David Warren: Imagined Nation (What Canada has become)

"Why do you think Canada is breaking up?" This perfectly straightforward question from a reader took me aback. What appears obvious to me, may not appear so to others; and vice versa.

The short answer is, because there is nothing left to hold it together. Anything that was particular about the country — not about regions but about the country as a whole — has been obviated by government legislation, or put quite purposely into disuse. We are no longer a Dominion; we have a Queen only on paper; our system of Crown-in-Parliament has been negated by the quasi-presidential rule of a succession of "federaste" prime ministers from Quebec. Our history is no longer taught in schools.

We are reduced to waving a Canadian flag — and that is itself an imposture. The current Canada is something that was invented from scratch, in Liberal party advertising agencies, and dates approximately from the invention of that flag, in 1964. But successive Liberal governments could think of nothing with which to replace the old symbols. Hence, a "new Canada," defined by a bunch of nothings.

Ask a Canadian who is waiting for a bus — or more likely for a CAT scan — what Canada means to him, and he will say something like "multiculturalism" or "tolerance" or "universal health care." These are nothings. There is nothing Canadian about any of them. Every postmodern country has all these things, and none of them are worth having.

But this is old news, dating back to Pearson. The late Pierre Trudeau made no secret of his contempt for Canada and Canadians as a national group, and instead put his faith in universal abstractions. We got what we deserved by repeatedly electing him.

A nation requires a shared culture, and shared loyalties. In simple terms, people have to love and admire one another or there is no nation.

For most countries, this common culture and common regard for one another comes out of common ethnicity and common history.

For a multiethnic country like the US, it comes from a shared set of values, coupled with an ethic that leads people to generally care about one another.

If you purposely turn your back on cultural homogeneity, or if your reality makes that impossible, you must nevertheless have a common set of values that a critical mass of the people ascribe to, which is the basis of their common loyalty. Attack that, abandon that, and you disintegrate as a nation.

If Canada chooses to believe in nothing, the result is disintegration. If the US follows in her path, and fully half the country wants to, the result will be the same. Turn your back on the spiritual basis for your own existence and you will vanish and no one will miss you.

We still burnt your White House. Only it was pink back in those days. Actually, we did fight. And fought hard.

Canadian soldiers positively distinguished themselves in the Boer War, WWI and WWII. Except for Canada, WWI really was the Great War, and the War to End All Wars. As a percentage of our population, we suffered immensely, possibly more than any other nation. It pretty much ended Canada as it was back then (it destroyed the Canadian country, destroyed all the small towns, impoverished the rural areas, killed or maimed a huge portion of our young men and scarred two generations). We limped on proudly for a while, until the 60s, when Trudeau stabbed us in the back, nailed the coffin shut and pissed on the national grave.

Contemporary Canada has degenerated into a 'Party State', whose chief characteristics - official public lies and hatred of the Enemy, were best limned by Orwell in 1984.

For the sake of an amusing thought experiment, Pearson presents an analogue to Kerensky, Trudeau to Lenin, Chretien to Stalin, Martin to Gorbachev. With its misrule from Ottawa(Moscow), the Party may precipitate the break-up of the ungainly Confederation into its parts.

This is not an attractive vision for the future, but under continuing Liberal Party rule, Canada seems destined to become the East Germany of the 21st Century, dishonorable, furtive, and prosperous primarily because of location.

Do you detect a hint of bitterness in this post?

God save the Queen, and Godd*m the Liberals!

Thanks for the intelligent comments...Most Americans, who sadly have no knowledge, or even sense of history, often wonder at the penchant for appeasement that Great Britain displayed in the years before WW II. They have no idea of the absolutely staggering losses that England suffered in the trenches. An entire generation was nearly wiped out...for King and Country..it shaped their foreign policy for the next 20 years..and if I recall my statistics correctly..Canada, Australia, and New Zealand suffered greater proportionate losses than did GB in WW I. Another remarkable factoid..at the END of WW II..Canada hads the FIFTH LARGEST military force in the world..The degree to which that has been dissipated is had to grasp..

I'm a Jewish Canadian, who still resolutely believes that the U.S. is the greatest country on earth, and one both blessed and cursed with enormous responsibilities. But I will defend Canada so long as these is an iota left defending. And despite all the crap, there still is.

Most people don't appreciate what Canada went through in WWI. It happened almost a century ago. But drive through rural Canada and look in the centre of each small town. You will see a memorial, or a statue, or just a plaque near a garden. And on these things will be lists of names that are depressingly long. Then you look around and see how many people live in these towns now. And you wonder, how did this town put forth so many young men into war to die, let alone those who survived, if so few now live here?

About 70, 000 Canadians died in WWII. That's not a lot, you might think. Wait a minute. First, those are only confirmed dead. Tens of thousands more died but their bodies never found. They were never identified. Then, those are the number that died only during the war as a direct and immediate conseqence of the war during the war's duration. What does that mean? It means only those who died during the war are counted. Literally hundreds of thousands more died as a result of injuries and wounds sustained in the war (gas, for example, claimed tens of thousands) after the war. Also, hundreds of thousands more were literally maimed for life, given the quality of healthcare available back then. If you count all casualties properly, then about half a million Canadian men were casualties (wounded and killed) of the Great War.

Now think about the impact of that on a population of about 8 million (3.5 million men of fighting age). Think about the children that went without fathers, etc. Now consider that many of those men were farmers and farmers sons from the countries, or men who otherwise sustained these communities (for example, a number of the relatively large number of Canadian Jews who served were smalltown doctors who became medics, or shopkeepers and a number of more successful natives served as some of the most talented snipers and scouts of the modern military. Or Newfoundland fishermen who manned the navy. Or the Cape Breton Catholic Scots who were coalminers). These farmers and doctors and smalltown shopkeeps and fishermen and coalminers were literally irreplaceable to the rural economy. When killed, they could only be replaced by machines, or not at all.

Whole areas went bankrupt. The children started moving to the cities en masse when the farms went under. Or communities were ravaged by illness without a doctor. Cape Breton became radically poorer. Newfoundland was devastated; it's economy being built upon fishing. Then think of the debt that accumulated. and the impact on families, etc. It really was a mortal blow for the old Canada.

And 20 years later, it happened again. Canada's best and bravest went forth to die. The commies stayed at home and whined, until Hitler attacked Stalin in 1941. But by that time, it was too late. Canadians wanted no more of war. And when Canada fougt in Korea, it was a step too much. And that's how Trudeau was able to seize power. And do away with our military. What had war ever done for us? Except, it had made us a nation, even though few deigned to remember it.

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