July 1 is Canada’s birthday, a day to recognize the values and ideas that drove Confederation in 1867 and have endured to our times. This recognition rightfully clashes with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s proclamation that Canada was the world’s first “post-national” state, and possessed neither a “core identity,” nor a “mainstream.”
The progressive Guardian newspaper opined in 2017 that Trudeau’s vision, which it called the “Canada experiment”, presented a new model for nationhood. In the subsequent years, that experiment has demonstrably failed in a dramatically changed world, in which the importance of a strong, unifying Canadian identity is more vital than ever.
During one of Jason Kenney’s last great speeches in the House of Commons as an MP, he eloquently rejected the post-national vision of Canada and praised our inherited values and traditions. Elaborating on these points, Kenney spoke of the rule of law and equality before it, as well as equality of opportunity, which did not emerge by accident.
It was not the first time that Kenney publicly espoused those same ideals, such as in 2017 on the eve of Canada’s 150th anniversary at an event organized by the Cardus Institute.
“Canada 150 will be a hopeful confirmation that responsible government, representative democracy, widespread religious, political and economic liberty, unprecedented material prosperity, unity in diversity, linguistic harmony, that all of this, which we modestly call peace, order and good government, can endure generation after generation,” Kenney articulated.
It’s a message that’s much needed in our current moment. Democracies are being morally, politically, and economically challenged by authoritarian states on a scale most young Canadians have never experienced. The world is repolarizing at a faster rate than most people ever expected, at a time when the vision of globalization has stalled.
Canada needs to set itself apart from the non-democratic world with an identity that can weather the homogenizing effects of globalization and embody both culture and prosperity.
Good government means sound economic stewardship. The opposite has been true in recent years. This must change, more than anything else, and doing so would be a fulfillment of one of the many spirits that animated Confederation.
This was echoed in the words of 19th-century Canadian reformer George Brown: “The country is young, there is no position a man of energy and character may not reasonably hope to attain, if his will be strong, and his brain sound.”
Among the Fathers of Confederation, Brown was classical liberalism’s most outspoken proponent. He was also fiercely anti-French and anti-Catholic, but in championing enterprise, he shared a common ground with his contemporary rival and French Canada’s champion, Sir George-Étienne Cartier.
Cartier once stated, “Commerce brings in its train…tranquility, order, and rule…a cure for the most destructive prejudices; for it is almost a general rule, that wherever we find agreeable manners, commerce flourishes.”
Today, Canada’s economy no longer fairly rewards the hard work of younger generations, whom Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem revealed on Monday are suffering from double the rates of unemployment as other demographics.
Emigration cannot be the only route to a better future for young Canadians. Freeing up our calcifying, overburdened economy would be an irreplaceable boost to our national spirit and slow the brain drain of Canada’s brightest to the United States.
There still exists a uniquely paranoid brand of Canadian “thinker” who treats all forms of liberalizing the economy as creeping Americanism.
Brown and Cartier’s words are the perfect rebuttal. Both leaders agreed on the value of a vibrant economy, as well as the recognition that the British possessions of North America required unity between French and English to create a new country.
However, those differences of religion, language, and ethnicity never disappeared after 1867, and nearly caused the breakup of the country. While the movement for Francophone Quebec’s independence has been largely subdued, if not extinguished, there are new, more dangerous conflicts breaking out in our streets today.
Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas War on October 7, Canadian cities have been packed with mobs demanding the destruction of Israel, and targeting Jewish community centres and places of worship.
This dangerous situation is also unprecedented in modern Canada. In the 1990s, when bitter wars raged in disintegrating Yugoslavia, Canada’s sizable Croat and Serb communities did not firebomb or shoot up each other’s community centres.
Canada does not exist to be a proxy for European or Middle-Eastern wars, and the violent scenes playing out violate our values of peace and order and need to be stamped out without further hesitation.
These seemingly non-stop acts of violence against Canadian Jews have laid bare the limits of post-nationalism in a digitally integrated world. Social media algorithms on platforms like TikTok have made it impossible to avoid ancient hatreds, and by design, whip up the prejudices that ought to be left behind when people immigrate here.
The hollowing out of a shared Canadian identity under the guise of post-nationalism has left a void for young Canadians and newcomers that is being filled by violent diaspora politics.
So what is the tangible cultural component of Canadian identity to complement the values of order and good government? People often mock or lament Canada’s supposed lack of a fulsome or coherent culture, and declare us to be a colony of the United States in that respect.
Women drum as they pass under a giant Canadian flag in front of Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Feb. 16, 2022. Justin Tang/The Canadian Press.
However, the English-speaking world has always been deeply interconnected, from 1867 to the present day.
Icons of popular culture in the 19th and 20th centuries like the American P.T. Barnum and the British Charlie Chaplin were popular throughout the English-speaking world and toured it extensively. Modern phenomenons like Harry Potter, Doctor Who, and the Lord of the Rings films are British in origin and massively popular in both the English and non-English speaking worlds.
Would anyone seriously declare that the culture of the United States has been degraded because Americans loved the Beatles, or will still line up for the next Lord of the Rings film? Winston Churchill conceived of the English-speaking countries as embodying one family, as demonstrated in his four-volume magnum opus, A History of the English-Speaking Peoples.
Hub contributor Howard Anglin wrote in 2021 that Canada is akin to the ancient Roman province of Cisalpine Gaul, neither a cultural giant, but not a vapid desert either, and that should more than satisfy Canadians.
We are permanently embedded within Anglo-American culture, as are Australia and New Zealand. Canadian actors, writers, and musicians are among the most well-known around the world due to our membership in the Anglosphere.
French-speaking Quebec may never be just a province, as envisioned by Pierre Elliott Trudeau, but the equilibrium of Quebec remaining part of Canada with an autonomous status is far better than the alternative. It also has far more underpinning its relationship to the rest of Canada beyond a simple economic arrangement.
In a recent essay for Comment titled “Is There a Common Canadian Culture?” Jean-Christophe Jasmin wrote that Quebec and English Canada know little of each other’s more provincial cultural creations, but they do jointly participate in the greater Anglo-American culture.
Canada being part of an Anglo-American world is no more embarrassing than Colombia’s membership in Latin America, or Montenegro being part of the Slavic world.
As we celebrate Canada Day, it is essential to both recognize that we have a mainstream culture and to honour the enduring values and ideas that drove Confederation on July 1, 1867. Prime Minister Trudeau’s assertion that Canada is a post-national state devoid of a core identity overlooks the fundamental principles and peculiarities that have shaped our nation.
Canada’s rich participation in the Anglo-American world demonstrates a vibrant and unifying cultural landscape. The principles of free economies, the rule of law, and equality form the backbone of a mainstream culture that unites Canadians across regional and linguistic divides.
Today, these principles are more relevant than ever, as our economy faces significant challenges, particularly for young people, and our streets are increasingly fraught with global tensions amplified by social media. This disturbing new trend has revealed the limitations of post-nationalist multiculturalism, which has hollowed out a shared Canadian identity, leaving a void filled by divisive diaspora politics.
In contrast, the values and ideals espoused by the Fathers of Confederation provide the tools and inspiration needed to rebuild national pride and confidence. This July 1, let us celebrate the enduring spirit of Confederation and recommit to the principles that have sustained our nation.
