By Pepper Parr
August 26, 2019
BURLINGTON, ON
On Thursday, September 5th @ 10:30am at Rideau Hall in Ottawa Ron Foxcroft will be invested into the Order of Canada.
The ceremony will be aired live and archived on www.gg.ca/en/activities. The video is optimized for Internet Explorer.
The Foxcroft boys, Dave, Ronnie and Steve, and their Mother Marie are very proud of the honour that is being conferred on their Father, but for Ron this is just part of the gig.
Queen Elizabeth II, in her capacity as Colonel-in-Chief of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada, receives Colonel Ronald Foxcroft (Honorary Colonel) at Buckingham Palace in London.
A number of years ago he was presented to Queen Elizabeth II as the Honorary Colonel of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada. The Queen is the Honorary General of the Regiment.
The Gardens at the rear of Buckingham Palace where Canada Geese are reported to poop. The Queen now has a Foxcroft whistle to scare them off.
Ron, for those who know him well, can get quite chatty. The Queen’s equerries, who were standing stiffly in the receiving room while Ron was talking to the Queen were aghast when Ron pulled a Fox 40 whistle out of his pocket and assured the Queen that one hearty blow on his whistle would scare off the Canada Geese on her lawn. The Queen had complained to Ron earlier that the geese we pooping all over her lawn.
If she’d been able to the Queen might well have made Foxcroft an Admiral on the spot for his service to the Queen. She had no love for those geese.
The whistle that made Ron Foxcroft rich and famous – will he put one in the hand of the Governor General when he is made a member of the Order of Canada in September? With him accepting an award is his wife Marie.
Having the ribbon, which holds the Order of Canada medal, placed around his neck by Governor General Julie Payette will give Ron a chance to invite her to a Hamilton Tiger Cats game. What are the chances that he will find a way to give her a silver plated whistle? Bet on it.
The Order of Canada is a Canadian national order and the second highest honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada. It comes second only to membership in the Order of Merit, which is the personal gift of Canada’s monarch.
To coincide with the centennial of Canadian Confederation, the three-tiered order was established in 1967 as a fellowship that recognizes the outstanding merit or distinguished service of Canadians who make a major difference to Canada through lifelong contributions in every field of endeavour, as well as the efforts by non-Canadians who have made the world better by their actions.
