I would like to take this time to wish all my Canadian visitors a happy Canada Day! Our nation is 151 years old today, and may I say it looks well for its age.
We have a lot of good things going for us here, but in between the BBQs and fireworks I’d like us to pause and reflect on the fact that our nation is not perfect. We still have inequalities within our borders, between races, language groups, genders and gender orientations. We’ve made progress in all of these areas, making Canada a better place for everyone, but we still have a long way to go. And we must always be mindful that there are people who want us to halt our progress and return to more repressive and cruel ways.
Our civil rights, as enshrined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, are not immutable laws of nature, but are rather privileges, agreed upon by the majority, and they can be just as easily taken away. Our American neighbours are learning this painful lesson right now, as an increasingly fascist government consolidates its power and punishes the weakest and most vulnerable for the crime of existing. We must remember that there are proto-fascists within our own nation, who dream of doing the same thing here.
The last Conservative government used nationalism as one of its rallying cries, and in 2015 ran the most racist election campaign I’d had the displeasure of seeing. Worse, they almost won on the strength of their racism. We need to remember how close we came to following America’s spiral into the abyss. We could still go that way, in the next election or the one after that.
So today, let us resolve to be kind to each other regardless of race or language or religion or gender or orientation. Let us help the cause of justice where we can, with the gifts we possess. Let us welcome those who come to our land seeking safe refuge. Let us remember to vote, every election, and to carefully consider our vote, for evil’s best ally is not the fascist but the apathetic and the ignorant.
Happy Canada Day. May the true north remain strong and free.
Good blog post, Andrew. We also need proportional representation, the best protection I know of against the rise of racist populists. Any voting system that allows false majorities and wrong winners, as our does, is dangerous.