The New Canada
Canada was once the remaining territorial holdings of Britain in North America. The loyalists that fled America came to establish what would be the founding culture of the country, ruling over the caste of French and indigenous people present in the land. Following the War of 1812 and a growing uniquely Canadian English population, the idea of a sovereign nation north of the US came to be. Its confederation would be founded on its difference from both the United Kingdom and the United States. This Old Canada had its lexicon of heroes, John A. MacDonald, Egerton Ryerson, and others still commemorated in statues, behind the atrocities this fledgling nation would commit in the name of native assimilation.
Yes, leaders like Tecumseh and Louis Riel would be remembered fondly, but neither for their roles in furthering the idea of Canada. Instead, those commemorated would be behind the system of residential schools and other policies that constituted a genocide of the nation’s indigenous people. But this isn’t the 1800s, and Canada’s population has undergone a significant demographic shift. Most notably, the Anglo-French population that dominated the country’s cultural makeup now only constitutes 40% of its population. The majority of Canadians have no connection to this country’s history.
Instead, it is united by its diversity and unique tradition of liberal democracy. On any issue beyond indigenous rights, Canada may well be the most progressive country on Earth. It was one of the first places to accept LGBTQ+ people into the long term, and openly welcomes people of non-European heritage into its borders. It has many of the benefits of a modern social democracy, including a beloved system of universal healthcare, tenant rights, welfare programs, hate speech laws for protected groups, and significant financial support for students going to university or college. All this has been done without the disdain for worldly immigrants seen across the social democracies of Europe. Still, the ugly stain beneath this is the brushed aside indigenous rights, the issue preventing Canada from being a truly progressive country.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission made great strides in letting the atrocities of residential schools be known to the wider Canadian public, along with the continuing investigations into the programs that have uncovered the graves of countless indigenous children. Despite the government’s keenness to investigate its past to attempt to make up for these mistakes, indigenous people still face incredibly difficult challenges today. The lack of economic opportunities and support in native communities leave them desolate, several communities still lack access to clean drinking water, indigenous women and children continue to be kidnapped and murdered, and sovereignty granted to their communities by long standing treaties are continuously challenged by disgruntled locals destroying their fisheries and the government itself building unwanted pipelines across their land. Canada has a long way to go to truly reconcile with its native communities, and it goes well beyond recording and publicizing the legacy of residential schools.
Yet, we shouldn’t forget the New Canada built atop the genocidal colonial legacy of its now minority of Anglo-French settlers. Canada’s strides in economic and social justice make it globally exemplar, and should leave its population with much to celebrate. What this calls upon is a new lexicon of Canadian heroes to better define its contemporary culture. Pierre Trudeau (the Charter and LGBTQ+ rights), Terry Fox (heroism and public awareness of cancer research), Nellie McClung (enfranchisement of women and ethnic minorities) and Tommy Douglas (universal healthcare) all come to mind, and these should be the people that statues are replaced with and buildings named after.
Canada Day should be celebrated, but have a twofold purpose. Predominantly, it should be used to bring awareness to the longstanding indigenous issues that need to be swiftly resolved. But second, it should be a day to celebrate the New Canada. We are a people disconnected from our nation’s colonial legacy, and in its place we have built an example of how a modern democracy can be. Economically just, racially diverse, and welcoming to all. Although, we still have a lot of work to do to live up to the latter.