There’s a scene in the 2002 Churchill biopic The Gathering Storm, where Winston asks his beloved wife Clementine to join him in their back garden and look out across the rolling emerald hills of southern England.
“England. Look at it, Clemmie. Nowhere in the world can you find a landscape more ravishing than that. And it’s ours. To look at and to cherish for the rest of our lives,” Winston says, holding back tears for a country that would soon be plunged into war. “I would die for it, Clemmie.”
In 2025, I wonder how many Canadians would be willing to say the same about our country. I’d bet it would be a small handful.
Since December, we’ve watched the number of Canadians who say they have a “deep emotional attachment” to the country climb 10 percent. But amongst all the furious flag-waving, domestic product purchases, and epic hockey fights, I think most of the “patriots” we see springing up across the country are merely tourists; happy to return to their comfortable private lives when the Maple Leaf can be returned to storage. I would liken them to your friends who claim to be Christians, but really only see the inside of the church on Christmas or Easter.
Rather than a flash in the patriotic pan, this moment should be a wake-up call that our future cannot be taken for granted—a recognition that we need to arm ourselves with real, sustainable patriotism, rooted in responsibility, and fed by active citizens actually engaged in their communities. We will need to band together and make sacrifices if we are to survive in a world where Canada is forced to go it alone. Our politicians can deal with national policy solutions, but it’s up to us to make changes on the local level.
Ironically, in the midst of our hostilities with the U.S., we’d be well-served by taking a page from an American president’s speech.
“Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country,” John F. Kennedy told a crowd gathered outside the United States Capitol building for his 1961 inauguration. The time has come for Canadians to do the same.
A sorry sight
In Canada today the ties meant to bind are the loosest they’ve ever been.
I was reminded of this when a man was stabbed repeatedly in Vancouver, only to have a fellow Canadian passerby pull out his cell phone to record him bleeding to death. I was reminded of it as I learned that only 43.5 percent of Ontarians voted in the last provincial election, the worst showing in our history. I was reminded of it when I read that Canadian charities are experiencing a “historic decline in volunteers.” Or when I heard our defence minister call the Canadian Armed Forces’ failure to recruit soldiers a “death spiral.” I thought about it when I saw cowardly politicians allow “death to Canada” to be chanted on our streets while our flag was burned, or break their promises to restore the toppled statues of our first prime minister.
If you truly love your country, you go out of your way to help maintain, celebrate, and defend it—not just when it’s the easy or fashionable thing to do, but when it is difficult and inconvenient. You look up from your phone, leave your house, and abandon “self-help” and “you do you” mantras to build and improve something bigger than yourself.
If Canada is “broken” it is up to Canadians to fix it. But to fix it, we have to believe it is worth saving.
Stepping up
What does true patriotism look like when it’s practised day to day?
It looks like shovelling your 90-year-old neighbour’s driveway on a Tuesday evening after work. It looks like helping to clean our litter-strewn cities, defaced by Canadians who have stopped caring. It could mean leaving the office for the cenotaph on Remembrance Day – educating the next under-informed generation about our history. It might mean enlisting yourself. It looks like coaching hockey—passing down cultural traditions that distinguish us from the Americans. It could look like building a national youth service and cultural exchange across all provinces, territories, and First Nations. Or hosting a citizenship ceremony and explaining to newcomers what makes up Canadian values. It could be enduring rather than capitulating to years of intentional damage to the Canadian economy in order to safeguard our sovereignty.
Taken together, these local acts can have national impact.
Make or break
This is a citizenship call to arms. It’s time to end our obsession with ourselves that isolates us and reject the identity politics that divides us. It’s time for active citizenship.
This month, marking the 60th anniversary of the flag, Canada’s five former living prime ministers jointly issued a statement highlighting that they’ve witnessed “a surge of Canadian pride and patriotism.”
“Canada…the best country in the world, is worth celebrating and fighting for,” they wrote.
But it’s easy to celebrate. It’s much harder to fight for something. The time has come to actually serve our country. Otherwise, what’s the point of having one?
Harrison Lowman is The Hub's Managing Editor. He has worked for more than a decade in journalism, including at TVO’s The Agenda with Steve Paikin, CBC News, CTV National News, and The Literary Review of Canada. He’s also an enthusiastic Scout leader....
