Scheer Sees Tanks

...And gets a little history lesson at Aquino Tank Weekend.

I was working and helping this past weekend with Movie Armaments Group (MAG) with Aquino Tank Weekend at the Ontario Regiment Museum. The tank weekend is a big event. Lots of Americans come up to visit from as far as Texas. Explosions and big battles, lots of machine guns, big guns, a great collection of rare tanks with some battling it out, great re-enactors, good shows, great displays... and lots of noise. History buffs, ex-military, and families love it. In my opinion, this was probably the best battles and collection of rare tanks I've seen at this event in the three years I've been going to Aquino Tank Weekend.

Much to our surprise Andrew Scheer, leader of the federal opposition Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, showed up on Sunday morning. On a fluke, Scheer's head of security approached me while I was minding my own business to ask some questions about the actual WWII Battle of Aquino, which I happily explained as best I could. And that led to us talking about security and that sort of thing of course... Funny enough, eh?

Coincidentally my friend and boss for the weekend had spoken recently before a Parliamentary Committee regarding Bill C71 and the new gun laws being proposed, ergo his taking the opportunity to speak with Scheer.

And I think I made a new friend when I got Nicholas Moran, a famous face from one of the biggest free online games in the world, World of Tanks, to work a .50 cal machine gun on a Sheridan tank for the Vietnam re-enactment. World of Tanks is a sponsor of Aquino Tank Weekend. Nick was three years Irish Army, and 18 years US army and left a Major I believe. I think he was very happy I got him to play and join the fun for the first time in the few years he's been attending this event. He managed to burn himself on the barrel all the same. It has been a while he admitted with a good sense of humour, he'd forgotten that barrels get hot even firing blanks.

It was an exhausting, hot but good weekend.

A lot of work goes into organizing and participating in this we can imagine; so my hat off to the organizers and everyone involved, i.e. the museum, veterans, members, volunteers, sponsors, experts, collectors, security, donators, clubs, re-enactors, MAG, WoT, etc.!

If you're interested in military history and especially tanks, I highly recommend visiting next year's Aquino Tank Weekend.