Posted on 07/02/2006 7:03:44 PM PDT by Squawk 8888
Ah, today is the First of July. It means a day off work. It's the unofficial start of summer. And millions celebrate with barbeques sizzling, hammocks swaying and fireworks blasting. For 24 years, July 1 has been known as Canada Day. But undoubtedly, some "old-timers" (that is to say, those Canadians who have memories stretching back to the early '80s) likely recall the original moniker for July 1: Dominion Day, a holiday officially established by statute in 1879 but now consigned to the scrapheap of political correctness.
The sneaky process that resulted in Dominion Day's assassination is certainly a story worth retelling. The deed took place in Parliament on July 9, 1982, back when the Trudeau regime was calling the shots. Purging Dominion Day from the Canadian lexicon occurred on an otherwise laidback Friday afternoon, the last day of Parliament before the summer recess. A mere 13 members were present, seven short of an official quorum.
Alas, so much for formalities: a private member's bill seeking to officially expunge "Dominion Day" and replace it with "Canada Day" was quickly rubberstamped. Faster than you could say, "fuddle duddle" more than a century of history disappeared.
The move was "consistent with what Liberal governments have been doing since [Lester] Pearson took over, which is trying to 're-brand' Canada," notes Stephen Clarkson, a University of Toronto history professor who specializes in Canadian politics and Pierre Trudeau. "I think for people like me, I'm sort of the last vestige of the British Empire, so [Dominion Day] has nostalgic qualities."
While it's hard to determine precisely how many Canadians are or were upset over the "re-branding", Clarkson does note that those most likely to take umbrage -- "white Anglo-Saxon protestants" -- were already the "minority in Canada by the early '80s."
Even so, according to the Monarchist League of Canada, "dominion" is a very proud and powerful term. After all, the preamble to the Canadian constitution -- that document so beloved by Liberals then and now -- states there shall be "one Dominion." And Monarchists note that the D-word is misunderstood: Dominion is synonymous with independence, freedom and free association -- not subservience or colonization.
Alas, a contributing factor to Dominion Day's exclusion from the Canadian holiday vocabulary is that dominion does not translate very well into French. Given that pandering to Quebec sensibilities is practically Canada's national pastime, Dominion Day was perhaps doomed for this reason alone.
How sad. After all, the genesis of Dominion Day had much to do with that very positive Canadian attribute of compromise. As noted in The Canadian Encyclopedia, Dominion "refers to Dominion of Canada (British North America Act preamble), to the federal government or Parliament, and to Canada's status in relation to the Imperial government. The fathers of confederation wanted to call the new nation the Kingdom of Canada, but the British Government, fearing the sensitivity of Americans to references to the Crown and anxious not to antagonize them after the American Civil War, insisted the Fathers find another title. Leonard Tilley suggested 'dominion': (Psalm 72). 'He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.' The Fathers said it was intended to give dignity to the federation, and as a tribute to the monarchial principle. Under the Constitution Act, 1982, 'Dominion' remains Canada's official title."
On sober second thought, no wonder Dominion Day was given the axe. After all, it's all so "B&B" (biblical and British) -- neither of which jives that well with Liberals.
Ideological agendas aside, perhaps re-branding wouldn't have been so offensive if only the replacement for the regal-sounding Dominion Day wasn't the appallingly bland Canada Day -- a "McHoliday" if ever there was one. Can anyone imagine Independence Day being replaced by USA Day? The most important American holiday would end up sounding like the name of a national newspaper -- just as our most important national holiday now sounds like a brand of ginger ale.
Even so, wouldn't it be a fitting birthday gift if the Harper Conservatives were to undo this particular example of Liberal vandalism, restoring Dominion Day to its rightful place? While changing the name (again) of our most important holiday is not high on the priority list, it would certainly be something worth celebrating. At least for those Canadians who still care about such things.
- Pro-Dominion Day/anti-Canada Day buttons are now available for $10/pair; email orders to frenzy@interware.net
(((.)))
I took some time to actually study Canadian history while I was traveling from one end to the other.
Like Americans, I soon found that Canadians are (on average) woefully ignorant of their history.
For instance, a nice (beautiful!) Canadian girl tried to tell me that, "Canada is the only country to kick American's a&&" in a military way. I could only assume that she meant that the Brits had managed to burn DC during the War of 1812 as retribution for our burning of York (now named Toronto). Perhaps she also was talking about any number of private militias that invaded Canada in the early 19th century.
Anyway, she was upset when I suggested that the honor of "only country to kick our a&&" belonged to North VietNam.
A real danger of liberalism of liberalism is that when they do manage to change something, it rarely ever gets changed back. A liberal gets into power and changes a couple of things (the "progressive project"). And then a conservative gets into power and at best just prevents any other "progressive" changes from taking place. He'll rarely be able to correct to many previous liberal mistakes, because by then people are used to them and to roll them back is seen as persnickety at best and as reactionary at worst.
Hence, the Canadian liberals can change Dominion Day to Canada Day, in the name of political correctness, but the conservatives usually won't bother to change it back: they don't notice the difference by now, have bigger fish to fry, and if they did, the liberals would jump on them like pirhanas for "politicizing" the national holiday and God knows what else.
Maybe this is what G K Chesterton meant when he said that "The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of Conservatives is to prevent mistakes from being corrected."
Actually, we kicked N. Vietnams a$$ all over the place. We drove them to the peace table, where the liberal controlled houses of Congress made it possible to betray our allies in the South, with the inaction of the President that is...... Jerry Ford, what a loser.
(The Palestinian terrorist regime is the crisis and Israel's fist is the answer.)
PING!
* And mere pretenders at that ... as far as any good Scot is concerned !!!
Actually, I have some monarchist sympathies, to tell you the truth. It's the institution, not the individuals, I assure you.
If Canada is like Australia, a lot of conservatives will be pro-republican. In the 1999 referendum on whether Australia should become a republic, the only reason for the defeat of the referendum was that the model we had to vote on did not have popular appeal - it gave the power of electing the head of state to the parliament. Australians would prefer a directly elected head of state.
The war of 1812 is a lot more than the sacking of York and burning of Washington. Americans started it under the delusion that they had a God given desity to spread to all of North America. They inteded to add the Canadian colonies to the USA and clearly failed to accomplish their aims. Whether their @$$ was kicked in the process or not is a matter of opinion, but the fact is that they did lose that war, and not in a Veitnam kind of way.
Personally, I don't care if they call it Canada Day, Dominion Day, or Confederation Day. A rose by any other name and all that stuff...
What I do mind is the media using the day to push a pro-multiculturalism adgenda. It should be a day that CANADA'S history and culture takes the forefront, a day that helps new Canadians to assimilate into Canadian society and a day where they can celebrate being CANADIAN.
As a descendant of French Canadians born and raised in the USA, my take is call the day what it is meant to be called. Don't be so bent over the fact that it doesn't translate very well. The Québécois had their own holiday (Sainte Jean-Baptiste Day) back on June 24.
There is something about a sense of pedigree and entitlement that commonly injures perception, if not character itself, whether it comes from admission into a country club, ancestral listing in Debrett's or Burke's, celebrity status, or membership in a supposedly vicitmized and hence now officially privileged group. I get so disgusted at it all that, in a sour mood over the last day, I was half wanting the leftist to win in Mexico so he would stick it to their corrupt, predatory rich, while near cursing "the poor" as the justification given by the UN and France for yet another tax, with proceeds to be administered by that credentialed pack of gangsters comfortably ensconced at Turtle Bay. If there is one rule of life that I would enforce with an iron hand it is this: make your way in the world without thinking that you are entitled to something more or special because of who you are.
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