Edie Bijdemast and Netherlands

: CBC Digital Archives: VE-Day: Canadians liberate Holland How Canadian forces brought 'sweetest of springs' to Netherlands "If the Canadian soldiers hadn't come, I don't even think my mom and dad would have survived the war, and I wouldn't even be here," says Bijdemast, who immigrated to Canada with her family as a five-year-old in 1956, according to CBC. Edie Bijdemast says she needs ties to both her homeland of the Netherlands and Canada, where she has lived for almost 60 years. "I wouldn't exist, so I feel a very deep emotional connection with that, the fact that a foreign country would come in and assist. She also thinks of the Canadian soldiers who brought freedom to the Netherlands, along with the fundamental role that liberation 70 years ago played in her own life. I find that very deeply moving personally." Bijdemast emotional connection to her birth place is a very personal example of the ties that have grown between Canada and the Netherlands, and which will be at the forefront once again as ceremonies here and on the other side of the Atlantic this week mark the 70th anniversary of Victory in Europe. "These connections are at all sorts of levels," says Jeff Noakes, the Second World War historian at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa. "They can range quite literally from the national — official commemorations — all the way down to the very personal where you still have people staying in touch 70 years after the end of the war." Today, an estimated one million people of Dutch heritage live in Canada. Imports and exports between the two countries each exceeded $3.5 billion in 2014. Significant' partner Another factor in the Dutch-Canadian connection is that business ties between the two countries are considered strong, with the federal government describing the Netherlands as "one of Canada most significant trade, investment and innovation partners." Tulips bloom every spring on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, one of the more visible signs of the ties that have grown between the Netherlands and Canada. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.