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http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/Colum...03/1115942.html
Celebrations felt fake
Canada Day looked like a Liberal campaign ad
By EZRA LEVANT
Canada Day celebrations this year were worse than most years. Even in better times, the staged, paid-for public displays of official patriotism reeked of political correctness -- of government-chosen musical and dance acts, government stage direction, government funding, government bilingualism and larded with far too many government cabinet ministers inserting themselves into programs that are boring enough.
In other words, they felt fake -- unlike Remembrance Day, for example, a holiday that retains its original meaning, if only by the continuing vigilance of our veterans.
Canada's history is rarely celebrated on Canada Day, and if it is, it's a politicized, revised history, heavy on Native myths and short on military and historical facts.
That is because, according to the Liberal identity of Canada -- anti-Americanism and socialized medicine -- we didn't really exist until Pierre Trudeau.
Canada Day feels like a Liberal campaign ad, paid for with tax dollars. Which as we know since AdScam, many Liberal political ads were.
And that's another reason why Canada Day was so flat this year: Merely holding a flag bought and paid for by the federal government, and attending events dominated by oversized Canadian government logos, feels like you're a participant in yet another sponsorship scam, like you are bought and paid for, too.
Who got the contract for the Canada Day celebration in your city? What was their commission?
How different from today's Fourth of July celebrations in the U.S. Whereas Canada Day feels more like Government Day or Liberal Day, the Fourth of July is a celebration of the overthrow of government.
It's a day when people who shot politicians are honoured, and their stories told as examples of heroism.
Of course, U.S. politicians try to capitalize on the day, but they shape their rhetoric to the spirit of freedom and the history of their Revolution.
The Fourth of July and Canada Day are each important opportunities for inculcating national values in new immigrants. And look how that is done in each country. Immigration is celebrated on the Fourth of July as proof American ideals are appealing to all of humanity, especially to desperate wretches from the world's tyrannies who will do anything to set foot in freedom, and once there try to out-American the native-born citizens.
By contrast, immigration is celebrated on Canada Day as a remedy to Canada's too-white, too-European ideals, a way to water down our history and culture with other, better, foreign values.
We have an entire ministry of multiculturalism devoted to keeping immigrants from assimilating. No wonder Sheila Copps had to pay to get people to fly Canadian flags. Old Canadians don't believe in its new meaning, and new Canadians are told not to.
Before becoming president, Lyndon Johnson once described himself as "a free man, an American, a U.S. senator and a Democrat, in that order." It is unthinkable that Paul Martin would ever say that. The building block of being a free man isn't even in our political culture; saying you're a "Canadian" has lost so much of its old meaning, the phrase just wouldn't make sense, except as a cliche; and putting Parliament before party is something we lost a generation ago.
Once upon a time, Canada Day -- when it was called Dominion Day, when we had our old flag, not Lester Pearson's new flag, in Liberal colours -- celebrated what really did make our country great.
The moment it became yet another Liberal sponsorship opportunity, it turned a great day into meaningless politics, and turned patriots into dupes.
I'll celebrate Remembrance Day instead, thank you.
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