Down the escalator and next to the waterfall wall inside the Ottawa International Airport, you’ll find Ian Burleton distributing poppies.
It’s a spot Burleton has made famous with airport staff. Since 2015, he’s greeted travellers every day in November leading up to Remembrance Day, from seven in the morning to, some nights, all the way past midnight, sharing the poppies’ history.
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“I think of the men who fought in the trenches, and World War Two, the men and women who gave up their lives,” Burleton said.
Both Burleton’s mother and father are veterans. Handing out poppies was something he and his mother Audrey, who served in the Royal Naval Women’s Service, did together before she passed away in 2018.
Now he remembers and honours her by continuing to distribute poppies in the same spot she …