Essays in Idleness

National pride, or more specifically pride in one’s nation, can be, but often isn’t, an innocent affair. Canada gives an example of this pride at its worst, and most debilitating. At least in the spaces east of Wawa, Ontario, and many of the spaces West, it takes a negative and evil form. It is almost purely anti-American. By no coincidence, this is a country which absolutely depends on the United States, for its defence and prosperity. Our national cultures and “multicultures,” including the French Canadian element, are copied and adapted from American models, and we have nothing that is original (except the vestiges of Crown-in-Parliament). Our “dignity” consists of a landscape that is extraordinarily beautiful and inspiring; but we do proportionally more to destroy it than the U.S. and most other countries.

However, it’s not all bad. I was asking myself last Tuesday, which was Dominion Day (before the Liberal government of the demonic Pierre Trudeau stripped it away), what was the last time I felt real pride in a Canadian achievement? Unmistakably, it was the Canadian truckers’ convoy in early 2022, when our highways were lined with the fearlessly honest. Canadians, for the first time in a long while, stood up against a vicious government, and set an example which was celebrated in Bolivia and most of the other countries in the world. I cannot describe the government of Mr Trudeau’s “cutest” child without using vocabulary I try to avoid. But the suppression of this exhilarating “strike” on his watch was the counter-example of stinking corruption.

We found that while there were still examples of the “old” Canadian virtues in the rural retreats, where real and necessary work is done, in urban life “our” Canada is, morally, a dead loss. I became filled with shame, at these depraved people — the flip side of the pride I had been feeling.

The revival experiment, now being attempted next country over under Donald J. Trump, is a mixed bag. Much that he is trying is vulgar, or worse. But that it is working, economically, overall, and has contributed to many admirable things, is undeniable. Most important, he is reducing the tyranny of government and its bureaucracies. Rather than indulge our envious hatreds, we should resolve to copy whatever is good from the Americans, and try not to be played again by our Liberal masters, exploiting our incredibly low intelligence.