Canada’s best future will require dealing with our past failures

We have lots to be proud of, but lots of work too

I didn’t choose to live here, at least not initially. My father and my mother’s parents picked Canada for me. They took big risks in uprooting to a place they’d never seen before, leaving behind family and possessions for adventure, opportunity and a fresh start.

Like them, I have always had itchy feet. When I was young, I imagined myself travelling the world, working in Europe, the United States, South America. But unlike my ancestors, I never left my home country for longer than a few weeks of holidays. The opportunities have always been better for me here, any benefits of leaving have never been worth the trade-offs.

At some point, I realized it wasn’t just a series of coincidences that have kept me here, nor was I a Canadian simply by accident of birth. Canada has a lot more to offer than so many other places. I find the winters miserable but even when my front lawn is covered with snow, the grass still isn’t greener on the other side of the border or the ocean.

Canada is incredibly safe, more so than most of us realize. It is largely well-governed and uncorrupt, no matter who is in power. It is inclusive. I haven’t done the math but I can’t imagine another place on Earth with as many elected officials who were born in other countries.

Once, that was a sign of our youth; 149 years later it demonstrates our pluralism. The arrival of thousands of Syrian refugees has been a defining moment of goodwill and decency.

While our record isn’t perfect, we have been leaders in progressive policies such as LGBTQ

We aren’t immune to the trends sweeping America and Britain.

rights and gender equality. And on this Canada Day in particular, at a time when both our closest neighbour and our oldest relative are struggling with dramatic existential questions, we can appreciate a bit more how stable we are, and how fortunate. In the hierarchy of difficulties, there are problems, First World problems and Canadian problems. Where else on Earth would I want my kids to grow up?

But we must defend fiercely against becoming smug or complacent. We aren’t immune to the trends sweeping America and Britain. And there are still lingering challenges we have ignored for decades, the most obvious and tragic of which is the state of Canada’s indigenous peoples. While we preach a message of human rights and equality to the world, many of our own people are left perilously and unjustly far behind.

We must compel ourselves to confront and address the crisis and make solving the rampant poverty and desperate living conditions the priority of our generation, the legacy project of our approaching sesquicentennial.

As more Canadians live in cities, it’s easy for us and the people who seek our votes to forget the thousands who are living without even adequate access to drinking water. As more of us achieve higher levels of opportunity and prosperity, too many ignore that quality of life has not improved for all of us. When we walk the streets of downtown Ottawa or Vancouver, Shoal Lake and Attawapiskat are as far from our minds as they are from our feet.

On Canada Day in 2016, we have a great deal to be proud of. The foundation built by our ancestors has put us in the most enviable position in the world. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that the 21st century could belong to Canada. Maybe that most Canadian of rock bands, the Tragically Hip, was thinking about Sir Wilfrid Laurier’s prediction about the 1900s when they sang, “You are ahead by a century.”

But we can neither be a model to the world nor beam with full national pride until we address our utmost collective shame. When Canada’s indigenous people share in the same hope, opportunity, safety and prosperity as other Canadians, this country will finally be as great as it can be.