05/30/2026
Every spring, the city of Ottawa explodes with tulips.
Hundreds of thousands of them. Red. White. Yellow. Purple. They line the canals, the parks, and the grounds of Parliament Hill.
It is the largest tulip festival in the world.
And it is a thank-you note that has been arriving every year for 80 years.
Here is the story.
In 1940, when N**i Germany invaded the Netherlands, the Dutch royal family had to flee. Crown Princess Juliana — the heir to the Dutch throne — escaped with her children.
Canada took them in.
Princess Juliana and her daughters lived in Ottawa for the duration of the war. They were given sanctuary, safety, and a home.
In January 1943, Princess Juliana gave birth to a third daughter, Princess Margriet, at the Ottawa Civic Hospital.
There was a legal problem. For the baby to be a pure Dutch citizen and a potential heir to the throne, she had to be born on Dutch soil.
So the Canadian government did something extraordinary.
The Parliament of Canada passed a special law temporarily declaring the maternity ward of the Ottawa Civic Hospital to be extraterritorial — legally not part of Canada — for the duration of the birth.
For a few hours, a hospital room in Ottawa was, in the eyes of international law, the Netherlands.
Princess Margriet was born on Dutch soil in the middle of Canada.
The Dutch flag was flown over the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill — the only time a foreign flag has ever flown there.
Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, the war ground on.
By the winter of 1944-45, the Dutch people were starving. The N**is still held the western Netherlands. Three and a half million Dutch civilians were trapped behind German lines. Tens of thousands died in what the Dutch call the Hongerwinter — the Hunger Winter.
The Canadian Army was given the job of liberating the Netherlands.
From September 1944 to May 1945, Canadian soldiers fought their way through the Netherlands, town by town, often in horrific conditions — flooded fields, freezing weather, fierce German resistance.
Over 7,600 Canadian soldiers died liberating Holland.
In April 1945, the Canadians arranged emergency food drops — Operation Manna — flying over German-held territory to parachute food to the starving Dutch population.
On May 5, 1945, the German forces in the Netherlands surrendered to a Canadian general.
The Dutch were free.
The Canadians who liberated them were greeted as heroes. Dutch civilians poured into the streets. They climbed onto Canadian tanks. They kissed the soldiers. They danced. They wept. They draped Canadian vehicles in orange — the Dutch national colour.
Many Canadian soldiers married Dutch women. Around 2,000 Dutch war brides came to Canada after the war. There are tens of thousands of Dutch-Canadians today whose families began with a Canadian liberator and a grateful Dutch girl in the spring of 1945.
In 1945, as a thank-you, Princess Juliana sent 100,000 tulip bulbs to Ottawa.
She did it again the next year.
And the next.
The Dutch royal family and the Dutch people have sent tulips to Ottawa every single year since 1945.
Every spring, when they bloom, the people of Ottawa walk among them.
And somewhere in the Netherlands, Dutch schoolchildren are still taught — to this day — that Canadians came across an ocean and gave their lives to set their grandparents free.
7,600 Canadian graves in Dutch soil.
A princess born in Ottawa.
A nation freed.
A hundred thousand tulips, every spring, for 80 years.
Some thank-you notes never stop arriving.
Some debts are paid in flowers, forever. 🍁
Share if you're proud of what Canada did for Holland. 👇
