Brian Bird: To achieve truth and reconciliation, hearts and minds must change
While the necessary ingredients for reconciliation are complex and contested, we should all be able to agree that much work must be done in the realm of hearts and minds.
While the necessary ingredients for reconciliation are complex and contested, we should all be able to agree that much work must be done in the realm of hearts and minds.
It seems we are doomed to emulate the Romans after all, not at their height but in the centuries after the barbarians sacked their cities. Except, in our case, we’ve done the work of the barbarians ourselves.
By attempting to defenestrate from our collective memory everyone from John A. Macdonald to Egerton Ryerson to Henry Dundas we are indulging in selfish, armchair acts of empty contrition.
The Chinese are systematically pursuing technological dominance in key sectors and Canada is focused on futons. We need to develop a systematic and realist China policy—or risk being left behind.
The discovery last month of the remains of 215 Indigenous children buried haphazardly outside the former Kamloops Indian Residential School captured Canada’s attention and once again forced the country to grapple with its long history of residential schools. And it is a long history.
The Bank of Canada has identified climate change as one of the biggest risks facing the Canadian economy. Canada could be $100 billion poorer by 2050 if we don’t do more to halt the advance of climate change.
When and how central banks will start winding down this unprecedented accommodative monetary support has become a central question. It comes with huge implications for fiscal policy but more importantly for consumers (mortgages, prices) and taxpayers (deficit financing).
Keeping Canada together means keeping it connected and overcoming the brute facts of our geography. This means transportation infrastructure plays a big role in both nation building and national preservation.
We need politicians who can uphold democratic principles and vigorously oppose foreign threats to our way of life. Individually, every Canadian needs to show the courage to stand up to restrictions on our freedom of speech and to preserve our ability to hold opinions not always in the mainstream.
David Hume observed that none of us have done anything like signing a contract, so it’s silly to believe that’s why we have faith in the government. We obey the law because having a government is usually useful.
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