Do You Love Us? Let Me Count The Dollars
Ah, it's July 1st, Canada Day. Our 140th birthday as a nation. I recall as though only yesterday when Canada celebrated her centennial.
I was a young mother then, of three young children. It wasn't at that time celebrated in quite the same way; not as a day-off-work-for-national-pride day. I bundled two of the three children into/onto the baby stroller, with the third occasionally jumping on just behind the handles for a free ride. For it was quite a distance we traversed from our modest little house in a subdivision to the environs of the small town it bordered.
It was a bemusedly festive occasion, the first such I can recall. At a local shopping mall we rested from our arduous walk and watched a First Nations group of entertainers sing, play drums and dance, fully costumed, for our pleasure. Lending to the enterprise much glamour and enabling the children to find reason to laugh and feel themselves part of the general atmosphere. Giving me the opportunity to offer to my nestlings a minor lesson in history and to acknowledge our indebtedness to those who were there first.
In the interim, Canada has attempted, before and since then to render unto First Nations that which is due them. Spectacularly unsuccessfully, given the evidence before us of endemic poverty, family stress and strain, unemployment, substance abuse, suicides, education failures, and embitterment. Of course responsibility has never been a one-way street, and it's equally incumbent on our respected First Nations to haul themselves into a state of functional repair.
Because we love them, because we hold their traditions and history in such high esteem, but above all, because we suffer the anguish of our guilt, we proffer great sums of money which tend to accomplish, in the end, very little at all. And then there's that other festering sore whose ugly head raises itself continually, that of a stubbornly separate and fervently 'sovereign' French-Canadian population within the province of Quebec.
Our indigenous people found the geography; then came the co-founders of the nation, the French and the English, and never did these three solitudes whose interests in the land converge, find it in themselves to dissolve enmities and differences in outlook and attitudes, and work together as equals toward the fulfilment of the national dream.
The province of Quebec, the largest provincial land mass in the country, and the second most populous, considers itself completely entitled to the kind of full political autonomy denied any other province within confederation. While demanding rather more than its full share of the economic pie. Quebecers express true patriot love that comes with a sizeable price tag.
Within Canada, just as an example, there are municipal parks, provincial parks and federally-operated parks which are called national parks. These national parks serve a double purpose; as a recreational geography available to all Canadians - and they serve also as a way in which the integrity of their territory can be preserved for future generations. Only in Quebec are provincial parks termed "national" parks; the 'national' relating to sovereign Quebec.
As another example: more than half of all federal "Celebrate Canada" funding for July 1st Canada Day events is directed toward Quebec-based programmes. Why might that be? Well, because the only "national" event that Quebec recognizes is what was formerly called St.Jean Baptist Day, and which has been re-named "fete Nationale", a holiday celebrated for and by the Province of Quebec, as their sovereign holiday.
Fully 55% of funds channelled through Canada's Department of Canadian Heritage heads for Quebec. The other nine provinces and three Territories divvy up the remaining 45%. The reason being, we are informed, because the province of Quebec will not fund Canada Day events. Not their holiday, after all.
Ah, dear Quebec, how much do you love this country? Need any help counting the cash?
I was a young mother then, of three young children. It wasn't at that time celebrated in quite the same way; not as a day-off-work-for-national-pride day. I bundled two of the three children into/onto the baby stroller, with the third occasionally jumping on just behind the handles for a free ride. For it was quite a distance we traversed from our modest little house in a subdivision to the environs of the small town it bordered.
It was a bemusedly festive occasion, the first such I can recall. At a local shopping mall we rested from our arduous walk and watched a First Nations group of entertainers sing, play drums and dance, fully costumed, for our pleasure. Lending to the enterprise much glamour and enabling the children to find reason to laugh and feel themselves part of the general atmosphere. Giving me the opportunity to offer to my nestlings a minor lesson in history and to acknowledge our indebtedness to those who were there first.
In the interim, Canada has attempted, before and since then to render unto First Nations that which is due them. Spectacularly unsuccessfully, given the evidence before us of endemic poverty, family stress and strain, unemployment, substance abuse, suicides, education failures, and embitterment. Of course responsibility has never been a one-way street, and it's equally incumbent on our respected First Nations to haul themselves into a state of functional repair.
Because we love them, because we hold their traditions and history in such high esteem, but above all, because we suffer the anguish of our guilt, we proffer great sums of money which tend to accomplish, in the end, very little at all. And then there's that other festering sore whose ugly head raises itself continually, that of a stubbornly separate and fervently 'sovereign' French-Canadian population within the province of Quebec.
Our indigenous people found the geography; then came the co-founders of the nation, the French and the English, and never did these three solitudes whose interests in the land converge, find it in themselves to dissolve enmities and differences in outlook and attitudes, and work together as equals toward the fulfilment of the national dream.
The province of Quebec, the largest provincial land mass in the country, and the second most populous, considers itself completely entitled to the kind of full political autonomy denied any other province within confederation. While demanding rather more than its full share of the economic pie. Quebecers express true patriot love that comes with a sizeable price tag.
Within Canada, just as an example, there are municipal parks, provincial parks and federally-operated parks which are called national parks. These national parks serve a double purpose; as a recreational geography available to all Canadians - and they serve also as a way in which the integrity of their territory can be preserved for future generations. Only in Quebec are provincial parks termed "national" parks; the 'national' relating to sovereign Quebec.
As another example: more than half of all federal "Celebrate Canada" funding for July 1st Canada Day events is directed toward Quebec-based programmes. Why might that be? Well, because the only "national" event that Quebec recognizes is what was formerly called St.Jean Baptist Day, and which has been re-named "fete Nationale", a holiday celebrated for and by the Province of Quebec, as their sovereign holiday.
Fully 55% of funds channelled through Canada's Department of Canadian Heritage heads for Quebec. The other nine provinces and three Territories divvy up the remaining 45%. The reason being, we are informed, because the province of Quebec will not fund Canada Day events. Not their holiday, after all.
Ah, dear Quebec, how much do you love this country? Need any help counting the cash?
Labels: Canada, Politics of Convenience
posted by Pieface | 5:11 PM
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