And when we say Canadian peacekeepers, we mean Canadian Forces personnel and veterans, members of police services RCMP and provincial and municipal police, and of course, civilians. This recognition takes the form of the Canadian Peacekeeping Service Medal. And to inaugurate it today, I will be presenting the first of about 125,000 of them.
Wars are a part of our bitter eternity, but peace is the result of continued and dogged vigilance.
It is not easy to be vigilant for peace. It is perhaps easier to be pessimistic and to say that conflict, war and domination are what the world is about and that therefore we should simply accept this. As Canadians, we can all be proud of the fact that we have never accepted this pessimistic assessment. We may not always know exactly what it is that our peacekeepers do. After 53 years of peacekeeping and sacrifice on the part of these thousands of our fellow citizens, and our political intent and purpose, there are still misunderstandings.