Sesquicentennial. The word doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, does it? But that’s what we’re celebrating this year as Canadians, so I’m trying to get used to saying it without stumbling over my words.
Sesquicentennial. 150 years. It’s been a century and a half since the four original provinces — Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia — signed on for this grand experiment we call Canada. Nine more provinces and territories have been added in the intervening years to bring our little family to 13.
I say little family because, despite our enormous physical size, we are a teeny-tiny country in the grand scheme of things. Heck, more people live in California than live in Canada.
Population wise, we still have the Aussie’s beat though by about 12 million people.
We might not have a huge population, but Canada often punches above its weight. Tested in the fires of battle in the First and Second World Wars, our soldiers were lauded for their bravery and skill.
Despite being the smallest of the G7 nations, Canada boasts a powerhouse of an economic engine.
We export hockey players and comedians by the dozen to teach other nations how to skate, how to be tough and how to be funny.
Like it or not, we still have an inferiority complex when it comes to our place in the world. It’s unnecessary, but it’s also endearing. Our need to be noticed is part of our charm, I think. We’re like Planet Earth’s middle child.
We’re not perfect though. After 150 years, the relationship between our governments and First Nations continues to be a source of tension. Far too many Indigenous communities exist as Third World countries despite our rich economy. Far too many Aboriginal youth either aren’t able to seize everything they can from life, not for lack of talent, but for lack of opportunity. Or worse, far too many aren’t making it to adulthood at all.
Canada is not immune from racism either, but our national identity as a cultural mosaic rather a melting pot helps ensure we are more prone to celebrating our differences instead of fighting about them.
Are we a perfect country? Heck no. But then again, there are no perfect countries. Liberal democracies are still very much a grand experiment. For most of human history, people lived under one form of dictatorship or another.
It’s barely 200 years since the French Revolution, when western countries began to kick off the shackles of feudalism and elevate the rights of the individual over the rights of the nobility.
Canada, like many western nations, still celebrates and protects the rights of the individual to live a life free from oppression and strife, to live as he or she sees fit.
In the age of Donald Trump, Brexit, the Golden Dawn in Greece and the National Front in France, Canada stands as a bastion of liberal democratic principles.
Where some of the West’s most powerful nations have seen the repudiation of at least some of the values of classical liberalism, Canada has gone in the other direction, embracing those values that set Western nations apart from all others.
We still believe in the separation of church and state. We still believe in open and just societies. We still believe in human rights, civil liberties and civil rights for everyone, equally, under the law. We still believe that no matter your race, creed, colour, sexual preference or gender identity, you — yes, you — have a right to live a good, happy life, with the same rights and freedoms everyone else has.
Do we get it right each and every time? No, of course not. But more often than not, we do. And that’s more than you can say for many of our neighbours and peers.
And while we can pat ourselves on the back, we also can’t rest on our laurels. There is still a streak of xenophobia and parochialism in the Canadian consciousness, one that could get out of hand if we’re not careful and mindful.
In this our sesquicentennial year, as we celebrate where we’ve come from and where we’re going, it’s important to reflect on what it means to be a 21st century liberal democracy, that protecting your freedom means protecting everyone’s freedoms, even people whose values, culture or lifestyle might seem totally alien to you. Our freedom is based on an ideal, and ideals can be eroded away if we’re not careful.
So let’s celebrate us and let’s celebrate the mosaic that makes Canada one of the world’s great nations.
Happy birthday to all of us.
Mark Gentili is the managing editor of Sudbury.com and Northern Life.
