We are all Canadians and that absolutely means something
Happy 150th birthday, fellow Canadians.
And for the next 150 years and beyond, please think of yourself as such.
This doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with being a French Canadian or western Canadian or eastern Canadian or First Nations Canadian or new Canadian or Chinese Canadian or Indo-Canadian or German Canadian or Ukrainian Canadian or Christian Canadian or Muslim Canadian ... well, the list could go on. Sorry for not having the space to include everyone. As a Canadian, it is quintessential to apologize even when there is no cause for apology.
Who we are remains the great ponderance, as old as this nation. We struggle with this more than most because we are vast, we are multicultural and because having just one Canadian identity is an impossibility.
This is a country 8,893 kilometres wide, covering 9,985,000 square kilometres — a nation large enough to obscure the moon, and no less important to Earth.
Yes, our vastness leads to regionalism. Even in a place like Saskatchewan — described by the late author and radio host Peter Gzowski as the most Canadian of provinces — regional pride sometimes takes precedence. (Where else in Canada do we erect statues to celebrate not just our local professional football team but that we are its fans?)
There’s nothing wrong with local or regional pride ... even if it means constant bickering over resource revenues and the appropriateness or inappropriateness of applying an environmental tax to them to deal with Canada’s contribution to global warming. It is a worthwhile debate.
Nor is there anything wrong with honouring one’s religious beliefs or one’s personal origins — whether your ancestors were indigenous or whether they immigrated later.
We permit this because we are a country where peace, order and good government are more than just words. There were no shots fired when we declared our independence 150 years ago. Yet our men and women were among the first to fight for the liberty of others in the great wars, police actions and global disputes since. We literally invented the concept of the modern-day peacekeeper.
We invented so many things: Standard time. Public health care. Insulin. Canola. Marquis wheat. McIntosh apples. Pablum. Canada Dry ginger ale. The telephone. The walkie-talkie. The pager. The BlackBerry. The hydrofoil boat. The first commercial jetliner. The snowmobile. The Canadarm. The electric wheelchair. The snowblower. Hockey. Lacrosse. Basketball. Instant replays. Fivepin bowling. Table hockey. The jockstrap. The Wonderbra. Imax movies. Key frame animation. Garbage bags. The pacemaker. Alkaline batteries. The Robertson screwdriver. The caulking gun. The electric oven. Egg cartons. Paint rollers ...
Like the people who inhabit Canada, innovation has come from every corner of this land out of either necessity or sheer brilliance. We came together to build and to share in a place where it’s not been particularly easy to do either.
Maybe that’s what a Canadian really is.
It has to be about more than just the cliches of ice, snow, hockey, doughnuts, false modesty or the need to separate ourselves from Americans. (Although, judging by what’s been going on in the U.S. of late, one suspects there are plenty of Americans who would love to separate themselves from their own identity.)
That we are still all together after 150 years and two modernday referendums that threatened to tear this country apart says much.
We have survived our language differences. We tolerate those with separatist views — both east and west — in a way many nations wouldn’t.
We constantly complain about over-taxation and regional inequities in which richer regions must subsidize poorer ones. Yet we patiently endure all this because we seem to inherently understand this is what we have to do to make this vast land work. We take pride in that, in ways we are just beginning to understand.
We are imperfect. But to call oneself a Canadian is an honour — an honour with a“u” — never to be taken for granted.
Let us not forget that.