I
didn’t celebrate Canada Day today, or Dominion Day, or even July 1st…
I figured if the Canadian Embassy in Washington didn’t feel the need to
celebrate, why should I?
I’m
not even sure how to celebrate it anymore.
We used to celebrate Victoria Day when I was a kid... we even had a
poem. You might remember it.
The
Twenty-fourth of May
Is
the Queen’s birthday
And
if you don’t give us a holiday
We’ll
all run away!
We
would celebrate it on a Tuesday or whatever day it fell on. If it fell on the weekend we just didn’t get a day
off.
How
did we celebrate? We lit off fireworks
and firecrackers. Dominion Day? We really didn’t do much. No poems, I don’t even recall fireworks.
In
1967 it was a big deal. It was the
Centennial, Montreal was hosting Expo ‘67.
A lot of people went to Montreal that year. I didn’t, I was too young. We had a play at school instead.
Back
in’ 67 we had something to celebrate. We
acknowledged our past but it was mainly looking at where we were at and where
we were going to. We knew we were
fortunate to live in a wonderful country and we were looking towards a bright
future. We had a new flag (1965) that we
were showing the world and we had new ideas to move that world with.
We
were looking forward to a better world then, things worthy of celebration.
This
year, we have a big show at Parliament Hill that wraps its arms around the War
of 1812, the Queen and the Olympic Team.
Isn’t
it funny how the guys who want to fete the War of 1812 are among the people who
killed a historic part of that victory?
How
so?
Part
of that victory was the taking of the Fort in Detroit. Using the road that Governor Simcoe had built
to link Upper Canada from end to end.
This Governor’s road was to become Ontario’s Highway #2. This is the same Highway #2 that Jim Flaherty
and Mike Harris exiled to the cities and the counties because the province of
Ontario no longer wanted it.
Sadly,
the remnants of historic Highway #2 are in pretty rough shape for the most
part.
But
that seems to happen whenever the current crop of politicians now under the
Harper Banner touch anything.
I’m
saddened when I read that the crowds of people who wanted to attend the party
on Parliament Hill were reduced to a mere trickle because they had to clear the
RCMP security detail at the gates. Guys,
it’s our House, you are only guests.
I’m
saddened that the Harper Government has chosen to celebrate a war from some 200
years ago rather than looking towards the future. But then again, I don’t know what kind of
future the Harper Government envisions.
I’m not even sure I want to.
Anyway,
today I tweeted that I wasn’t celebrating Canada Day,
I
was accused of “sour grapes” in a reply.
I responded “Not sour grapes, my opinion. While I’m still allowed to have one.”
Maybe
all these years I’ve been running off the optimism of the 1960s and especially
1967 and maybe I’ve finally run out. I
just can’t recall a politician who has made me feel so badly that I want to
have nothing to do with him or anything he has a hand in.
Things
seemed simpler back then. When we worked
together we were able do great things.
We helped our neighbours and our neighbours helped us. I shovelled your snow and you gave me some
tomatoes because mine never seemed to turn out as nice as yours.
We
were just nicer to each other then.
Maybe
that’s why I don’t want to “celebrate” Canada Day this year. The Canada that Stephen Harper wants to
celebrate just doesn’t appeal to me.
Oh,
by the way, that Embassy in Washington that isn’t celebrating Canada Day… They will be hosting an event for the Fourth
of July.
I
guess it’s all about priorities.
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