The following is an excerpt from a speech to be made tonight by Randolph Churchill III, the great-grandson of Sir Winston Churchill, on the 80th anniversary of D-Day, to the Sir Winston Churchill Society of Calgary.

Through the monarchy and our shared political and cultural institutions, Britain and Canada have enjoyed close and harmonious relations for centuries. When your neighbours to the south impertinently attempted to conquer you (twice!), the British Redcoats fought beside you to protect your independence. Decades before that, when the British and French contended for Canada in the Seven Years’ War, with the British emerging triumphant, Gen. James Wolfe died at the moment of victory on the Plains of Abraham. In an odd coincidence of history, his home — Quebec House — is in Westerham, Kent, only a mile and a half from Chartwell, Churchill’s home, and I was privileged to attend an annual dinner with a largely Canadian contingent to celebrate Wolfe’s memory.