… the word “peacekeeping” triggers a series of powerful memories and positive images in the Canadian mind: Lester Pearson’s Nobel Peace Prize; a Canadian soldier in a blue helmet interposed between warring factions; the peacekeeping monument in Ottawa, and the widely believed mantra that, while Americans make war, we Canadians keep the peace.
Canadians are fixated on peacekeeping. We believe that Mike Pearson invented it, that Canadians are the best in the world at it, and that if we do peacekeeping, ideally for the United Nations, then we will not need large numbers of troops or much expensive equipment. The idea of peacekeeping as our métier has certainly shaped Canadian defence policy, and not for the better. The billions of dollars that Liberals and Conservatives have belatedly pledged to rebuild the Canadian Forces will take years to make a difference and to undo four decades of neglect …
J.L. Granatstein, “Wake up! This is our war, too”, Globe and Mail, 2006-02-28.
February 14, 2022
QotD: Canadians and imaginary peacekeeping
January 21, 2021
QotD: The Laurentian Elite and the “new Canada” of the 1960s
Because the Liberals were so successful in creating this new identity, conservatives, especially Western conservatives (understandably) felt alienated in this new Canada. Brimelow gave some intellectual heft and crafted a coherent theory around why conservatives felt this way.
The broader narrative Brimelow, and others, put forward is that Canada’s British heritage was central to our identity and sense of who we are, but that this identity was destroyed by the Liberals who then built a new one in their own image. In the 1960s, Canadian Liberalism became self-consciously post-British, and the 1960s really do represent an approximate decade in which the “old Canada” died and a “new Canada” was born. The 1960s weren’t just a time of social change, they marked the end of the British Empire, the start of the Quiet Revolution, and of course most symbolically saw the replacement of the Red Ensign with the Maple Leaf flag. The battles between Diefenbaker and Pearson (and Pierre Trudeau) work as a stand in for the divide between old British Canada and new Liberal Canada.
Ben Woodfinden, “True North Patriotism and a Distinctly Canadian Conservatism”, The Dominion, 2020-10-20.
September 10, 2020
Is The War Ending? – Oil Crisis and UN Intervention | The Suez Crisis | Part 3
TimeGhost History
Published 9 Sep 2020As Israel nears victory in Operation Kadesh, Britain and France are fighting a losing war of their own on the frontlines of the global political scene. The UN are staunchly against Britain and France’s involvement, and if the duo aren’t careful, another superpower may soon enter the fray, one with the intention of a war of more than just words.
Join us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TimeGhostHistory
Hosted by: Indy Neidell
Written by: Francis van Berkel
Director: Astrid Deinhard
Producers: Astrid Deinhard and Spartacus Olsson
Executive Producers: Astrid Deinhard, Indy Neidell, Spartacus Olsson, Bodo Rittenauer
Creative Producer: Joram Appel
Post-Production Director: Wieke Kapteijns
Research by: Francis van Berkel
Image Research: Shaun Harrison & Daniel Weiss
Edited by: Daniel Weiss
Sound design: Marek Kamiński
Maps: Ryan WeatherbyColorizations:
– Mikolaj Uchman
– Daniel Weiss – https://www.facebook.com/The-Yankee-C…
– Carlos Ortega Pereira (BlauColorizations) – https://www.instagram.com/blaucolorizations
– Norman Stewart – https://oldtimesincolor.blogspot.com/
– Jaris Almazani (Artistic Man) – https://instagram.com/artistic.manSources:
National Archives NARA
Images from the UN News and Media
1960s Soviet Film “Egypt our Arab Ally”From the Noun Project:
– Letter by Bonegolem
– soldier by Wonmo Kang
– Oil Tank by MangsaabguruSoundtracks from Epidemic Sound:
– “Devil’s Disgrace” – Deskant
– “As the Rivers Collapse” – Deskant
– “Invocation” – Deskant
– “Call of Muezzin” – Sight of Wonders
– “Crying Winds” – Deskant
– “On the Edge of Change” – Brightarm Orchestra
– “Where Kings Walk” – Jon Sumner
– “Divine Serpent” – Deskant
– “Synchrotron” – Guy Copeland
– “Dunes of Despair” – DeskantArchive by Screenocean/Reuters https://www.screenocean.com.
A TimeGhost chronological documentary produced by OnLion Entertainment GmbH.
From the comments:
TimeGhost History
2 days ago
We took a long time to settle on a title for this episode because so much happens. Nasser promises a people’s war; the entirety of Western Europe faces an oil crisis; America looks like it might sanction its allies; Israel almost calls the whole thing off; the first-ever international Peacekeeping Force is proposed at the UN; the list goes on. Complicated stuff but this is why our realtime format is so important. Something as crazy as the Suez Crisis can only be adequately understood if you go through it step-by-step. Otherwise, it just becomes an incomprehensible mass of information.Want to ensure we can carry on doing stuff like this? Join the TimeGhost Army https://www.patreon.com/TimeGhostHistory
September 18, 2015
Cabinet ministers of yore
In The Walrus, Robert Fulford identifies precisely when Canadian cabinets were neutered:
Over lunch one day in retirement, Lester B. Pearson looked back on the men who had served in his cabinet and quoted Napoleon’s remark that “every French soldier carries a marshal’s baton in his knapsack.”
Pearson wasn’t comparing himself to Napoleon. He was talking about ambition. Just as Napoleon’s troops dreamed of high command, many of Pearson’s ministers saw themselves as future prime ministers. And sure enough, when Pearson retired eight of his ministers announced they would run for Liberal leader—each with his own dedicated following and distinct point of view. One of them was Pierre Trudeau.
No one ever heard Trudeau express nostalgia for the Pearson years. In fact, he seems to have hated every minute of it. He saw no reason for ministers to establish their independence by leaking dissenting opinions to favoured journalists and constituents back home. Such freedom, which Pearson had put up with, didn’t strike Trudeau as democracy in action. It seemed more like chaos.
[…]
This truth is best explained by Trudeau’s inclinations, since hardened into custom. In the spring of 1968, as soon as he became prime minister, he tightened the reins of government power and let it be known that those reins all led to the PMO. In the early years, it was said (and widely believed) that his principal secretary, Marc Lalonde, held daily meetings with the executive assistants of all government ministers, so that Trudeau and his aides could know precisely what each was doing. As time went on, they increasingly did Trudeau’s bidding, which remained the case until he retired in 1984.
Since then, with one exception, no star ministers have blossomed under three long-running prime ministers, Brian Mulroney, Jean Chrétien, and Stephen Harper. That one exception is Paul Martin, Chrétien’s finance minister, whose talents attracted constant publicity and many admirers. As everyone knows, the Chrétien-Martin relationship ended in acrimony — the sort of political finale Trudeau carefully avoided.
