2017: Canada’s next good year?

The real scandal over the Senate of Canada isn’t what senators are spending on themselves. It’s what the government is spending on the Senate.

The Citizen reports that Public Works Canada plans to renovate the Government Conference Centre, the storied former railway station in downtown Ottawa, to create a temporary home for the Senate. The building was once a forum for national colloquies, particularly intergovernmental conferences, but no longer.

In 2003, Jean Chrétien wanted to make it a history museum. A board was created, a plan presented. But a spiteful Paul Martin could not abide a monument to his predecessor and cancelled it.

Ten years later, Public Works announces “a high-profile project of national significance, requiring a significant investment of public funds.”

The purpose is to create a makeshift home for the Senate while its chambers and committee rooms in the Centre Block are renovated, beginning in 2018. Renovating the Conference Centre for this purpose will cost a staggering $190 million.

The federal government, which boasts of its financial prudence, spends a small fortune creating a temporary chamber, 21 offices and three committee rooms for an institution that is in public disrepute with an uncertain future.

This is a government that cancels plans to build a national portrait gallery, refuses to build a national science museum and declines an opportunity to develop historic lands on an island in the Ottawa River. Yet it finds $190 million to turn a historic building into offices and then — wait for it — back into a conference centre that holds few conferences.

Meanwhile, the Speech from the Throne announces (actually, re-announces) the government’s little plans for the 150th anniversary of Confederation in 2017. They include marking historic anniversaries between now and then (the Charlottetown and Quebec Conferences, the birthdays of Sir John A. Macdonald and Sir George-Étienne Cartier) “rededicating” the National War Memorial; erecting a memorial to the victims of Communism; restoring “the traditions” of the armed forces; marking the end of the military mission to Afghanistan; spending $25 million recasting the Canadian Museum of Civilization.

As for 2017 itself, the federal government will “support community projects and local celebrations.” That’s about it, folks.

So, less than four years from the 150th anniversary of Confederation, there is nothing grand, daring or innovative planned to mark the occasion. When it comes to declaring a vision or an idea, Stephen Harper’s Conservatives never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.

While the government deserves credit for trying to raise awareness of our past, its focus is largely military (the War of 1812) and its memory is selective. Even so, it’s surprising how little it has done about 2017.

When it comes to the centennial of the Great War, for example, don’t expect a searching conversation about what Canada did or why we were there. Expect the usual platitudes about “becoming a nation” at Vimy Ridge.

We were more serious, 50 years ago, about celebrating our centenary in 1967. John Diefenbaker began the planning in 1959. In 1961, Parliament passed the National Centennial Act, which was the basis of the government’s involvement in the celebrations. It later created the Centennial Commission. In 1964, the government allocated $100 million for events ($743 million in today’s money.)

The celebration in 1967 was extraordinary. Its centrepiece was Expo 67, the spectacular world’s fair in Montreal, which drew 50 million visitors. That was just the beginning.

We created the National Library and Archives, the National Arts Centre and the Canada Science and Technology Museum. We sent 12,000 young Canadians to another province or territory. We created 2,000 projects — arenas, libraries, parks — that William Thorsell, who ran the Royal Ontario Museum, calls “a fervent mix of bottom-up and top-down projects.” We sent the Confederation Train and Confederation Caravans across Canada, visiting more than 700 communities, reaching nine million people. We sponsored national and international tours of performing arts companies.

The Centennial Commission encouraged a national conversation about the future and the past. Looking back, the anniversary was a time of hope and pride. Author Pierre Berton called 1967 “the last good year.”

Our sesquicentennial in 2017 should be Canada’s next good year. Parks Canada and other federal agencies are planning modest projects. But the breadth of our ambition here is the thin gruel of the Throne Speech, and time is running out.

Here, though, is an opportunity to consider projects for the 21st century: high-speed intercity rail and renewed urban transit; national standards in the teaching of Canadian history; a national program of physical fitness; mandatory national service, military or community; a real economic union among the provinces; the digitization of the country’s art and film collections.

Our 150th anniversary is an opportunity to reaffirm our history, geography, prosperity and diversity. It is an occasion — hell, call it an excuse — to renew our commitment to an idea of Canada amid our failing our memory and ebbing democracy. Maybe, even, to create a new museum in that old railway station.