Finally comfortable with who we are
Canada 150 is winding down. Wasn’t that a party, Canada? Well, no, it wasn’t and in that fact perhaps we can find some truths about the nature of this country’s maturity, 50 years after we went a little nuts in celebrating our centennial.
Victoria, B.C., author Tom Hawthorn’s book on the centennial celebrations published this year was entitled The Year Canadians Lost Their Minds and Found Their Country.
It was, after all, a year of centennial projects big and small, a rolling museum on rails, cheesy songs (CA-NA-DA) and the big blowout in Montreal, Expo 67.
Some of the country’s most iconic buildings are a legacy of the centennial.
Anyone chronicling our 150th might entitle it The Year Canadians Shrugged and Whined a Bit, Because We’ve Already Found Ourselves.
Hawthorn found a country indifferent to the celebrations as the calendar turned to 1967 before collectively embracing a year when Canada became cool.
In 2017, indifference led to more indifference.
There are complaints about the costs of skating rinks and a giant inflatable duck, and Canada Day on Parliament Hill will be best remembered for heavy rain and heavyhanded security, leaving some visitors from British Columbia and Saskatchewan soaked and unable to get on to the Parliament Hill lawn.
But there have been some quiet triumphs during this low-key year.
The government is spending $300 million across the country renovating and upgrading everything from hiking trails to community centres.
A government decision to waive all admission fees to Canada’s national parks appears to have been a success with attendance up by double digits year-over-year according to one report.
Yes, there was less seclusion for visitors, but more Canadians than ever before took advantage of our natural splendour.
Even the 13,600-kilogram rubber duck, which stood almost 19 metres tall and cost $200,000, goosed attendance and revenues at a Toronto waterfront festival — if that’s how you choose to gauge success.
There is still a national skating day scheduled in more than 300 community rinks.
They must be measured against the government-sanctioned failures.
The lessons from 2017 are the things that Canadians have quietly embraced apart from the government-sponsored events.
It is a country more comfortable in its own skin, not in the need of the validation it gave itself on its 100th birthday, a country which has likely never looked better compared to its southern neighbour.
It is a country much more comfortable with the long overdue tenets of true gender equality and enduring Indigenous reconciliation.
Indeed, it was Indigenous objection to the 150th celebrations, the teepee erected on Parliament Hill by the water protectors who seized the opportunity to educate Canadians about their history and their cultural genocide, which was one of the defining memories of the Canada Day celebration.
The government is guilty of allowing Indigenous funding gaps to endure, there are still far too many boil water advisories in Indigenous communities and the inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls has been beset by a litany of problems.
But Canadians expect their government to fix these things.
More Indigenous coverage has moved from the excellent Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) and CBC Indigenous services into the mainstream media, even as that media shrinks.
There were other developments this worthy of celebration.
In 2017, a major political party, the NDP, made history in choosing Jagmeet Singh, a visible minority, as leader.
And one should never discount the value of apology. Twice in the space of five days, tears were shed as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau apologized to survivors of residential schools in Newfoundland and Labrador and those members of LGBTQ2 community whose lives were ruined by their own government.
Both instances were reminders of a much better country on its 150th birthday, and a country with the courage to confront its shame.
Yes, much work is ahead. But if our 150th was light on jingoism, that, too, speaks volumes.
Maybe we didn’t need a splashy party and a world’s fair to celebrate this year. But maybe we should raise a glass in celebration anyway. Quietly, of course. Tim Harper writes on national affairs. tjharper77@gmail.com, Twitter: @nutgraf1