A time for celebration and reflection
Canada is a good country, but we can do better, Andrew Cohen says.
Maclaren Cemetery lies in the shadow of the Gatineau Hills at the end of a dirt road. Its gravestones rise gently, if randomly, into the folds of the Canadian Shield, which holds them fast.
There is nothing random about some of those buried there. As the story goes, three young men were tramping through the woods in the 1930s. They came upon the cemetery and decided to buy plots — at $10 apiece. It was the most romantic of acts.
The three were Lester Pearson, Norman Robertson and Hume Wrong, the brightest of their generation of public servants. They have been joined in the cemetery by other luminaries: Escott Reid, the diplomat; Geoffrey Pearson (Lester’s son); Malak Karsh, the photographer; Val Sears, the journalist; Laurier Lapierre, the broadcaster and senator.
On the 153rd anniversary of Confederation, it is good to remember all those who built this country, and not just white Anglo-saxons. While we are an unconscious people, dolefully unaware of our past (particularly our Indigenous past), we should celebrate them. They made us what we are.
And what are we today, at more than a century-and-a-half of nationhood? We remain, let us remember first, an old democracy, not “the young country” our politicians trumpet on July 1. Our institutions — the monarchy, the parliamentary system, the provinces — are much as they were then.
Unlike other nations, we have not suffered seismic political or social upheaval. Among nations, we have been stable and well-governed, without great civil unrest, scandal or radicalism. We prefer gradualism, compromise and consensus.
It is why we have favoured one party in government for most of our history. When we tired of the Liberals, we turned to the Conservatives, but no one else. Third parties — the New Democrats,
Social Credit, Progressives, Bloc Québécois, Reformers — never reach government.
Our values remain decency, civility, diversity, moderation, accommodation. It is why Canada remains the most open society in the world to newcomers, the only western country without an anti-immigration party.
Our strengths remain the land, its vastness and beauty, and our reverence for it. We are a people of bounty, of natural riches; there is almost nothing nature has not given us.
We revel in this, in our success and fortune. It makes us feel good, like slipping into a warm bath. It also makes us complacent. Yet on this Canada Day — a name of staggering banality — we have reason to ponder, once again, just who we are.
We have handled COVID-19 erratically. With some 8,500 deaths, we did far better per capita than the United States — our usual measure — yet far worse than Japan, New Zealand and Australia.
We have treated older Canadians in institutional housing — a shocking number of the COVID deaths — criminally. Our much-vaunted compassion is overstated.
We have universal health care, our great pride. It is adequate but expensive and inconsistent compared to western Europe. This has been true for years.
We once had excellent national passenger rail service. Today Via Rail, bless it, has carriages and timetables from the 1980s.
We no longer demand excellence of our leaders. All three major parties are led by mediocrities. (When Jean Charest wanted to run to replace Andrew Scheer — the worst Conservative leader in modern history — Stephen Harper vowed to stop him.)
We have withdrawn from the world. It did not take the United Nations to tell us, twice, that we are unworthy of the Security Council. “The world needs more Canada” is a cruel conceit.
Not bad is not good — and not good enough for this country, given our history, our geography, our diversity, our wealth and our birthright.
On this birthday, in this lost summer, let us ask ourselves anew: Who are we? And, how can a good country become a great country?
Our values remain decency, civility, diversity, moderation, accommodation.