Happy Canada Day?
Canada Day Shares The Same Birthday as the Founding of China's Communist Party. There Are Eery Similarities.
Today, July 1, is Canada Day. It celebrates the creation of their confederation in 1867. Canada is a wonderful country but is under incredible strain right now. As bad as you may think our leadership is in the US, it's worse in Canada. Much worse. It didn’t use to be that way.
I fell in love with Canada as a Civil Air Patrol cadet from rural Oklahoma. I made my first foray into a "foreign" country in 1974, fresh out of high school, as part of an international air cadet exchange program. I'd never been north of Kansas.
And what a great trip it was. I experienced my first commercial air flight from Oklahoma City to Washington, DC via Dallas' Love Field on a Braniff Airlines' 727. I didn't complain about being in the middle seat. My smartly-pressed and polished CAP uniform, complete with spit-shined shoes, cadet Lt. Col. insignia, red cords, and polished belt buckle invoked lively conversation with my seatmates. My meal included real silverware, and wasn't bad, as memory serves. Yes, they used to serve real meals on airlines, in coach class.
As I arrived, I was shuttled into a government van for a trip to the Key Bridge Marriott with other CAP cadets headed not just to Canada, but other nations. First, we had an orientation to experience before loading aboard military aircraft for various ports. I mostly remember that we weren’t supposed to talk about politics.
A walk into neighboring Georgetown that first night, across the Key Bridge, was memorable. A festive "Watergate" atmosphere with no shortage of homeless folks, even then, looking for money. An eye-opening experience for a kid from rural Oklahoma.
It was a historic year. The Watergate Scandal was hitting a crescendo across the US (Nixon would resign on August 9, just days after I returned from nearly a month crossing Canada with few British air cadets and our Canadian hosts). The British had just endured a crippling coal strike. Canada was in the midst of a contentious election with Pierre Trudeau on the ballot. We'd just been through the 1973 Arab oil embargo with not much help from our oil-producing cousins to the north. Of course, that’s all we talked about with our hosts, even though we all laughingly acknowledged that we “weren’t supposed to talk about it.”
Senator Henry "Scoop" Jackson, a pro-defense and mostly conservative Democrat (extinct) referred to Canadians as "blue-eyed Arabs." That went over well. I sure heard about it. Anti-Americanism was a thing in Canada then. It still is, to some degree. The Canadian dollar then was worth more than the US dollar.
As cadets, we stayed at the homes of Royal Canadian Air Cadet families. I stayed one night at the home of the chief of police for a major Ontario city, St. Catherines. That was fun. Later, I would be picked up in Quebec City by a family that complained that "we were supposed to host a Brit." They wanted nothing to do with an American but did their best to entertain me over 2 days. They taught me enough very basic French that has stuck with me over the past 48 years. You know, "thank you," "where's the bathroom," "I'm hungry," and "I'm sick."
As a very young hockey fan, even then, I quickly learned the best way to conjure up a conversation was to discuss their favorite sport. We would move on to Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg, the Calgary Stampede (so much like Oklahoma City), Banff, Edmonton (so much like Tulsa, and where I had my first beer), and finally make our way back to the US. The farther west I went in Canada, the more welcome I was, and the more it felt like home. Some 22 years later, I would represent the US Congress as Secretary of the Senate in Turkey at a meeting of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), founded in 1889. With no US legislators with me, the Canadian delegation adopted me and helped me persuade the organization to change their schedules to accommodate the participation of US Senators and House Members (didn't work - Members of Congress still would not and do not today participate. Big mistake).
Fast forward a few years later. I would work for a company with major operations in Canada, became chair of the Canadian American Business Council, and fall in love with my Canadian friends again. A great memory is being invited by a wonderful friend to attend a couple of Washington Capitals games in Toronto. You have not seen a real professional hockey game until you've seen one in Canada. Real fans.
One of the people I met and briefed a time or two was Prime Minister Stephen Harper. He helped rescue a North American "security and prosperity" program, post 9/11, that was designed to see North America as not just a unified security zone, but also as a platform for global competition. George W. Bush conceived it, but it was Harper who improved it and kept it alive during the Obama years. No small task. There were some successes. Despite their obvious political and personal differences, Harper had a good working relationship, as best he could, with the recalcitrant Obama.
Today, I am sad for Canada. I have many great friends there and still love the country. But Justin Trudeau and his Liberal party’s grotesque mismanagement of the COVID crisis (provincial premiers of both parties are accomplices, frankly) complete with a US border shutdown and lunatic quarantine rules for returning Canadians or international visitors are disastrous. Add to this the bribing of the media with government support payments for favorable coverage, and a complete loss of rights we take for granted in the US is moving Canada perilously close to tyranny.
Need evidence? They’re about to regulate speech on social media, no doubt drawing inspiration from Facebook and Twitter in the US, but this time, it’s government imposed. With fines. Big ones.
I do not say that with joy or abandon. The evidence is there for all to see, from pastors being arrested for conducting outdoor church services to peaceful protests being shuttered by police, little of it covered by the compliant state media there.
And America is not helping by rejecting Canadian energy supplies by canceling pipelines and imposing harmful tariffs on lumber and aluminum. This is no way to treat a friend and neighbor.
Today is Canada Day. I celebrate with and honor my friends north of the 45th Parallel. I cheer for the Montreal Canadians and especially Carey Price to win the Stanley Cup (not likely at this point, but stay tuned). But these are perilous times. And Americans should be paying attention. I miss Stephen Harper's sensible and visionary leadership. He would have figured out a way to deal with Donald Trump and cement a great relationship, even more so with a diminished Joe Biden. Trudeau has demonstrated weakness, bad judgment, and embarrassment on the international stage. He is almost singlehandedly destroying Canada's economy.
Canada may have elections later this year, and despite failed leadership, Trudeau appears poised for a new Liberal majority. Conservatives have a weak leader and even less ability than Republicans in the US to break through the official state media. Canadians also are more like Europeans in one sense - they are more likely to comply with, and turn to government experts, much more than Americans. We tend to question things here; Canadians, not so much. Canadians just seem less interested in holding their federal government accountable than we do. I would love for them to prove me wrong.
Just look at our respective mottos: In the US, we are all about "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." In Canada, it is "peace, order, and good government."
There's no Second Amendment in Canada. Heck, there's not even a real First Amendment. Under Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms, rights come from the government, not our Creator. Canadians looking to their courts to enforce those freedoms under government mandates during the pandemic are being disappointed. Look at the history of their so-called "Human Rights" commissions, and how they punish speech. I sadly note that Canada shares this day with the 100th anniversary of the Communist Party of China. There is a faint but increasing resemblance. Canada’s public pension funds are even investing in Chinese companies blacklisted in the US over security concerns.
But best wishes to my friends in the "True North." I hope you enjoyed your day, with limits, of course. No “hate speech,” no church services, and certainly no gatherings. Honor your proud history. But be sure to wear your masks, socially distance, stay home, and don't you dare protest or question federal government policies or the "experts" who made them. You’d damn well better comply. Or else, you could end up like this pastor.
And maybe, just maybe, look south, not across the Pacific Ocean, for "July 4th" inspiration. Some of us would rather die on our feet than surrender on our knees.