Canadians owe their freedom to soldiers like those fighting in Afghanistan, Prime Minister Stephen Harper told a rally on Parliament Hill in support of Canada's troops.

"All of our freedoms were created by the men and women who in our history were prepared to lay down their lives for those freedoms," he said to cheers from the crowd of about 10,000 sporting flashes of red clothing as a sign of solidarity with the soldiers.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper speaks to the rally on Parliament Hill in support of Canada's troops in Afghanistan.
(Tom Hanson/Canadian Press)

And Harper again pledged to rebuild Canada's military.

"Let me tell you," he said, "this government is committed to rebuilding the Armed Forces of Canada and we are overwhelmed with the support we are getting to do that."

The rally grew out of the Wear Red Fridays campaign started last spring by family members of soldiers from CFB Petawawa who are serving overseas. The idea is to encourage people to wear red on Fridays as a show of support for Canadian forces.

There had been some debate as to whether uniformed staff of the House of Commons — ranging from security guards to cafeteria staff — would be allowed to participate in the campaign.

Workers seeing red

In a compromise between a union request and the traditional reluctance to allow staff to participate in awareness campaigns, workers were told they could wear red ribbons.

"There is a longstanding practice of not allowing uniformed employees to participate in any kind of awareness campaign by wearing ribbons, or buttons or whatever," Heather Bradley, a spokeswoman for Speaker Peter Milliken, told the Canadian Press.

She said the union's original request to allow red hats or scarves wasn't realistic, but simple ribbons were deemed acceptable.

Bradley added that Parliament Hill staff have to be seen as non-partisan.

"It's really, really important because we serve 308 members of Parliament with various viewpoints," she said.

The only other exception to the rule is to allow the wearing of poppies for Remembrance Day.  

The rally came on the same day that Afghan President Hamid Karzai addressed a joint session of Parliament to thank Canadians for their efforts in the Afghanistan.

With files from the Canadian Press