{"id":39156,"date":"2017-07-01T03:00:26","date_gmt":"2017-07-01T07:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=39156"},"modified":"2017-06-30T14:32:01","modified_gmt":"2017-06-30T18:32:01","slug":"happy-150-canada-now-get-back-to-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2017\/07\/01\/happy-150-canada-now-get-back-to-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Happy 150, Canada … now get back to work"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chris Selley<\/a> on the artificial sesquicentennial celebrations beginning today:<\/p>\n

On Wednesday evening, indigenous protesters marched on to Parliament Hill and, after some back and forth with the local constabulary, erected a large white tepee<\/a>. The group\u2019s leaders told reporters they intended to \u201creoccupy\u201d \u201cunceded Algonquin territory,\u201d and remind Canadians that \u201creconciliation\u201d with the people who were here before them lies far down a bumpy road.<\/p>\n

If nothing else, it was a welcome moment of coherence: big white tepee, Parliament Hill, three days before Canada Day \u2014 no one is going to wonder what that\u2019s about. By contrast, I\u2019m not sure what \u201cCanada 150,\u201d the officially branded and hash-tagged celebration of this country\u2019s existence, is supposed to be. It certainly isn\u2019t a focused reflection on Canada\u2019s history, much less on Confederation. Passport2017.ca<\/a>, the Canada 150 online portal, reads like an in-flight magazine\u2019s Canada Day edition.<\/p>\n

You can check in with the \u201cCanada 150 Ambassadors<\/a>.\u201d Singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright appreciates Canada\u2019s \u201ccivility, reasoning and compassion.\u201d Sprinter Bruny Surin appreciates moving from Haiti to a country where, his mother told him, anyone can accomplish anything. Nobel laureate astrophysicist Art McDonald provides the obligatory shout-out to Lester Pearson\u2019s role in the Suez Crisis.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

Had Canada 150 been a thoughtful reflection of Canada\u2019s history, it might have been worth defending against rhetorical excesses and disruptions. Instead we got a Molson commercial gone to seed \u2014 a facile, hackneyed celebration of our national superiority. Amidst all that, if Canadians and their big-talking government are forced to confront some of this country\u2019s most notable failings, I would deem that a Canada 150 Essential.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Also in the National Post<\/em>, Colby Cosh<\/a> is not feeling the paroxysms of nationalistic fervour and joy he’s supposed to be feeling:<\/p>\n

Could it be that going all-in on a 150th anniversary\u2026 was a mistake? One hundred and fifty is sort of an awkward number to be the occasion for a grand national celebration. That the word \u201csesquicentennial\u201d exists, and that it is only ever used to describe contrived festivals of this sort, seems like a hint.<\/p>\n

Me, I would probably be unenthusiastic over a rounder number anyway. My suspicion and resentment of any state-led hoo-rah or whoop-up is probably about half politics and half personality. No doubt in 1967 I would have been writing columns grumbling about Expo 67 being a showcase for high-modernist delusion, doomed hopes for national unity, and brutal industrialism.<\/p>\n

But, of course, there is much to be said for the grouchy view. From our vantage, we look back mostly on the fashions and design coups of Expo 67 and ignore the larger details. Any ordinary cultured person of 2017 whisked back to Expo 67 in a time machine would step out of the pod and recoil instantly at the sexism of signs blaring \u201cMan And His World.\u201d We would look askance at the abusive landscaping of the Montreal riverside. We would sprain our eyebrows raising them at the glorification of European explorers and the endorsement of an unjust world order.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

So maybe the grouches are usually right in the long run, and particularly about moral enterprises of the state, which are so often born and planned in a frenzy of self-congratulation and political calculation. Celebrating a 150th anniversary is inherently weird, but when I have pointed this out I have usually been offered the justification that Gen X-ers like me missed out on Expo 67 by accident of birth, and probably will not make it to see Hadrien Trudeau preside over CanadaFest 2067.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He also posted something on Twitter that might well be a response to Chris Selley’s article:<\/p>\n

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\u201cIn 2017, the original \u2018Dominion Day\u2019 was still being called \u2018Canada Day\u2019, and not \u2018Maple Leaf Yom Kippur\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

— Colby Cosh (@colbycosh) June 30, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n