Is a Canadian a "Not American"?
When President Elect Donald Trump challenged the existence of Canada, the best that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau could say on CNN was that Canadians identified themselves as "not American".
His response shows how much politics has changed in Canada that the foundational value of the country is forgotten even by the politicians. Any student of Canadian politics in the 1990s knew the foundation of Canada was Peace, Order, and Good Government (POGG).
The Liberal Party doubled up on this lazy explanation by putting a map on Twitter that shows Canada under the label "Not the United States". It reveals that the party as well as the man leading it are not that far apart in the ideology and beliefs.
What is wrong with Peace, Order and Good Government as a foundational value for a country?
Perhaps looking at the origins of that belief system might provide an explanation.
Peace, Order and Good Government was imported into Canada by the first English-speaking settlers who were Americans. They were the loyalists who opposed the violence of the revolution and were ostracized as a result. They made a decision based on conscience although any in-depth look into the American Revolution reveals that the violence was not a decision that was taken lightly, and the British itched for violence even more than the Americans did.
Putting that aside, one can see the influence that the loyalists had on the new country. It’s not a bad foundational value to believe in Peace, Order and Good Government. Sir John A. McDonald, the first Prime Minister, succeeded in forging a country by spilling wine instead of blood. He got all the political leaders drunk in order to get them to agree to a union. Spilling wine may not be heroic, but it got the job done without killing anyone.
Eventually, Canadians did end up killing someone and got their full independence from Britain in a bizarre twist by fighting Germany in two world wars. In the harsh reality of building a nation the spilling of blood was inevitable.
All that history has gone out the window when the Liberals peddled a new national identity based progressive ideology and identity politics something they have been doing for decades. Their sole purpose was to turn the government into the foundational value of the nation because Peace, Order and Good Government was a standard they could no longer meet.
Well, it’s true. Canadians have always felt that they were not American. It’s also true that they love their country because it promised peace, progress and stability. Just because they mistakenly bought the promise of progressivism that does not mean that they abandoned their tradition of English Liberty that today is only fully guaranteed in the Constitution of the United States. They still expect that tradition to exist even if their constitution fails to guarantee it.
The Liberal Party's decline in the polls is indicative of how out of touch they are with the nation they enjoy ruling over. If the best they can do to define Canadian by what it isn't as opposed to what it is, then it's no wonder that President Trump has challenged the existence of Canada. Even though the polls show only 13% support for a union with the US, Trump knows that the Canadian national identity has been severely weakened by the politicians and special interests. The reason he smells blood because it's there.
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