GUEST OPINION: Many connections to Holland

As published in The Guardian on June 23, 2020

This clipping from Jan. 26, 1943, shows Princess Julianna of the Netherlands at her Ottawa home with her children. - islandnewspapers.ca - Contributed

Travel restrictions this spring limited overseas activities that would have involved Islanders as part of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Holland, yet it remains important to recognize the close connections that exists and grows between the Island and Holland. Within agriculture alone, studies show that 53.8 per cent of Prince Edward Island's immigrant farm population in 2006 was from Holland.

Canada and Holland also share a unique royal connection as our respective heads of state have been primarily women for the last century and a half. In Holland, three queens have served in the role for 133 of the last 140 years while Canada has seen two queens serve for 132 of the last 183 years.

During the Second World War, Princess Margriet of the Netherlands, third daughter of Princess (later Queen) Juliana and Prince Bernhard was born in Ottawa cementing a bond with Canadians celebrated annually with tulips. In 1945, the Dutch royal family sent 100,000 tulip bulbs in gratitude for Canadian hospitality in sheltering the future Queen Juliana and her family during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. Out of this grew the Canadian Tulip Festival in Ottawa. Festival founder and photographer Malak Karsh appreciated that royal gesture of thanks, "The gift of tulips brought colour back into a very gray world. We celebrate this gift, the spirit of spring renewal."

P.E.I. also played a war time role as CFCY radio station in Charlottetown was the location Princess Juliana used in 1941 to convey a message of hope to Dutch citizens at home as well as a birthday greeting to her mother in Britain. The recorded message was intended to bolster hope for the Dutch Resistance and those attempting to survive the harsh Nazi occupation. After the message was recorded at CFCY, it was broadcast over shortwave radio while the Dutch government-in-exile, headed by her mother Queen Wilhelmina, was based at Stratton House near Piccadilly in London.

Unlike the Vichy French government which in defeat accepted a policy of collaboration with Hitler, Holland was the third largest oil producer in the world and crucial war resources were at stake. When Prime Minister Dirk Jan de Geer proposed a return to the Netherlands and a similar approach, Queen Wilhelmina realized that collaboration with Nazi Germany would mean the oil-rich Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) would be surrendered to Japan and fuel the Axis war machine. A puppet government she would not accept; as head of state she replaced key members with a cabinet prepared to lead their occupied nation from a distance.

Lt. Col. Keith Rogers was the founder of CFCY and the story of the 1941 royal recording session was told by his daughter, Betty Rogers Large in her award-winning book Out of Thin Air in 1989. Full disclosure – Betty was my mother-in-law and after learning of the story, I sent a copy of her book to the Dutch royal family and received an appreciative response.

Many special tulips have been in bloom across the province thanks to the Liberation 75 organization which exists to generate celebration ideas related to the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Europe. The colourful displays across Canada have been a fitting way to remember the personal sacrifice of more than 7,600 Canadians who died in the Netherlands as well as those in the larger European operations. After a long fall and winter of 1944 leading to the renewal of spring in 1945 tulips have become a symbolic reminder of how Canadians liberated Holland following the “hunger winter” when even tulip bulbs were resorted to as food for residents.

Great respect for Canadians continues today in Holland with various school events; family connections abound both from the 1,886 Dutch women who married Canadian soldiers after the liberation, and also among those families who found a new beginning in Canada through immigration since.

Veseys in York previously honoured the 70th anniversary with 100,000 tulip bulbs given to organizations across Canada for planting. John Barrett of Veseys commented at the time that, "We're sort of hoping to try and keep that memory alive in Canada to the same degree that it's been kept alive in Holland." Hopefully this year will bring more awareness of the connections between Holland and Canada that grew from such difficult circumstances. Kudos to everyone working hard to commemorate this milestone.


Ian Scott is a past executive director of the P.E.I. Museum and Heritage Foundation who lives in Charlottetown.