Keeping Canada united for 150 more years

Sense of shared citizenship is key, Roger Gibbins writes.

Now that Canada’s sesquicentennial party is over and the champagne glasses have been cleared away, it is appropriate to ask what we learned about the national journey yet to come.

This interest in the long game led a group of Calgarians to explore what is possible for Canada.

Using the sesquicentennial as an opportunity, and inspired by then- Gov. Gen. David Johnston’s challenge that “Canada be a smart and caring nation,” they investigated what is possible in a world increasingly defined by difference and fragmentation. In the words of their chair, Colin Jackson, “We want to shine a light on what unites us, our shared dreams, the legacies we wish to create.”

The ImagiNation 150 project was not affiliated with any political party or ideology, and did not seek public funding.

It was supported by individual Calgarians and Calgary-based companies, including Suncor, Enbridge, Sandstone, Telus and Cenovus as a gift to Canada of hope and goodwill. Led by executive director Trevor Shelley, they used the Calgary region as a proxy for the nation, then tested the findings against the work of allies across the country.

The group recognized at the outset that all is not sunshine, that we are not immune to the fragmentation of thought and identity. Like others, we must navigate inherent tensions between the individual and the collective, similarity and difference, comfort and risk taking, innovation and tradition, leading and being led, and civic identity versus other identities.

Although these polarities cannot be abolished, they can be managed, and indeed, new identities can be cultivated in the cracks between them.

How, then, do we move forward? Against the celebratory backdrop of the sesquicentennial, we need to maintain, even strengthen, our sense of shared purpose for the future. Most important, we must strengthen the language

We need not agree with, or even like each other, to share a ... robust citizenship

of citizenship. While we talk about the many unique and distinguishing identities each of us has, we need to emphasize the identity we all share, our common civic identity as Canadians.

To this end, ImagiNation 150 proposes a framework that acknowledges tensions while promoting an overarching civic identity that uplifts, binds and obliges us all. We must accept that we may not love, or even like some fellow Canadians, but we tolerate them within the common language of civic identity. Simply put, we need not agree with, or even like each other, to share a common and robust citizenship.

If culture is upstream from politics, then revitalizing the language of citizenship, and thus the health of our civic culture, will surely have a positive impact on our political life. Citizenship provides both a language and a platform for vigorous yet respectful debate, for sharing in the good life our democracy has to offer.

There is, admittedly, a fear that Canadians are retreating into social media-fostered echo chambers, that social fragmentation is threatening our sense of community. Anyone who believes that trust and common bonds are critical to holding communities together, who sees that we may be losing sight of common bonds, should be worried.

Fortunately, a common thread emerging from the many events, focus groups and roundtables hosted by ImagiNation 150 was that Canadians want deeper relationships, but too often don’t know how to get there. Thus, ImagiNation 150 offered a framework for thinking, speaking and acting as citizens among citizens, balancing the differences between us with those things we have in common.

You can find the framework on the ImagiNation 150 website, along with the chat bot designed to build community action by crowd sourcing 100 million acts of service to Canada.

The final conclusion is one of hope — and a challenge.

As citizens brought together in and through the tensions created by the various polarities in our lives, we can, indeed we must, build a vigorous liberal democracy on a strong foundation of shared citizenship.