History

 Continuing on where I left off yesterday, there is a raised circular bed here where the tulips were just starting to show. On the far side are display panels telling the story of the Tulip Festival.

The festival is a legacy of the Second World War, and the liberation of the Netherlands by Canadian soldiers. That has resulted in an enduring friendship between the two countries.

Nazi Germany occupied the Netherlands during the war, as they did so many other places, and the people suffered greatly. These were my people- my parents were children during the war, and their families immigrated afterwards.

While Queen Wilhelmina operated out of London to keep hope alive for her people, her daughter Crown Princess Juliana was sent to Canada for safety, with her daughters. She lived in Ottawa, spending her time advocating for the Dutch people. Her husband, Prince Bernhard, spent the war helping his mother-in-law in London, but visited when he could.

Princess Margriet was born in Ottawa. The Canadian government designated Juliana's maternity suite at the Civic Hospital to be extraterritorial to ensure the baby's Dutch citizenship.

She was christened at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, with her father and grandmother having had made the voyage to attend. The service was broadcast by the CBC, and sent to Radio Orange for broadcast to the Netherlands. The photos on this panel were taken by the portrait photographer Yousuf Karsh, who was already on his way to becoming the pre-eminent portrait photographer of the century. 

By war's end, Canadian soldiers liberated the Netherlands, and were welcomed as heroes by the Dutch. That bond has carried on through the decades since. The Dutch Royal Family, and the country itself, began a tradition of sending tulip bulbs to Canada. The country itself imported more each year for planting.

Princess Margriet has returned often to Canada; she attended this year's opening of the Tulip Festival.

The Karsh family had immigrated gradually from Armenia to settle in Ottawa. Where Yousuf Karsh found fame as a portrait photographer, his brother Malak Karsh found his own fame as a landscape photographer. It was Malak who proposed the idea of a festival, and thus he is considered the father of the Tulip Festival.