Wednesday 17 August 2011

Ideology, Goose-stepping and Republicanism in Canada

Here's the Governor General's statement welcoming the the restoration of the historic names for the Canadian Armed Forces. As he points out, the names Royal Canadian Air Force, Royal Canadian Navy, & Canadian Armyalways remained on the books but the Pearson government, and subsequent governments, in an undemocratic bout of social engineering, forbade names to be used. Defence Minister Mackay was right in correcting this error.

The notion that you 'forbid' royal symbols, British Heritage, international ties, & history in order to create your own unhistorical Canadian culture was always undemocratic. The idea that you refuse to allow young Canadians knowledge of their constitutional heritage in order to convince them that your revolution has already taken place and indoctrinate them with the idea that the country is 'progressing' toward your own vision is nothing more than deceit. This is how much of the political and educational class in Canada have behaved over the last 50 years. They are now out of power because Canadians got sick of them.

Supression and manipulation are not democracy. Calling traditionalists and veterans fighting to have our history restored is the height of arrogance. Suggesting we cater to separatists and using ordinary Quebecois as an excuse for your own need to enforce your ideological vision on Canadians who disagree with you is divisive and reprehensible.

These activists are far more ideological than Prime Minister Harper or Preston Manning ever were. (Anyone who knows me, knows I didn't like the Alliance vision and I still have my doubts about about whether Alberta populism is really seeking democracy. But, I see the ideologues who got hold of and destroyed the Liberal Party of Canada as every bit as dogmatic as the dictatorial William Aberhart ever was.

The reaction of Pearsonian (don't blame Trudeau for this) activists suggests that they still believe they the only 'vision for Canada:' Those who feel left out of the goose-stepping ideological vision of the Pearsonians are called regressive or just plain stupid.

Tom Freda was actually right when he said that Canadians are used to having their royal symbols removed. Yes, Mr. Freda, they are.

They are used to governments obliterating their history to cater to a minority of social engineers who think they know better what Canada should be and who denounce traditionalists as stupid and colonial. Interesting Mr. Freda's own republican organization is the ultimate colonial relic, being a part of Common Cause a republican group headquartered just outside London,UK.

These activists, especially Professor Jack Granastein, know full well that the Canadian Crown is separate from the British Crown. They know that what sets the British definition of citizenship apart from many other national definitions, is that it goes beyond ethnicity to encompass a system of Parliamentary Democracy that seeks to treat (although we've had some failures here) all citizens equally before the law. (As opposed to insisting on uniformity of all citizens.)

Many of these activists actually think it is progressive to slam against 'British Canada' in a way that would never be acceptable if they attacked French, Aboriginal, Chinese, Black, or even Swedish or German Canada. And rightly so.

The Canadian Crown is not 'colonialist' at all. It has not been so since the 1931 Statute of Westminster and the
1982 Canada Act
reaffirms the independence of the Canadian Crown.

Canada's Crown helps protect the rights of all Canadians from social engineers who would recreate our nation in their own image. God Save The Queen! God Save Canada from the ideologues.







1 comment:

Roy Eappen said...

An excellent analysis. By the Tom Freda is really quite an irrelevance