On Canada Day our country begins to count down to its 150th birthday next year, a significant anniversary.
It’s a natural time to ponder what it means to be Canadian and what values and qualities we want to guard and preserve as we go forward to our bicentennial.
We celebrate our 149th birthday in the shadow of one of the most major events of the modern era – the United Kingdom’s decision to exit the European Union. The vote, as shocking as it is to the rest of the world, undoubtedly conjures up Canada’s recent history, especially to the sovereigntists in La Belle Province. Quebecers came within a sliver of proclaiming national sovereignty in the 1995 Quebec referendum.
Does Brexit revive the nationalist desire of Quebec sovereigntists? Brexit is a precedent-setting event. France, Holland, Italy and others are openly questioning their membership in the EU. This isolationist contagion is gaining momentum. We need only look across our southern border to witness anti-immigration and anti-trade rhetoric from both presidential candidates. How will Canada navigate in these uncertain global times? Will fears about immigration and terrorism take our country down a dark and/or uncertain path?
There are lessons to be learned from the U.K. experience. It was clear there was a demographic split in how people voted. The majority of the older baby boomer generation was clearly on the “leave” side, possessing a romantic longing of an independent Britain that was once a world superpower. The younger, metropolitan millennials favoured a “global” lifestyle where they could work and move freely in the EU. The boomers got the vote out and a somewhat apathetic millennial generation will have to live with the consequences.
That demographic split existed in the 1995 Quebec referendum, and the nationalist sentiment still remains with the older generation who also possess romantic images of a free and independent Quebecois nation. Hopefully the federalists in Quebec and the rest of the country were paying attention to Brexit and will heed its lessons.
As we celebrate Canada Day this Friday, it is important to ponder the global political landscape and Canada’s place in it. Canadians need to give serious consideration to these issues, because small individual actions, if not taken seriously, can gain momentum and take a country in a direction it may not really want to go in.
The world stage that Canada is on today is a very different one than the world of even 50 years ago. What we do at home no longer impacts only what goes on within our borders.
We must always remember that it’s easy to break things apart. It is much harder to build something and work to keep it vibrant and growing. But the effort that is Canada is definitely worth it.
