Ernie Buist was born May 17, 1918 in Sydney, Nova Scotia.  He grew up on a farm outside town, with his two brothers and five sisters.  Ernie left school after Grade 10 and worked a number of jobs before getting work at the steel plant.  He was there when Canada went to war in 1939 and he was called up in 1941.  Ernie went to New Glasgow for basic training before heading overseas.  He was assigned to the North Shore Regiment, and his war began on June 6, 1944 when they participated in the D-Day invasion and the subsequent Battle of Normandy.  Ernie would be grievously wounded in the battle for the Carpiquet airfield; his right leg was seriously damaged when he stepped on a landmine, and surgeons would have to amputate it above the knee.  Ernie came very close to dying at this time:  he first went to a field hospital in Normandy, and he was airlifted to England, where he was treated in part at Lady Astor’s estate.  After several months he returned to Canada via hospital ship, and he was back home by the end of 1944.  He received a prosthetic limb and began to adjust to the realities of his new life.  Ernie worked with Veterans’ Affairs at first, later returning to the steel plant; he also built a house for himself, and soon he met his future wife Christine and started a family.  Ernie Buist is a lifelong resident of Sydney, where Scott Masters interviewed him in July 2025 – when Ernie was 107!