HANNAFORD： Liberal Canadian values are no way to retain Alberta's loyalty
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Summary
In this episode, I speak with Gail Ing, a Calgary homeschooling mother, about Canada Day and her mission to find out what s missing in our country. She shares her thoughts on why we ve drifted away from our Christian roots as a nation, and how we can reclaim them.
Transcript
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As we're celebrating Canada Day, do you really know what we're celebrating?
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Few people know today that Canada Day is actually the establishment of Dominion Day.
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The term Dominion of Canada reflects our Christian heritage and foundations as a country.
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I certainly didn't learn about this when I was growing up and I assume this certainly is the
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case today it's like our history as a christian nation has been wiped out erased or buried my
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hope is i'll inform educate advocate for these truths to be resurfaced and brought back into
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our public consciousness. So thank you for listening and I hope you have a happy Canada Day.
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Good evening Western Standard viewers and welcome to Hannah Ford, a weekly politics show of the
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western standard it is thursday july the second ladies and gentlemen canada day came and went and
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i hope we all had a good time but there are many folks here in alberta especially who wish they
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could have got a little more into the spirit with me today is gail ing a calgary woman with a mission
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and it's got to do with canadian patriotism gail good evening good evening nigel thanks for having
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me you are so welcome gail you're you're a homeschool mother and you're here in calgary
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and i know you care very deeply about this country because we've talked about it but you told me many
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albertans you speak with fine canada day isn't the isn't the buzz they used to feel about it um
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how was your kind of the day well it was fine but like most canadians uh we you know we kind of
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think about oh we should do something for canada day and maybe we will uh go out and find some kind
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of celebration uh to participate in but um a lot of us don't know uh what we're celebrating or even
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why and i would dare to say some people would not even be um especially proud of our country right
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now so what you're i'm going to play with your words a little but what you're saying i think
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is that uh people are being asked to celebrate a country they don't recognize often with values they
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don't really believe in because the values have changed and they feel it doesn't represent who
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they are i mean is that sort of part of the problem here yes i believe so i think that um
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you know we have become almost unrecognizable as a country um even say when i was you know growing up
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um in ontario so i think that people are just feeling a bit uneasy and they don't even know why
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what's what's really going on with our country what is have you got a theory on this well
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Well, I believe that we have drifted away from our Christian roots as a nation, and
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we don't even understand those Christian roots.
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We don't even know about those Christian roots.
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And so I think people just feel like there's something missing, but they don't know what.
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And so I've been on this quest to find out what is it about our foundations that we're
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of people would, I mean, I think I know where you're going with this, but a lot of people would say,
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that's not it, I'm not a Christian, so what is it that I'm missing?
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Well, no, they're not a Christian. A lot of people don't identify as Christians these days,
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but when you look into the foundations of our country, actually Canada makes a lot more sense,
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and uh it doesn't matter what ideological um you know beliefs you have the fact is is that
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um canada did start out as a christian nation and a lot of um about who we are even our niceness
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you know as as we're we're typically identified as canadians it actually stems back to those roots
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and um and so i would venture to say that if people really understood um about those values
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and about the men and women that contributed a lot to this country at the genesis then they would
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really understand more about who canada is what canada's all about well you you have recently
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made a video i think it's i think it's out there now you launched it on canada today or maybe the
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day before at any rate it's uh you know the numbers look uh quite encouraging and we're going
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to give the we're going to give the link to that and actually play a little clip from it in a moment
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but just tell me first tell the tell the viewers what it is
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like christian values why would that define a canada well for instance um you know when
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When I was searching, researching about Canada, and then I learned about Canada Day was actually
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called Dominion Day, and I learned about why it was called Dominion Day.
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Doesn't everybody know that it was once called Dominion Day?
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And so I'm assuming that it was very similar with kids my age and since then, growing up.
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Well, it's interesting. Dominion Day comes from the fact that we are called the Dominion of Canada.
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And the Dominion of Canada came, the titling of that came from a man, a father of our confederation named Sir Samuel Tilley.
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And at a conference that they had to determine the Canadian confederation, Samuel Tilley did his devotions that morning as per normal.
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and came across Psalm 72 8 which says he means God shall have dominion from sea to sea and so
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he brought this forward to to the other fathers of confederation and I'm not sure exactly to tell
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you the truth at this point like how many of those fathers of confederation were Christians
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and how many were not but Christianity was such a normalized accepted part of this country that
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But when he suggested calling Canada the Dominion of Canada, it was accepted.
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And I think it also says in that verse, from the river to the ends of the earth.
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And I guess if you go from the St. Lawrence, which was probably what everybody was focused
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on on those days, to way up the hell and gone towards the Arctic, that must have seemed
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So, I mean, there's a nice little word picture there.
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have called it what else could they have called it uh well john mcdonald uh you know he suggested
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the kingdom of canada um but ultimately tilly's suggestion went out and the rest is history
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so the conc so what is the conclusion that you draw from the fact that first tilly suggested it
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based on his biblical knowledge and everybody else said yeah that works for me well as i said
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it was just christianity was a normalized accepted um even celebrated part of this country and it um
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it influenced everything um you know that we can be proud of in in this country a lot of it even
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our participation in world war one and world war ii we really saw that we were fighting against
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evil and people accepted that and they saw that it's like they saw it that way well i think
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you're speaking of a time when even people who frankly weren't faithful to going to church every
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sunday still thought well you know if you're going to argue don't at least don't argue with god
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you know right so there was a respect i guess for the principles of the bible even if there was not
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a ready wish to internalize them oneself absolutely absolutely so what does it mean when
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for a country then, if that's how it was, if you lose that.
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Well, one of the foundational verses that I go by as I created Stop the Drift, or as
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I'm creating Stop the Drift, is that Hebrews 2.1 says,
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um therefore we must earnestly take heed of the things we have heard less we drift away
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and we're drifting away from those christian values um everyone can see it you know in canada
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we we can name off multiple ways give us a few well i mean everything from you know our mental
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health crisis to our you know people our our crime our um homelessness issue it's just everything is
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just people are getting more and more anxious things are just not right anymore okay well
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i'll give you the crime one but can you elaborate a little on how drifting away from
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biblical principles would affect mental health or I think you said homelessness, I mean that's
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another one. Right, I mean it affects it so much because at the bare minimum. I mean I think we
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can agree that 50 years ago, 100 years ago when these principles were more widely respected we
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didn't seem to have these homeless problems and I'm sure there's still some people who
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which is supposed to be our foundational social structure
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And when you wipe away that foundational social structure,
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we can talk to all the mental health professionals,
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um when you take that away or when people are not living by biblical values then um then things just
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start falling apart to tell you the truth and because you know those things of honesty of
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integrity of character of building one's um life around values and principles that are about caring
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for one another and helping one another even that you know um the cbc uh did a thing about
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uh tommy douglas being you know the greatest canadian but um nobody knew that tommy douglas
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was actually a preacher and believed in the social gospel which was about like caring for
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one another that should be one of our basic principles because that's what jesus did jesus
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cared for people. He helped people. He wanted people to live right so that they could be well
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in this world. So are you saying that the CBC was a little selective in their research?
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I believe so. Yes. Well, I don't think we can put that down to a lack of biblical knowledge,
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but it certainly is something that we hear in this office quite frequently. All right. So
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I think that if you have a society where it's generally accepted that you shouldn't steal,
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you shouldn't murder you know those six commandments out of the ten that deal with
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how we interact with each other things would probably go a little more smoothly now when do
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we lose that my belief is that um and statistics will show it was kind of around um you know the
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1980s when we brought in the Charter for Rights and Freedoms and things like you know the Lord's
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Day Act got struck down, the abortion laws got struck down, like all these things that were
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meant to kind of protect people started getting challenged in court.
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So what was the basis of the challenge? I mean a ban on abortion, well I realize that's a highly
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inflammable issue and some people feel very passionately that it's a right but of course
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you know an organism is killed in the process um so you mentioned the lord's day act um again what
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is it such a bad thing that you can go to costco on sunday well i mean a lot of people say no
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that's not the day to go actually but um yeah anyway but i'm not i'm not here to be political
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about it but i i i just i'm just saying that that's kind of when um and probably even before
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then you know we we went to church as a family but it was like you know christmas and easter
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kind of so that was kind of the 70s so i think probably my belief is like from you know the
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introduction of multi multiculturalism with the first trudeau um i think that it's really started
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then and then just got you know further down the line um until the 80s well i mean i mean you are
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right according to what i have looked at read studied uh certainly the charter of rights and
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freedoms was indeed a turning point at which point the old way of interpreting the law which
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is well what did we do the last time precedent no no what what's going to be acceptable to most
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people it was a very definite uh uh intention to try and gauge the the the national sentiment
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i mean i don't know how you do that you read the globe and mail the star and listen to cbc and i
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guess in central canada that that defines everything but uh you know the courts decided
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that they had to somehow reflect what people really thought was right rather than some
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uh originalist yardstick and that's where that's i think so is that what you're reacting to
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i i believe so like you know when the con i'm not obviously against our charter of rights and
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freedoms but i am um it was a significant shift in the sense that the course decided what was
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right rather than parliament and um and that was a dramatic shift and they are unelected officials
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and and so you can't do much about it can you yeah all right um now you actually have been trying to
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do something about it last year i think you wanted to uh get what was a christian week or a national
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christian day or something before the city council ahead of that don't tell us about that well it
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wasn't me um you know molly and jay um banner jay um so who are these guys so they i just hoping
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i'm getting their their their name right banner jay sorry um molly and babe uh molly and jay banner
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jay was um they were they are a couple in toronto they're actually an immigrant couple and um from
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India, and they are the ones who started this whole movement to try and get Christian Heritage Month
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embedded into Canadian society. Christian Heritage Month? Yeah, for December, for the month of
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December. And when I met them, I said, why are you doing this? Like, you're immigrants, like,
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we're native-born Canadians, we haven't even done this. And they said to me, the reason we're doing
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this is because we um have seen what happens to a country when you take christianity out of it
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and so they're on a mission and they even um have um helped um one of the centers senators
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um just recently um start a bill that will declare christian heritage month across canada
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and so uh they're doing a great work and that's what actually started me thinking about wow this
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is this is amazing i'm a little embarrassed as a native canadian and a christian that i didn't
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think of this um but they they're passionate about it as they should be because they've seen
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what could happen and so um that started my journey about digging in to what what is this
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Christian heritage that we have. Again, it's not in our schools. It's not in our public
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consciousness. It's not on government websites. It's not even, you know, in those very institutions.
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Chiseled. Some of it is chiseled into the Peace Tower, you know.
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Some of it's chiseled into the Peace Tower, but I'm a little bit worried with the reconstruction
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of the Peace Tower, if they'll actually come out with the same verses in it. But...
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Do you have any reason to think that they might?
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that are supposed to reflect Canada to Canadians.
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yeah, we're trying to reflect Canada to Canadians,
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But the thing is, is that Canada as a Christian nation at its genesis is fact.
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Now, in the spirit of teaching, I think you had, I mean, this little video, which I thought
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was, well, I mean, you intended it to be informative, and it was informative, but it was very well
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together it was quite a nice it was it was quite a nice thing and i do encourage people to take a
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look at it and if we haven't already put it up on the screen we'll certainly have the uh the the
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web link there for you and it'll be embedded in the article that we always put out at the same
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time as we put out a podcast however you have further plans what are what are your further
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plans well my hope is um to do some kind of of a video like i did for canada day every month um
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looking at various aspects of our our canadian christian heritage to kind of unearth on unveil
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those facts um and the second video will be about um the fact is kind of a little bit of a play
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video sorry the third video the second video the second video yeah so the second video we'll look at
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um a little bit of a play on uh Justin Trudeau's um famous uh quote when he was interviewed by CNN
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in 2025 when he could only define Canada as we are not American and when I heard that I was like
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wow that's the only way we can define ourselves that we're not american um and and that's coming
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from the leader of our country um and so i started researching and thinking about well
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is that a true statement it is actually a true statement we are obviously different countries
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but people don't actually realize um how different we are and it has to do
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how different we are than the United States, and it actually has to do with the fact that
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Canada grew up as a distinctly Christian nation, whereas the states actually didn't.
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Really? I think the Americans, as they prepare for 250 years, would probably dispute that.
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I mean, is there money that has on it in God we trust, not ours?
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Absolutely. But there's definitely Christians' influence. I will not deny that. There's a strong
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Christian influence in the United States. In fact, they even attribute their rights
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to God. To God. But the Founding Fathers were actually deists. They weren't actually Christian.
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they were um they believed in god they believed in um you know the rationale um the rational
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acceptance of a god that created a universe um but they weren't christians and in fact
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they were deists and they were um uh freemasons as well which would go against um a lot of what
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Christianity would state would be true. So definitely a religious background in the United
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States, definitely a Christian influence, but the founding fathers did not believe in the truth of
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Jesus. And so that's an interesting, and it plays out in different ways. For instance,
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John Graves Simcoe was our first lieutenant governor in Upper Canada. And by the way,
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I grew up in Upper Canada in Ontario and never heard about John Graves Simcoe as being our first
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lieutenant governor. And the fact that he actually was the first person to create and pass an act
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against slavery in 1793 he was the first person in the british commonwealth to do so even before
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wilberforce and um and so i believe this fact wasn't taught um because he was a christian uh
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who just believed in the dignity and value of human life and um you're talking about your
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experience at school in the you said you were a child of the 70s so so we're talking about 50
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years ago uh there and simcoe was or 40 years ago i guess i don't imagine he popped from straight
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from the cradle into grade one but at any rate simcoe um did a very um counter-cultural thing
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for his time absolutely nobody ever said well i wonder why he did that right did he even talk
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about the fact that he did it at all when you were in school nope i never even knew who knew
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who john graves simcoe was and um and that again is in contrast to the united states for 41 i
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believe of the 52 founding fathers were slave holders yes well i i i'm not prepared to challenge
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the numbers i'm sure that was true of many so but in canada a lieutenant governor of what became the
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largest province took action 233 years ago to eliminate slavery from that part of the country
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for which he was responsible exactly and so that's just to me a just a very practical outworking of
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the belief his christian belief and and again the states is a very practical outworking of
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um why do you suppose that it is not taught and the kind of activity that you've ventured out on
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making little brief very watchable videos that inform why do you think it has to be that way
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what what's wrong with people they won't even admit i i wish i could tell you nigel i uh
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is a bad thing and we were one of the first to that should be a national talking point absolutely
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um and i don't i don't know i you know the the thing is is i just think we have been
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um taken over by like a a different kind of culture that just wants to suppress
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and and bury and um not acknowledge these facts uh that's my only understanding of it well
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if you ever figure it out come back and talk to us again having watched your video a couple
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of times i just want to congratulate you on a the quality of it and be the fact that you thought to
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do it at all and we look forward to seeing the next one well thank you very much for having me
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i really appreciate being here and talking about this video and about this journey of you know
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stop the drift i think it's an important one and as i said no matter what ideological bent you come
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from um it doesn't matter the facts are the facts and they should be taught and they should be part
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of our public consciousness amen so any last words for the operator separatists
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don't give up on canada um i i honestly believe that um if we get back to our christian roots
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that things they and people start operating that way people will start seeing that actually this
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is a wonderful country and to be proud of and so i would say don't give up on canada i know it's
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hard right now i know there's a lot of angst and a lot of um you know discontent as it as it should
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be however um i really believe in this country especially when you learn about our christian
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heritage gail thank you for giving us your time thank you nice to see you in here thank you
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For the Western Standard, I'm Nigel Hannaford. Good night.