An odd piece in the Globe this morning about the alleged Tory strategy to create a new nationalism:
If you wonder what that new nationalism is and where to find it, the Conservatives will point you to Canada’s belligerent domination of the Vancouver’s Winter Olympics; to the new generation of immigrants, most of them from Asia, who have never heard of Louis Riel or the Crow rate, and who will never be made to care; to the intense new pride in the accomplishments of the armed forces from Afghanistan to Haiti. And they’ll point to the North… Only the tiniest fraction of Canadians will ever visit the Canadian Arctic, let alone live there, but many will be attracted to the Conservative agenda of economic development, military reinforcement and aggressive assertions of sovereignty.
Oh dear. If that were true – and I don’t really think it is – Mr. Harper is Mr. Parizeau’s best pal, both believing that Canada is not a real nation. First, no one really cares about the Vancouver Olympics now. If there was any real opposition, Harper pulling on that souvenir zip up sweat shirt from the games would be a bit of a giggle. Be honest – “we” won (and blew tax dollars of) medals for sports no other nation else cares about and some few in ours do – golds in curling, short track speed skating, skeleton and, yes, hockey are of little interest in the global sports brag up. Wake me when we win downhill skiing or cross country consistently… not to mention soccer, baseball or rugby.
Second, building a history-ish heritage based on the needs of those “who have never heard of Louis Riel or the Crow rate, and who will never be made to care” is bizarre. If that is the case, why bother with French Canada repelling the American revolution, the creation of Ontario by the Loyalists, Joe Howe and responsible government or even Vimy Ridge? None of these things are really understood by most Canadians let alone new Canadians but to discard them in favour of politically expedient fantasy only reinforces that Canada is a stop on the way to a real nation worth investing in for the long haul. Not a nation of new comers. A nation of transients.
Third, the Arctic? Well, if there is any left to celebrate in a few years there might be a point. But, let’s be honest – to pull off this theme of the rustic frontier it might be better if the leadership of the party did not look like the Chess Club Reunion of 1978. Say what you like about Trudeau, he made the canoe cool to people who’d never encountered a black fly. Could you imagine the creams and inhalers most Tory Cabinet ministers would have to haul along with them for a weekend tenting trip into a Provincial Park let alone the actual Arctic?
Fortunately, the article is a silly stretch, making something out of a political campaign pamphlet. Tories have no more capacity to rearrange the available facts and factoids to create a new history than Canadians have a capacity to understand their actual history. 905 only needs to know where the Tims is and when the next Argos, Leafs or Jays loss is on TV. The path to glory runs the suburbs and there are no founding myths to be found there. In fact, if anything is to be taken from the article, maybe it’s that line about those “who will never be made to care.” Isn’t that true of all Canadians? The new motto might be “je me vais oublier.”
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