Master of ceremonies Garth Zwicker handed out two delectable prizes at this year’s veterans banner unveiling

“I thought I’d start off with a couple of door prizes,” Garth Zwicker said as he kicked off this year’s ceremony for the unveiling of 10 more military veterans’ street banners.

“You’ve got to be quick and you’ve got to know your stuff,” he warned the 65 people in attendance, adding that hundreds of pounds of a certain product were supplied to troops during World War II.

“Lobster?” someone called out. “Sugar?” “Rum?”

“OK, I’ll give you a hint. It’s not an unwanted message on your computer,” Zwicker said.

“Spam,” called out Logan Atkinson, past president of Tantramar Heritage Trust who won himself a shiny can of the luncheon meat and then a couple of minutes later, a box of Kraft Dinner, apparently another staple of military rations “but not necessarily in the same format,” Zwicker explained.

“So, we all know what Logan Atkinson is having for supper,” he said before thanking Graham Mesheau for designing the banners and the town for putting them up on street poles in Sackville and Dorchester every year.

Book of banners

Zwicker announced that, aside from unveiling the street banners this year, he was inviting people to pre-order a book he had compiled containing about 250 banners along with the family stories that go with them.

The book will be available later this fall. To pre-order it, click here.

The $35 book, published by Tantramar Heritage Trust, is expected to be launched in November.

One of the stories in the book is about the late Harold Johnson who served in the Royal Canadian Navy for 11 years and for three in the Royal Canadian Engineers.

“He joined in 1957,” said his wife Eleanor who attended this year’s banner ceremony with her nephew Lee from Alberta.

“Harold served on both coasts, BC and Halifax,” she said, adding that serving in the navy gave him the chance to see the world.

“He was to Australia and Fiji and New Zealand, Hawaii, Great Britain, all over the world,” she said.

“Then he became a truck driver after that.”

“I joined him in 1995 when I got my trucker’s license. We drove in all 10 Canadian provinces and in 46 of the 48 continental United States,” she added.

They were living in Sackville where she grew up when Harold Johnson died of cancer on June 3rd, 2025.

“It was just five days shy of our 41st wedding anniversary,” Eleanor said sadly.

Eleanor Johnson attended the unveiling of her husband’s veterans memorial banner with her nephew Lee Johnson

Trained boxer

The Belliveau brothers, Rod and twins Mark and Marcel attended the ceremony to witness the unveiling of their uncle Raymond Martin’s banner.

“He served in the 3rd Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment,” Rod said.

“He was the son of my grandmother and grandfather, Henry and Lil Martin of Mount Whatley and Aulac,” he added.

“He served mainly throughout the Cold War and did tours in Cyprus and Germany.”

Belliveau said his uncle was underage, actually only about 16 when he enlisted and that the military stretched things to let him in because they needed a trained boxer for regiment competitions.

“In fact, Bob Edgett trained him,” he said, adding his uncle won championships competing against the British army.

“He’s named after our great uncle, Raymond Ashe, who is from Springhill,” said Mark Belliveau.

“Raymond Ashe died in the Allied invasion of Sicily in the Second World War and there’s a plaque honouring him at Monte Cassino Cemetery in Italy.”

He added that his uncle Raymond Martin was working for a manufacturing company in London, Ontario when he died in an industrial accident in 1992.

“I was actually serving overseas, in Africa in the Congo at the time, or Zaire when I got the notice that he was killed,” Mark said.

Rod said he and his brothers served in C Squadron of the 8th Canadian Hussars (Princess Louise’s) based for many years in Sackville.

“Our cousin Greg Martin, was a sergeant major who was part of town council some years ago, and was one of the people that swore my twin brothers into the squadron, into the regiment,” he said.

The Belliveau brothers witnessed the unveiling of their uncle Raymond’s banner. L-R: Mark, Rod and Marcel Belliveau

Banner history

Garth Zwicker says he began thinking about installing street banners back in 2015 and the first ones went up the next year.

“The project has gone from 16 banners in the first year and then we went to 38 and we thought we were done,” he says.

“Then we went to 75 and 100 and 125 and 150,” he adds.

“Nobody ever expected it to hit that number.”

“There are almost 250 banners now,” Zwicker says.

“Each banner tells a story and represents sacrifice, courage and dedication,” Tantramar Mayor Debbie Wiggins-Colwell told the families attending the unveiling ceremony.

“It’s more than a display of banners. It’s a lasting commitment to remembering the men and women who served our country.”

Delicious door prize dinner

Tantramar Heritage Trust Past President Logan Atkinson displays the delicious ingredients he won for Saturday night’s supper. Sadly, Warktimes was not invited to partake in that feast