Hearts don't glow like they used to in Canada
The Great White North needs a reawakening of national pride
My (somewhat mischievous) suggestion that, if Donald Trump wants our “post-national” country more than we do, we should give it to him, has provoked a bit of a backlash.
The National Post article is behind a paywall, which likely means that not one in 100 of the people who called me a quisling on social media actually read it.
“Move if you want to be with your American masters. My family and I are Canadian, strong and FREE and we will stay that way. F*ck all the way off with your traitorous bullshit,” said one fan - and he was at the more polite end of the spectrum.
But back in the real world, where nuance and good manners exist, the truth was somewhat different.
Far from suggesting we dissolve the federation, I suggested we build it up by raising our flag, instead of lowering it; by boasting of our achievements, instead of apologizing for our shortcomings; and by emphasizing our heritage, instead of promoting someone else’s.
I condemned Trump’s menacing taunts about “the great state of Canada” and lamented the passive reaction, in the form of a poll that suggested one in five Albertans would be happy to become part of the 51st state.
I said Canada’s identity crisis didn’t start in 2015 but has not been helped by Justin Trudeau’s proclamation of Canada as a “post-national” country with no core identity.
I suggested this sense of post-nationalism has corroded a sense of citizenship and collective mission, with polls showing that a majority feel the country is “broken” and heading in the wrong direction.
One pre-Canada Day poll by Ipsos said more than one third of respondents feel less proud to be Canadian than they did five years ago.
Another by Environics suggested that the slide in pride is mainly on the right (though left wing voters are far more disillusioned than they were in the early days of the Trudeau government). The Environics poll showed that electoral outcomes and the party in power impact national pride, which was markedly higher on average under the Conservatives.
Judging from the responses I received, I’ve no doubts that many right of centre voters feel like strangers in a strange land, left behind by cultural changes they do not share or understand.
What I actually called for, was not capitulation but a reawakening. How can it not raise a clamour when a Hindu MP stand in the House of Commons and complains about being threatened by a Sikh colleague, just because he didn’t support a motion concerning events that took place in India nearly half a century ago?
The Parliament of Canada should not be the venue for such remote foreign squabbles.
I pointed to former prime minister John Diefenbaker’s opposition to identity politics and hyphenated Canadians, and suggested we need a similar nation builder. Canada First sounds too Trumpian but One Canada resonates with someone like me who came to this country in my thirties.
I was made in Scotland but molded by Canada; by its climate, its culture and its people.
I married a Canadian (more than one, in fact); became a citizen; and honoured the country by begetting it four new citizens.
I learned to appreciate hockey, modern dentistry and 6am Tim-bits practises at the rink. It helped that I already loved Rush.
I can say unabashedly that Canada is the greatest country in the world.
But the Canada of recent years seems a much harsher place than the one I arrived in more than 30 years ago - as if the decline of a Canadian national identity created a vacuum that has been filled by Sikhs battling Hindus in the streets; by Muslims and anarchists spewing vile anti-Semitic hatred; by anti-vaxxers blockading our capital; and, most of all, by a federal government that has knocked the country down, instead of building it up.
I’m open to the idea that I’m entirely wrong on all of this and that Canada remains a rising country of glowing hearts.
Please let me know in the comments what you think - and if you believe things are going the wrong way, what we might do about it.
You are bang on John. National unity is not just the Quebec sovereignty issue. Identity politics has had a corrosive effect far beyond that single issue to undermine the entire idea of the country as a general force for good in the world. And Liberal efforts to kill the oil and gas industry in the West is unsurprisingly a prime driver of Western frustration toward the rest of Canada, who have generally supported reducing carbon emissions at the expense of jobs and wealth production. It’s almost surprising is that in spite of this 80% of Albertans are still willing to try to make this federation work.
Great writing John! Always enjoyed your comments and point of view. You are right,people need to remember how good we all have it here in this country I call Canada. I am a proud Canadian,just like I know you are. It is too bad some immigrants bring their old feuds and troubles with them. I’m guessing not many are “on guard for thee”. Easier to tear things down then it is to build it up or actually stand firm for what we know is right