On its 150th, Canada lacks dreams or vision
Once, we were optimistic. Now, we boast about Bono
Did you ever get invited to a party, then find out as the time approached that you weren’t really in the mood? That seems to be what’s happening with Canada’s 150th birthday.
As we get closer to July 1, public excitement should be reaching a fever pitch. Are you feeling it? I’m not. Maybe the rest of the country is jumping up and down, but here at the epicentre of government-organized celebrations, things seem distinctly muted. Are there all kinds of Canadian flags displayed on your street? Are your friends talking about the 150th? Mine aren’t.
Part of the problem is that our local celebrations are about quantity, not quality. Ottawa 2017, the city council and private sector partnership that is organizing Ottawa’s celebrations, is taking the mega-buffet approach. It is involved with 19 programs and 200 events, and promises “Big Signature Events will animate the entire city.” That includes Inspiration Village, the Junos and a couple of Red Bull things.
On top of that, “transformative legacy projects will change the capital’s urban landscape.” Anything that was due to take place this year is considered to be a transformative legacy project.
That includes light rail, the Ottawa Innovation Centre and the Ottawa Gallery and Arts Court redevelopment. The city has even thrown in its effort to fix up Main Street, or screw it up, depending on your perspective.
There will be Canada Day celebrations on the Hill, of course, but that happens every year. The fact that Bono will grace the event and perform one song has been portrayed as big news. At least his name is more recognizable than most of the mid-range Canadian talent that will flesh out the show.
All of this could be seen as a bit underwhelming, but one has to be sympathetic to the organizers’ dilemma. Part of the problem is that the country’s 150th birthday is no more significant than the 149th was or the 151st will be. It’s more than that, though.
Those of us old enough to remember Canada’s 100th birthday will recollect a nation that was proud of its past, excited about its present and optimistic about its future. That’s not the case today.
Our national history is being recast as primarily a story of colonialism and exploitation of Indigenous Peoples by the “settlers,” as all non-indigenous people are now known. The writings and actions of historical figures such as Sir John A. Macdonald are judged as if he lived today.
Personally, I have always admired the people who came here with little or nothing and undertook the task of clearing 100 acres of forest to make a farm, or built an industry or a national railroad, or worked together to make disparate provinces into a country.
We can’t fix the past, but the important questions are what are we doing now as a nation, and what will we do in the future. Sadly, Canada is drifting economically, culturally and politically. We lack a dream, or even a plan. We have lost control of much of our economic destiny. More than half of our exports of goods and services are generated by foreign-owned multinationals. Iconic brands like the Hudson’s Bay Company and Tim Hortons are no longer Canadian-owned. Most of our top tech companies have failed or been sold off.
Ours is primarily a resource economy, much as it was in the 19th century.
Canada’s creative people should be telling our story to the world, but we have little more than government-supported cottage industries to help them do so.
We live in a country that was built by self-reliant people, both aboriginals and immigrants, but Canadians are becoming more and more dependent on government to provide all of their solutions.
As our politicians prove every day, that doesn’t work.
Like most Canadians, I am proud of my country, but it’s hard to feel optimistic about its future. The best thing we can do this year is reimagine that future, not spend our time on trivial birthday events.