Juno News - The Left in Canada is turning on the symbols they created

00:00:00.000 I won't deny that this is a tough year to celebrate Canada Day.

00:00:03.400 Hi, I'm Candice Belcom, and this is the Candice Belcom Show.

00:00:10.880 In years past, on this Canada Day, or as I typically call it, Dominion Day,

00:00:15.500 here at True North, we would unabashedly celebrate Canada as the best country in the world.

00:00:20.700 Canada is safe, secure, free, and open, and Canadians are gracious, friendly, welcoming,

00:00:26.160 and great stewards of our tradition of ordered liberty that dates back to the signing of the

00:00:31.600 Magna Carta. That's the world's first written constitution, limiting the powers of government

00:00:36.640 and enshrining the rights of the individual. Canada is a beautiful country, and there's

00:00:41.680 nothing better than getting outside, exploring the natural wonders of our country, and spending

00:00:46.060 some time in the great outdoors. Canadians are adventuresome, we're tough as nails, loyal,

00:00:51.540 and we're committed to developing and building up our great country, despite the natural

00:00:56.100 challenges, and often up against all the elements. But I say it's a tough year to celebrate Canada,

00:01:01.780 because the media and the Laurentian elite in this country have basically turned on Canada.

00:01:07.080 They've certainly turned on Canada's first and founding prime minister, Sir Johnny Macdonald,

00:01:11.440 and they've turned on Canada's early and often failed policies regarding First Nations.

00:01:16.120 But here's the thing. The media and the Laurentian elite in Canada, the ones who are now turning on

00:01:22.100 Canada, they've never aptly represented Canada or Canadians. They invented their own narrative,

00:01:28.020 a myth, that was never really that true, never really that accurate. These Laurentian elites

00:01:32.800 sneered and turned their noses at everyday Canadians, and instead invented their own anti-American

00:01:37.920 narrative to define Canada. The left in this country pulled Canada away from its British roots

00:01:43.400 and identity as being part of the mighty British Empire and crafted a new post-British identity

00:01:48.540 after World War II. At that time, Canada was known as a mighty ally and a country with grit,

00:01:54.920 determination, and innovation. Canada punched well above its weight in the Second World War

00:01:59.980 and helped to secure a victory against fascism and against the Nazis in Europe. But the new leftist

00:02:06.380 narrative of Canadian identity was defined as a softer, more progressive, more enlightened,

00:02:11.580 and more worldly version of our American neighbours. The left launched a campaign to replace the

00:02:17.360 symbolism associated with Canada's historical connection with the British Empire and introduced

00:02:22.840 new, broad, and generic symbols to represent Canada. In the mid-1960s, the Liberals pushed a

00:02:29.180 bitter debate in Parliament over introducing a new flag. At the time, Canada used both the Union Jack

00:02:35.020 and the Red Ensign, both interchangeably, as our national flag. The Liberals wanted a new flag,

00:02:40.000 some form of a maple leaf, which had long been a secondary symbol for Canada. The Tories at the

00:02:45.300 time, led by future Prime Minister John Diefenbaker, opposed the new flag, saying it abandoned Canada's

00:02:50.660 British tradition. Diefenbaker accused Liberal Prime Minister at the time, Lester B. Pearson,

00:02:56.520 of trying to use the flag debate as a distraction from his scandal plagued in unpopular government and

00:03:01.640 governing record. Public opinion was basically split among English Canadians, and according to Pierre

00:03:07.220 Trudeau at the time, French Canadians didn't really care either way. Some historians opposed the change,

00:03:13.380 calling the new flag innocuous, and saying it would not promote national unity, but would merely produce

00:03:18.340 an indifferent response. Pearson eventually got his way, and the new flag was officially hoisted at the

00:03:24.560 Peace Tower on Parliament Hill on February 15, 1965. John Diefenbaker said this to Lester B. Pearson,

00:03:31.180 he said, you have done more to divide the country than any other Prime Minister. And in fact, when John

00:03:36.420 Diefenbaker died in 1979, his coffin was draped with both the red ensign and the new maple leaf.

00:03:42.900 But the Liberals weren't done. Next, in 1982, another Liberal government first changed our Bill of Rights

00:03:48.360 and wrote a new Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and they also changed the name of our national holiday.

00:03:53.660 From the moment our country was formed in 1867, all the way up till 1982, July 1st was celebrated as our

00:04:00.400 national holiday, but it was known as Dominion Day. Then, on one hot day in July, Dominion Day was

00:04:06.020 officially thrown out, in something that can aptly be described as a coup. A Liberal from Quebec

00:04:11.420 introduced a private member's bill to change the holiday's name to Canada Day, and a near-empty

00:04:16.280 House of Commons rushed to push through this bill. Let me read a passage from the Dictionary of Canadian

00:04:21.780 Politics. According to historian Matthew Hayday, 13 members of Parliament remained in the House of

00:04:26.820 Commons on a hot Friday afternoon in July, and began debating a private member's bill, tabled by

00:04:31.860 Quebec MP Al-Hébert, to amend the Holiday Act so as to change the name from Dominion Day to Canada Day.

00:04:39.240 As Hayday told the Canadian press in 2019,

00:04:42.560 no one actually asked the Speaker of the House to verify that there was still quorum. Unless someone

00:04:47.300 asks, it's assumed that it still exists. But there were some doubts as to whether, in fact, there were enough

00:04:52.900 members of Parliament in the House. Undeterred, the MPs held first, second, and third reading in under

00:04:58.820 10 minutes on that hazy Friday afternoon. The bill eventually passed through the Senate, and it became

00:05:03.760 law later that year. So with the stroke of a pen, Dominion Day was out, and the more on-brand Canada

00:05:08.940 Day was in. So 13 MPs decided to ditch Dominion Day. Not very democratic. And interestingly, it was the

00:05:16.240 Globe and Mail newspaper that led a campaign to save the old Dominion Day. In the mid-1990s, the now

00:05:21.780 left-wing newspaper launched a national campaign called Bring Back Our Dominion Day, selling t-shirts

00:05:27.360 and posters. But alas, the campaign did not get anywhere, and it was a lost cause at that point. But there is

00:05:33.760 just a little bit of delicious irony to hear liberals and leftists today calling for our country to cancel

00:05:40.520 Canada Day, since Canada Day was the holiday that they invented and they imposed. I know that there are some

00:05:46.820 conservatives out there who chuckle a little bit when they see the cancel Canada Day trending on social

00:05:51.980 media. You know, they might shrug and say, sure, cancel Canada Day, but bring back Dominion Day.

00:05:57.840 And of course, it's not the only example. As recently as 2015, the Trudeau liberals forced another change

00:06:03.820 to our national symbol. This time, they awkwardly changed our national anthem. They alleged that it

00:06:09.080 wasn't gender neutral. They got rid of the line in All Thy Sons Command and replaced it with a really

00:06:14.920 clunky and awkward sounding, in all of us command. Liberals have a habit of changing our national

00:06:20.940 symbols to make them more broad, more generic, and less British. Their attempts to whitewash our past, 0.79

00:06:26.920 whitewash our history, and to define the country's national identity based on left-wing government

00:06:32.360 policies like universal government health care and subsidized university was always set up to fail.

00:06:39.340 That's because their self-righteous purity is based on fiction, not fact.

00:06:43.380 As much as the liberals try to distance Canada from its history and its British past, its British roots,

00:06:49.400 it can't. Canada, just like every other country in the world, and just like every other civilization

00:06:54.700 in human history, is complex. And its history is rife with examples of war, fighting, killing,

00:07:01.520 cruelty, abuse of power, and illiberal lapses in judgment. Canada, of course, is no exception or no

00:07:07.460 different. So now Canada's Laurentian elite face a crisis. Their projection of their Canada

00:07:13.420 doesn't hold up to scrutiny. The image that they propagated over the years has been shattered.

00:07:18.740 But let me be blunt, this is their problem. They're the ones that will have to reconcile

00:07:23.040 their self-constructed myth of Canada with the reality that early Canadians were anything but

00:07:28.720 kinder, gentler, more progressive versions of our American neighbors. For the rest of us who maintain a

00:07:34.440 more realistic image of ourselves and our country, not much has changed. Canada's history is comprised

00:07:39.840 of sacrifice, grit, and perseverance. We get a lot of things right, but we also get a lot of things

00:07:45.040 wrong. And when we did, we acknowledge our mistakes and we do our best to learn from them. Canada today

00:07:50.980 is a wonderful and pluralistic country, a place where we share basic principles, traditions, and values.

00:07:56.780 But this allows for a great deal of freedom, individualism, and diversity to grow on top of

00:08:01.460 these shared values. Canada's commitment to basic principles like human dignity and individual

00:08:06.700 freedom mean that fewer people get left behind, but that there's also true opportunity and upward

00:08:11.420 mobility, unlike almost every other part of the world. Canada makes lots of mistakes, and our

00:08:16.640 political leaders are often misguided and often plain wrong. But we have mechanisms to protect

00:08:21.640 ourselves from tyrannical government, and we have the ability to hold politicians accountable and elect

00:08:26.840 new governments. That is part of the reason why people come from all over the world to live in

00:08:31.580 Canada. That is why Canada routinely ranks at or near the top of global indexes measuring economic

00:08:37.360 freedom, quality of life, happiness, good governance, and safety. Canada is one of the least corrupt

00:08:42.660 countries in the world, and yes, Canada is one of the least racist countries in the world.

00:08:46.960 So this Dominion Day, ignore the media narrative, ignore the smug Laurentian elites, and raise a toast to

00:08:52.820 this great country that we call home. Happy Canada Day. Happy Dominion Day. I'm Candace Malcolm, and this is

00:08:58.360 The Candace Malcolm Show.

Juno News - June 30, 2021

The Left in Canada is turning on the symbols they created

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