COLUMN: Think Again – National shame is Trudeau’s legacy

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 05/06/2023 (720 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Apparently, Canada Day has become a controversial holiday. Several of Canada’s largest cities recently announced that Canada Day celebrations are being cancelled or substantially curtailed.

Our province is not immune to this trend. Last year, The Forks replaced Canada Day with an event called “New Day.” No word yet on what The Forks plans to do this year. While I hope Canada Day makes a comeback, I’m not holding my breath.

It’s sad that we’ve reached the point where we are no longer able to celebrate our existence as a country. This is the real legacy of Justin Trudeau’s eight years as prime minister. Trudeau is so obsessed with apologizing for every real and perceived sin of our country’s past that his actions have fed a narrative that we should be ashamed to be Canadian.

Obviously, Canada is not perfect. The Chinese Head Tax, Japanese internment camps during the Second World War, the longstanding denial of voting rights to women, and forcing Indigenous students to attend residential schools are but a few examples of shameful episodes from our past. We cannot sweep these things under the rug, nor should we attempt to do so.

However, while these terrible things happened, they do not define our country. Confederation of 1867 was a remarkable feat of political compromise that united three separate British colonies (the Province of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick) into one nation. Coming up with a deal that satisfied both the French and the English was no easy task, but they succeeded.

Throughout this process, the key dealmaker was John A. Macdonald, who later became the first prime minister of Canada. To be clear, Macdonald was not a perfect man. He drank too much, took bribes from railway executives, and held racist views that were, unfortunately, common in the nineteenth century. Nevertheless, Macdonald forged a Confederation deal that has stood the test of time. This achievement is worth celebrating.

In addition, Canada has not stood still. No longer do we discriminate based on race when deciding who gets to enter our country. Not only have women had the right to vote for more than a century, but they also now serve in top-level cabinet positions. As for residential schools, the federal government is in the process of making restitution for the grievous harms that took place.

We also have many proud moments in our history. For example, Canada punched well above its weight in both World Wars, most notably during the Battle of Vimy Ridge in 1917. In 1960, former Prime Minister John Diefenbaker led the charge to kick South Africa, which practiced racial apartheid, out of the Commonwealth. In 1980, Terry Fox bravely began a cross-country run to raise money for cancer research.

These and many other episodes are worth celebrating. That is why our Canadian passports contain images of some of the most significant people and events of our history. Sadly, the Trudeau government believes our history is something to be ashamed of. When we renew our passports next year, we will find instead pictures of a man raking leaves, a squirrel eating a nut, and people jumping in a lake.

Erasing our history is the sad legacy of the Trudeau government. Instead of bringing Canadians closer together based on our shared history, Trudeau is dividing our country by making us feel ashamed to be Canadian. It should come as little surprise that Canada Day celebrations are being cancelled across the country. A country ashamed of its past is not going to celebrate its birthday.

In this case, the shame is misplaced. While Justin Trudeau should be ashamed of his record, Canadians should not be ashamed of our country.

Michael Zwaagstra is a high school teacher and a Steinbach city councillor. He can be reached at mzwaagstra@shaw.ca.