating fallen soldiers and those who served.
