Canada is a 'feudal system' disguised as a democracy. Since 1931 we’ve been 'governed' by cozy deals brokered between politicians running amok. Canada is bereft of a constitution & we have little effective control over government, its abuses and its waste. To become a real country, we must become a nation of united inhabitants who understand it is we who are the masters, and the politicians and bureaucrats are the servants. Until then we’re nothing more than a 21st century feudal society and modern-day feudal serfs. This blog will remain largely Canadian-focused. For international issues visit http://www.modernfeudalserf.org.

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Monday, July 04, 2005

The True Canadian Identity?

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…forget beavers and maple leaves

Canada Day …so many celebrations planned …Paul Martin and so many other politicians at podiums extolling carefully scripted speeches from the heart (written by someone else, of course) about all it means to be a “Canadian”. Personally, the last thing I wanted to do was listen to a politician beaking off so I decided to do something very symbolic of modern day Canada …my laundry …so I took myself to the cleaners, rather than let the government do it!

As I walked out the door I noticed that at sometime during the night small Canadian flags had been planted along the sidewalk in front of each house in the neighbourhood. Visually it was quite nice, however my visual pleasure was almost immediately replaced with suspicion about who funded this little escapade. I looked up and down the street to see if I could spot Sheila Copps hiding somewhere admiring her nocturnal flag handiwork! No sign of her …so I inspected the flag by my sidewalk more closely to find they were from a local realtor. Whew …no tax dollars involved for a change!

Throughout the day I pondered the imponderable question …What is Canada’s national identity? I don’t mean the kind of ‘sales pitch’ that Heritage Canada, Tourism Canada, Immigration Canada and others put into brochures. No, I mean what do average people in this country regard as the essence of what it is to be a ‘Canadian’, what sense of unity and patriotism do they have (if any) and why.

I wondered if Canada systemically applies Bill Cosby’s maxim for success and failure. Cosby said “I don’t know the fastest way to succeed …but I do know that the fastest way to fail is by trying to please everyone!” Is that an apt description of Canada? A country trying to be too many things all at the same time to too many, doing marginally well at some but for the most part falling short of overall success at any? It seems there is an ongoing situation in Canada where someone is always complaining that someone else got more or has more than they do and demands their ‘rights’ for equalization of some sort! Not to mention that national quirk of bad-mouthing successful people ...then demanding they share! Canada seems to celebrate mediocrity and penalize productivity and success ...is that something to be proud of?

I wondered how ‘unified’ Canada can be when the system itself promotes dis-unity by systemically identifying people by ethnicity instead of homogenizing everyone in this land under one (1) title …”Canadian”. Multiculturalism Canada, while a warm fuzzy notion, has the net effect of ghettoizing people on ethnic lines rather than uniting them under a single flag! Another failed social engineering project. While thinking about this it occurred to me that the maple leaf on our flag should probably be secondary to a hyphen (see example following.)


The new Canadian Flag

We’ve all noticed that hyphen because how many times per day are we confronted with groups or individuals being identified as [BLANK]-Canadian. How about just being “Canadian”? It seems to me that those pesky hyphens turn us into national room mates as opposed to a national family! Imagine if the neighbours next door all had different surnames …operated on different schedules …ate separate meals …and were always out in the back yard arguing about who got the biggest piece of pie and then further argued about who got the freshest piece. Would that seem much like a family to you?

We seem to identify ourselves (nationally) most predominantly by how much we can criticize people outside our borders …particularly Americans. We talk about our sovereignty but allow our military and border security to fall into under-funded disarray. We protect our coasts with a so-called ‘Coast Guard’ that is tasked more with counting fish and monitoring fishermen than on actually guarding the coast! Oh well, if trouble comes our way apparently we will just expect those people we criticize to the south to step in and protect us.

Lately there seems to be a new, very disturbing layer to the ‘Canadian Identity’ …one that accepts (and even endorses) fraud and corruption because we’re too afraid of some change ...because we’re gullible ...and because we’re too busy arguing amongst ourselves about who’s piece of pie is biggest to unite in anger and demand accountability, honesty and transparency from those we hire to administer our national affairs.

We are, in many respects a divided country …along lines of ethnicity, sexuality and language. There is an old maxim that says “United we stand …divided we fall” and history supports how very true that is. So the real question is “who have we been conquered by?” …perhaps our employees in Ottawa?

Happy Canada Day …whatever that really means!

Til next time
The Serf

1 comment:

libero 15 said...

haVE U EVER THOUGHT ABOUT BEDCOMING A POLITICIAN OR TRIED TO CHANGE THIS STUFF BESIDE JUST TALKING ABOUT IT ON THE NET