The New Face of Canada
Justin Trudeau, his wife Sophie Grégoire and their three children, Xavier, 7, Ella-Grace, 5, and five-month-old Hadrien ((Web Photo, October 2014)
This family represents The New Face of Canada, a country where everyone who becomes a citizen knows they have made the right choice, a country where the mosaic of culture was stitched together in manner that sets us apart and a country were people care about helping others be it on the home front or around the world.
Heading towards a New Era.
As you may have noticed by my comments on Facebook and in this blog, I have regularly chaffed at how our government has, over the past decade, treated minorities – Muslims and Aboriginals in particular, but also the mentally ill and others who have fallen on hard times – as stepping stones to remaining in power.
With the election results now in, 65% of Canadians have said ‘no’ to the politics of fear. We have turned a corner and this happened because Canadians at large were no longer willing to be browbeaten into submission by those who tried to use fear as the main platform in their re-election campaign.
If Conservatives ever again wish to lead Canada, and there are many individual party members and supporters who have excellent qualities, they will need to shed that mean streak which has driven them to enact laws and propose others that diminish our democracy; where wedge issues are used to ridicule minorities and where other leaders are attacked in the most unseemly ways. Why is this no longer acceptable?
Will young people lead the way?
The change began because many educated, well-travelled, motivated young people have now joined the fray in significant numbers and they actively reject this approach and it is they who will soon be to calling the shots. Also, these young people and a good number of older people are now connected by social media that allows a massive exchange of information and ideas outside the control of government and mainstream media. It is a new world of information sharing in which the old ways of controlling the message no longer works.
While many of these young people have a long standing connection to Canada, others have only first or second generation citizenship, but what they all well understand is that freedom – that is “freedom of conscience and religion; freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication; freedom of peaceful assembly; and freedom of association,” – is the foundation upon which this country was built. They will not readily relinquish that right simply because a a government or government agency tells them it is being done for their own good, for their safety and well being. (Link Charter of Rights and Freedoms)
Why do young people make a difference?
In travels to various parts of the world over the past two decades, Lynn and I found the best way to determine how well a country is doing (outside war zones), is to take the temperature of young people. If young people are excited about the future, if they want to stay in their home country, if they feel there is a future for them – you can pretty much take it as a given the country is doing well. While Canada is certainly one such a country, I think that over the past decade many young people have come to question the direction we have been taking, not only in how easily we let our freedoms erode and how we treat visible minorities, but also how we continue to degrade our environment. It’s time for change.
Scanning Facebook posts and in conversations with the many young people having close connection to our family, I can say with certainty they are becoming more engaged in issues of the day and they want a Canada where immigrants and refugees are made to feel welcome no matter which part of the world they come from and they want a Canada that will work to preserve our environment even if we must lower our high standard of living to accomplish this. They want a living, vibrant, welcoming land for their children and their children’s children.
They also understand that Aboriginals arrived and settled this country thousands of years before any European immigrants and refugees, so consider it patently unfair to suggest that any particular cultural group that arrived after the Aboriginals has a ‘God given” right to be recognized as being more Canadian than groups who arrived later.
Thank you to everyone for getting out the vote, now let’s begin the healing process in order that we can again become a world class cultural mosaic of which we can all be proud.
Harold
Take a moment to listen to Trudeau’s Full Acceptance Speech. It will tell you something about the man who is about to become the Prime Minister of Canada.
NOTE: I have not yet figured out how to edit the YOU MAY ALSO LIKE THIS: as it includes links I have not approved. Cheers, Harold
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