Hold onto your hats, it looks like we’re in for a bumpy ride in 2025.
Just when we thought that the economy might be improving and inflation was coming under control, there a new threats within our borders and beyond, and not just economic ones.
Is it a shock tactic to bring us to heel when Trump suggests Canadians would be better off as the 51st state, or does he sincerely believe it?
Early in his tenure, Trudeau told the New York Times that Canada was a “postnational state”, one with no core identity and no mainstream. What unites us, he explained, were shared values. Feeling vulnerable yet? Before we decide if we’re ready to trade those values for economic stability and military protection, we might consider what is really at stake here.
Trump might be doing us a favour by forcing us to redefine ourselves. That process begins by reacquainting ourselves with our history. That means all of it, not the redacted, sanitized version. The nation we call Canada was founded by explorers, trappers, miners and adventurers who were motivated by the potential wealth that could be secured from our vast natural resources, the prestige of securing a new territory for their homeland and a fierce independence. While they were establishing the trade routes through an expansive, harsh landscape and mapping out their new-found territory, many were doing so by subjugating the local Indigenous people. Our founders and leaders have done wonderful and horrible things. They, like us, were human.
We need to understand our history and avoid the temptation to re-write it if we want to articulate a genuine modern identity. There are shared values, certainly, but we should not make the mistake of defining ourselves simply by differentiating ourselves from Americans. We want to say who we are, not who we aren’t.
Canada is not a punchline. We need to rekindle our patriotism and define for ourselves what we want our country to be. That will help us find leaders who can represent our nation effectively in the challenging days ahead. KG