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(Image Credit: Photo by Curtis Galbraith.)
By Curtis Galbraith
Community

Veterans looking for replacement for Grande Prairie cenotaph

Jan 8, 2026 | 6:05 AM

Some veterans in Grande Prairie are hoping to get a replacement for the cenotaph in Jubilee Park.

Veteran Frank Skolly says the one that is there now “does not represent the last 30-35 years” of Canadian Armed Forces deployments.

“Like Afghanistan and Bosnia. I personally lost some comrades in Bosnia, so I’d like to see it properly updated and give the proper respect.”

Skolly says the small plaques on the cenotaph for operations like Afghanistan are “insulting” but that trying to replace them would destroy the cenotaph.

“To update the current one, we’d have to take the brass plaque out and to get it out of there, we’d have to dismantle, you know, wreck the front face of that rock.”

Skolly says his group is looking at having a granite monument as a replacement that would have the “same basic shape” as the current one.

“We are going to pay tribute to the original cenotaph that the original veterans put up.”

 “The original was dedicated in 1958. You’ll find in (the) archives that they talked about a cenotaph quite a bit over the decades after World War I, but there was never one erected because they didn’t have a park to put it in.”

Skolly says a cenotaph was put up after Jubilee Park was built. 

He adds that one idea being considered is for the granite monument to be placed behind the circular walkway where the current one sits.

Skolly says that this is a veteran-led operation, and any veterans, if they are in the Legion or ANAVETS or if they are not, are welcome to join the effort.

City council has asked administration to report back to a standing committee on ways to “replace and enhance ” the cenotaph. That report would also look at other possible locations.

by Curtis Galbraith