Some of you know that Adele and I were involved in the founding of Canada Day as a national holiday. I was fortunate enough to have been approached by the Prime Minister in 1976 to design a national holiday that was more fitting than the 21 gun salute and fireworks on the Hill. That resulted in the Great Canadian Birthday Party that played host to about 75,000 people and about 30 ethnic communities that urged the participants to interact through food and dance. We had fireworks on Mooney's Bay. It was such a success that the following year the event went national. The national chair was Hamilton Southam and Adele and I continued to chair the national capital region. The event was week long, involved thousands of volunteers and was produced on a fraction of the budget that the event now costs. We even produced the national television show on the Hill.
Even then, the event had its challenges. Even though one venue was in Gatineau, Quebec largely snubbed the affair. We could not get Francophone talent from Quebec to perform on the Hill. The show on the Hill had to be politically correct and engage talent from across the country. Most of the talent played for minimal fees and some donated their time.
In 1981 the event was taken over by the NCC. The volunteers disappeared. The event was limited to one day and, to my eyes, became as dry as dust. Maybe that's sour grapes. But recent press reports indicate that the citizenry from across Canada have now proclaimed the show a "disgrace". I am in agreement. The NCC replied that the show had to come within regional and fiscal guidelines. Read for that: cheap. At best, the show was boring.
Why is it that Canadian have such trouble in proclaiming their patriotism. Somehow being openly patriotic is un-Canadian. It is not, the pundits say, that we are any less patriotic. It is not that we love our country less. It is only that we are not as demonstrative as our southern neighbours. What is true is that our southern neighbours never miss a chance to show their patriotism. We never miss a chance to be as phlegmatic as possible when it comes to demonstrable patriotism. Sometimes we overtake our reticence. The recent winter Olympics is such a case. But only, I submit, because we won so many medals. Our patriotism was thinly disguised as gloating. Our recent foray into patriotism (regarding hockey) ended with riots and property damage. Perhaps we just don't know how to be patriotic.
Take our national anthem. We stand on guard so many times that we stand for very little. At least the UK "saves" the Queen. The US anthem is an old war song where there is much cheering when the lyrics refer to the "land of the free". Such references in Canada lead to a yawn.
We just don't know how to be patriotic. We are embarrassed by it. It is because the US has a melting pot approach to immigration while we have a "cultural mosaic"? Our immigrants seem to have more in common with their previous home than with their adopted country. The Prime Minister of Greece is a Canadian citizen. Canada evolved from the immigration of Scottish and English citizens and from French settlers. No one seems to want to break their ties from "home". We did not emerge from rebellion but from negotiation that did not see our country become a stand alone country until 1931--and not so much then. Churchill brought Canada into the World War II as a colony--we did not have much to say about it. We occupy this land but do not seem to possess it. The last politician who had a vision for Canada was Diefenbaker.
So, will we teach our children to be patriotic? Only if we have a vision of what it truly means to be a Canadian. There appears to be little or no leadership from our political masters. We have to do it ourselves. Then, let's get on with it.
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