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confederation
Celebrate and honour the sacrifices, privations, bravery, fortitude and loyalty of women, indigenous peoples and people of colour that also define us.
I will celebrate Canada 150 in my own way, recognizing the struggles and steps forward of the past 150 years.
An immigrant from India, I arrived in Canada in May 1968. Canada is my chosen home. It is not perfect. No country is. But it is more perfect than most. For me, Canada 150 is about making Canada, in the years ahead, an even more perfect confederation - a more just, egalitarian, prosperous and inclusive society.
In 2014, people will come for the sesquicentenary parties, but it's more likely they will depart having discovered the authentic and captivating experiences of Canada's smallest province, a little place where something mighty big was born 150 years ago.
On June 1st 1866, a determined group of Civil War veterans boarded barges from Buffalo, crossed the Niagara River, and invaded Canada. The battle was small, as it lasted two days, and only saw 15 battleground deaths. It was plagued by inexperience, misunderstandings, screw ups, and failure on the Canadians' parts. But it shaped our nation.
Canada is a superb creation and initial credit for that must, obviously, go to Canada's founding fathers. How we came about is a fascinating tale of seemingly intractable regional disputes resolved, at least for a time, by new institutions and a new country. Thus, today, inter-provincial debates are similar to pre-1867 tussles where one province's citizens complain of how others are on the federal dole courtesy of tax dollars from the more prosperous regions. And all the provinces again regularly press the federal government for more money.
Despite all the problems, it's about time Quebec signed the Constitution. Quebeckers in the early '90s were tired of the constitutional discussion, and clearly expressed their opposition to it at the ballot box. Yet two decades have passed and a new generation of leaders have entered the political discussion.
We as Canadians readily admit that everyone should be equal, but when Canadians learn about our country's ongoing discrimination in citizenship law, they seem content sitting in silence.
