Stayner Tulip Days marks 80th anniversary of VE Day

The Stayner Garden Club marked its ninth annual Tulip Days Festival with a ceremony at Fountain Park last week with a free barbecue, cake, and reminiscences from the families of some early Dutch immigrants to the region.

The festival celebrates the special relationship between Canada and the Netherlands.

During the Second World War, Princess Juliana of the Netherlands took refuge in Ottawa, and it is there that her daughter Princess Margriet was born.

Every year since the war, an annual gift of tulip bulbs has been sent to Ottawa from the people of the Netherlands.

This year marks the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Netherlands by allied forces in May 1945. Jeff De Haas, now a Wasaga Beach resident, was a boy of eight in Noorwyk in 1945. He says he did not fully appreciate the significance of the day at that time, but recalls a scene of bedlam.

“I saw a lot of guys from our street hollering, and there was a hell of a mess,” he recalls. “But it was an excited mess!”

MP Terry Dowdall addressed the crowd, and offered a special thank you to service people and veterans.

He said, “Let’s take a moment to thank them for their service, and for the life we lead.”