Changes may correct Order of Canada bias

The Conservative government’s proposed changes to the Order of Canada appear to be aimed at correcting a long-standing shortage of Western Canadians invested into the highest civilian award and reversing the trend toward honouring performing artists.

This week’s budget contained a surprise announcement of funding to “enhance” the Canadian honours system to increase the number of nominations from under-represented sectors and modernize “eligibility and selection criteria.”

The changes suggest the government has twigged to a pattern that has seen a region that forms the Conservative party’s political base slighted by the advisory committee that chose recipients in the past.

A Citizen analysis of Order of Canada awards since 1967 shows that the honour has been bestowed on fewer recipients from the Western provinces, relative to their population.

In 2014, the data show, only 18 per cent of new recipients of the Order list Alberta, B.C., Saskatchewan or Manitoba as home, provinces that together account for 31 per cent of the Canadian population.

But Ontario and Quebec accounted for 74 per cent of the Orders handed out in 2014 — higher than their 62 per cent of the population.

Since the Order was created in 1967, only about 26 per cent of new inductees came from the four Western provinces.

That proportion has remained steady even as their total population grew.

Alberta ranks dead last among all provinces and territories in per capita residents entitled to wear the medal on their lapels.

By contrast, Atlantic Canada has been sharply over-represented, on a per capita basis, with 11 per cent of the Orders going to worthy candidates from the provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador — nearly twice as many as their populations would warrant.

Per capita, the Atlantic provinces lead all others in number of Order recipients.

The data also show that the type of Canadian honoured with the Order of Canada has evolved since 1967.

The proportion of Order of Canada recipients drawn from the performing arts sectors has consistently increased, while the share of educators, political figures and athletes has dropped.

By the end of last year, about 15 per cent of all Orders were collected by performers such as singers Bryan Adams and Céline Dion, dancers Margie Gillis and Karen Kain, and actors Donald Sutherland and Al Waxman.

That figure is about 50 per cent higher compared to the situation in 1980.

Those from the health care field — former senator and cardiac surgeon Wilbert Keon and endocrinologist Michel Chretien included — account for the secondmost honoured occupation after performers.

At the same time, the number of educators invested, such as St. Francis Xavier University chancellor Sean Riley, and those classified as doing public service, former bureaucrats Robert Fowler and Mel Cappe among them, has fallen off sharply.

Since 1980, the share of sports figures honoured has dropped by about 25 per cent. Former hockey stars Paul Henderson and Guy Lafleur are in, but a frequent complaint among critics is that commentator and former NHL coach Don Cherry has never been invested in the Order, despite his broad popularity.

Anyone can submit a nomination for the Order of Canada. Decisions about who will receive it are made by an advisory committee, chaired by Supreme Court Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, which then passes on its recommendations to the Governor General. Decisions of the committee must be unanimous.

The budget tabled Tuesday did not detail changes to the “eligibility and selection process” but Rideau Hall said it wants to do a better job encouraging nominations from under-represented regions and increasing the number of women invested.

It will use some of the $13.4 million allotted over five years for reforming the honours system for better outreach and an online interface for submitting nominations.

Nearly half of the 6,431 people that have been invested in the Order have since died.

A frequent complaint among critics is that commentator and former NHL coach Don Cherry has never been invested in the Order.