Exhibitions by the Canadian Military Education Centre will be on display at this year’s Agrifair from Aug. 4 to 6.
Featured exclusively at Exhibition Park’s baseball diamonds, they will be displaying a timeline of Canada’s military from the 1860s to the present.
Re-enactors dressed in period uniform from the Boer War up to the Balkans in the 1990s will be present at the fair. Vehicles on display will be from the Second World War to the Balkans.
A crown jewel on display will be a Centurion Tank dressed up to look like a US M1 Abrams tank. Tents, weapons and kit from all periods will be displayed with daily curated forums.
“We’ve never had anything like this before,” said Melanie Kish, fair manager. “There’s already so much to see, and this will only bring a new level of excitement. After I saw their display at Sevenoaks last February, I just knew they had to be a part of Agrifair.”
The Canadian Military Education Centre has been prominent in B.C. since 2006, when they did a week-long display at the Ag-Rec building in Chilliwack before Remembrance Day, organization member Mark Ivins said.
The popularity and success they enjoyed after that week-long display inspired the group to continue with their military curation. They decided to keep on creating informative events.
“I think it was after the 2007 event that the idea came up that we should try and put our private collections together and make a museum of it,” Ivins said.
Up until 2015, the Canadian Military Education Centre was on the old CFB Chilliwack Base lands until the Canadian Border Services Agency took over the building. “During our time there, we were open to the public and made extra time for school and cadet groups who wanted special tours, including talks and Canada’s military history,” Ivins said.
As of now, the Canadian Military Education Centre is “in between buildings” as Ivins puts it.
“We still do some school displays, a couple of mall displays each year, and various other vehicle events such as the Abbotsford Airshow and the Cloverdale Legion open house,” he said.
As a non-profit organization, the aim of the Canadian Military Education Centre is to educate the public on the history and sacrifice of the Canadian Forces. By doing so, they wish to honour those who jeopardized their lives so we can enjoy our freedom.
Visit agrifair.ca for more details about the fair.