‘Yes you can in Canada’

Re: B.C. NDP halts pipeline project, Aug. 11

In 1968 my young family and I immigrated to Canada from Edinburgh in Scotland. One of the attractions was the advertising campaign by the Canadian government: “Yes you can in Canada.” It provided examples of a nation that was progressive, optimistic and hard-working.

Given the restrictive life in the U.K., bound up in socialist doctrines and bureaucratic regulations, Canada seemed like a Utopia. Shortly after our arrival in Toronto we visited Centre Island. A smile broke out on our faces as we saw the sign,“Please walk on the grass.”

What a difference from the U.K., where the park signs read “Keep off the grass.”

Yes you can in Canada, indeed.

Now, sadly, the pendulum has swung as too many little groups conspire to thwart such a liberal approach to life and business. There is an obsession, on the part of some, about their “rights,” without regard to their “obligations.”

For example, pipelines are stopped with arguments about the environment or pollution or whatever can be adduced as a tool to prevent developments that would provide jobs and government revenues. All this at a time when at least some of the opponents rely heavily on money from the government for their income, and others have a bias that ignores the need to allow developments that make economic sense.

Of course there should be some environmental review of major projects, but it needs to be done with a view that “Yes, you can, in Canada.” Sadly we seem to have become a nation that seems to be comfortable with a “keep-off-the-grass” approach to life, or at least we allow that attitude to dominate public discussion. Where are the leaders who have the gumption to stand up for what Canada should be about: an optimistic and caring country that shows a “Yes you can” attitude?

Bill Bain, Toronto