Before We Walk Too Far Away From This Canada Day, Let’s Pledge To Take Back What Has Always Been Best About Our Country

A Commentary by Doug Draper

“One hundred and fifty years ago in Charlottetown and Québec City, our Fathers of Confederation first dreamed of a united Canada, prosperous, strong and free,” said Prime Minister Stephen Harper this July 1^st, 2014 in his Canada Day message to the nation.

“As we mark the 147^th anniversary of Confederation,” Harper continued, “we can proudly say that their great national dream has indeed come to fruition.”

Their great national dream has come to fruition? What did our Fathers of Confederation have in mind. A Canada that, in the second decades of the 21^st century, remains the only developed nations in the world to refuse to a sign an agreement to stop exporting a known toxic killer material like asbestos to unscrupulous pushers of this product in other countries?

Stephen Harper doing his Canada Day thing on Parliament Hill

 Did they have in mind a government so Neanderthal in its thinking that it would condemn science to the grave to prop up ideologies that lead them to also condemn any individual or organization calling for action around climate change?

Did they have in mind a government that would become more the war-monger and less the peacemaker that won Canada warm regards around the world in the post Second World War era of Lester B. Pearson?

Did they have in mind a government that tars those who speak up for the protection of our bounty of fresh water, forests and fisheries as terrorists or enemies of the state?

I know there are some out there who will condemn me for posting this message – I’ve had the Harperites and their like invite me to leave the native country I grew up feeling so proud of for writings this kind of stuff before – but I don’t care. I believe the rest of us have to say to hell with these Neanderthals and disgruntled old men (because they are mostly miserable old men) and move on to a better Canada.

So much for these people. If they want to bury their heads in the 1950s or the tar sands of Harper’s vision of the only filthy thing Canada can contribute to   the world, let them.

The rest of us have got to stand up and have the guts to fight for a better Canada – a more compassionate, peace-loving, environmentally friendly, leading edge Canada we can take back from the Harperites in the next year that we flush this government down the toilet drain of history. 

Let’s take back a Canada that once was and still can be a world leader in programs and regulations for protecting and preserving our natural environment, including the air we breath and the water we drink, for present and future generations.

Let’s take back a Canada that re-invests in a universal health care system that was once respected around the world rather than one where we see the federal government and too many provincial governments across this country pull back funding from it to a point where the privatization of health services is slithering in.

Let’s take back a Canada that once invested in our young people’s education and future, knowing that it is an investment in the future of our country, rather than letting our colleges and universities soak them for every dollar they can get so that they are in debt to the banks, and require them to do unpaid internships (code for slave labour) to get a diploma that might lead to nothing more than a minimum wage job anyway.

Let’s take back a Canada that once won respect around the world for caring more about being a peacemaker than a warmonger.

Let’s take back a Canada that puts the hiring of Canadians first and in front of a corporate-sponsored ‘foreign workers program’ that the Harper government was only forced to amend recently due to stories in major news outlets, including the CBC and Globe and Mail, exposing how it was taking jobs away from Canadians and exploiting imported workers as slave labour. 

Let’s build a Canada for the 21^st century that refines our own natural resources right here at home, creating tens-of-thousands and possibly hundreds-of-thousands of jobs for our own people, rather than doing what Harper continues to do – ship our raw resources to his corporate clients in other countries for them to build their economies by spinning them into finished products for sale on the world market.

Let’s build a country that at long last respects the lives and culture and quality of the lands and waters of our First Nation people.

I could go on and on with this cadence but I am sure many of you out there can add a few of your own visions for a better Canada, and please share them below.

In the meantime, we have a year to get rid of a Harper government that has shamed Canada’s reputation on the world stage and has diminished democracy and the quality of our lives here at home.

Our wonderful country of Canada has been and still can be better than this.

(Niagara At Large invites you to share your views on this post. A reminder that we only post comments by individuals who share their first and last name with them.)