Canada at 157
On July 1, almost everyone in Canada celebrates the creation of the country. In Quebec, hundreds of thousands are otherwise engaged, thanks to a tradition that harks back to the 16th century. July 1 is Moving Day in Quebec – a throwback to the colonial government of New France that forbade landlords from evicting their tenant farmers before the winter snows had melted.
You’d think this antiquated relic would be long gone, considering that hardly anyone is a farmer anymore.
But no, it’s just one of the many quirky things that creates headaches for moving companies and sets Quebec apart. Rather than do away with leases finishing on April 30, the Liberal government of Robert Bourassa changed Moving Day from May 1 to July 1. It’s a myth that this was a sovereigntist ploy to reduce the significance of Canada Day in Quebec.
As we ready ourselves for our 157th birthday, quirky or not, we have much to consider. First, a celebratory nod to the fact that we fulfilled our founders’ dream of a land linking the Atlantic to the Pacific and preserving freedom under British institutions. It worked out better than most dreams -- we did indeed become a fully independent country with our own constitution 115 years after the country was created. We no longer pay taxes to Britain although we do still pay for the monarchy’s presence -- the Governor General, staff and historic buildings, the cost of security and lodging for Royal family visits.
We’ve grown – from 3 to 41 million. We’re older than ever before. We’re from almost every country in the world. We’re getting fatter. Poutine is the #1 favorite food of the whole country, followed closely by butter tarts (also invented here.) Savoring ethnic food, nine out of 10 of us go for Chinese, eight out of 10 for Italian. Despite these somewhat peculiar lapses, we’re not stupid. We know what’s good for us, and we know when enough is enough. So far.
Take Pierre Trudeau’s dream for the country back in the 60s. The ‘just society’ sought to bundle us together with a liberal constitution of founding peoples (excluding the peoples indigenous to the area.). Quebec was deemed part of the country, not a ‘distinct’ society. French and English should be the co-equal official languages of the country. Canada would open itself to the world, welcome more immigrants, celebrate ‘multiculturalism within a bilingual framework’. Vastly increasing social programs to provide more financial security and stability to lower and middle income earners was a step in the direction of accomplishing this. In doing so, his governments ran consecutive large budget deficits. The notions of a ‘just society’ and Trudeau senior were closely connected, and the “Trudeaumania” that had marked Trudeau’s entry into prime ministerial politics gradually disappeared as did the ‘just society’ project from the Liberal agenda. Both were casualties to the realities of governing a large, diversified, often divided, but always attuned electorate.
Other leaders have had other dreams. Stephen Harper for example pursued power to reinvent Canada into a tough, disciplined, neo-conservative, alter-ego of its liberal “go along to get along” self. A product of both conservative values and Western Canadian alienation, Harper dreamed of small government and industrious Canadians pursuing their own ambitions. He prioritized NATO and military spending, criticized UN hostility to Israel, devoted resources to claiming Canadian sovereignty in the Arctic. He did it at the top of his voice and in as confrontational a way as possible. He was the PM Canadians hated, while voting him into power three times over a decade. Eventually we hated him enough to say ‘enough’.
Justin Trudeau came to power not with a dream but some core beliefs: “We’ve figured out how to be strong, not in spite of our differences but because of them.” He believed our shared values were stronger than language, culture or religion. His road to 24 Sussex Drive was based on the belief that his government could tap into and satisfy Canadians’ shared values: a good income, a good healthcare system, affordable housing, a successful economy.
Trudeau II leaves a few legacies: there are more women than men on the Supreme Court for the first time in Canadian history. He produced a reconciliation agenda with Canada’s Indigenous communities, although little progress has been made on access to services like drinking water, child welfare, housing and health care for First Nations, Inuit and Métis people. The public health outcomes of legalizing cannabis are mixed. He struggled to placate the ever-alienated West. He has not been successful. Though concepts such as investing in infrastructure, fiscal discipline and responsible growth have not been unknown during his tenure, not many of them have panned out the way he had hoped. He has one more kick at the electoral can.
There’s one other dream not often mentioned in the Canadian context – that of the descendants of the French who arrived more than 400 years ago. It’s the dream of a French empire from the Gulf of St Lawrence to the Great lakes. It’s perhaps an impossible dream, but it’s still alive, in Quebec and as a prickly thorn at every strategy session of every federal political party’s get together.
Yet Quebec and l’acadie are surely something to celebrate. Canada is arguably the most successful country in the world to have melded together two distinct cultures without a civil war -- French is permanently grafted onto our institutions and French culture has thrived in a sea of Anglos. Quebecers represents less than 3 percent of the population of Angloamerica. Yet literature, music, films and TV all stream out outward to the world. Remarkable in itself. All the more remarkable from a place just seven hour’s drive from New York City. The French fact is a shared Canadian achievement however reluctant some of us, both French and English, may be to see it that way.
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