The ugly Canadian

While we celebrate Canada’s birthday it’s a good time to reflect on what it means being a Canadian. For many people it is enough to be anti-American to consider themselves Canadian. When pressed they say “We not war-like or imperialistic like them”. The sad fact is the beliefs they held are not terribly true. Canadians have been involved pretty heavily in almost every major conflict of the 20th century. As for being imperialistic, I guess the Boers might disagree and ask why Canadians troops were fighting against them in South Africa in the early 1900’s. Not to mention the local First Nations.

These people I call “Ugly Canadians” they ignore our own history or gloss it over, perhaps out of guilt that in reality we not as wonderful as they pretend we are. Instead of being proud of who we are and what have accomplished and learned, they are content to bash our neighbour in order to show how ‘Canadian” they are. Yet Like a parasitic they remain tucked in close to the belly of the beast they despise for warmth and protection. If you disagree with their values they will brand you “un-Canadian” something the Federal Liberal Party likes to do as well, hence their pounding at the polls.

Canada was born in war and by war. First between France and the local First Nations, then France vs England, then England vs the rebels, then Canada/England vs the US. Then the final attempt to defeat us on our own soil was by a bunch of drunken Irishman (typical eh?). The concept of Canada as an independent nation really coalesced during WWI and came of age upon the slopes of Vimy ridge. Even then it took till 1949 for the country to be complete. In WWII Canada put 1 million people in uniform, out of 11 million, an astonishing feat. In the Cold War we helped stare down the USSR and Warsaw pact. We invented peacekeeping and devoloped it as workable concept. Strangely few Canadians can describe it correctly and merely repeat myths about it.
We have continued to prosper and currently we have done well in this current fiscal crisis, impressive for a country so closely tied the US economy.

As a country we depend heavily on immigrants, both to maintain and grow our population and economy. The thing about immigrants is that they can be a double edge sword. Whether they help us or hurt us is entirely up to us. The type of immigrant we need is willing to work hard, adapt to this new land and then give something in return. This does not mean just let in the rich ones, this country was built by poor immigrants who wanted a better life. We don’t need the kind of immigrant that takes as much as they can, gives nothing in return, flout our laws and ignore our culture. I firmly believe that the current version of multi-culturalism that we are pursuing will either destroy the country or harm it greatly.

Some would say I am racist based on the above, well my Malay-Indian wife will disagree with you. I am against destroying our culture to appease a few radicals. With exception of Quebec who are still pissed about the Plains of Abraham and First Nations who got trampled on (it could been worse) this country is a Common law, Commonwealth country with solid English roots. We owe a lot to the English they gave us the tools and knowledge to be who we are today. These traditions, beliefs, laws and our culture are like a giant tree. Upon that tree we can hang the positive bits of the many cultures represented by the people that have come here. I enjoy watching the mix of cultures showing off the best their cultures have. But make no mistake, many of those cultures have a dark side and under no circumstance do we want it repeated here. Our culture is the glue holding all of this together. If you stop or destroy the glue everything falls apart. The loss of Canada as a nation would be a tragedy the world would mourn.