Elbows up for Canada Day
Country’s birthday celebrations look different this year in light of Trump’s annexation threat
Some Canada Day celebrants show off their bike-decorating efforts at Kuujjuaq’s festivities in 2020. (File photo by Isabelle Dubois)
There’s nothing quite like the threat of being annexed by the United States to rekindle a patriotic sentiment that has been flagging for the past few years. It’s funny how an existential threat can put things in perspective.
Suddenly, U.S. President Donald Trump’s rambling musings about making Canada his country’s 51st state have rekindled a patriotic sentiment among Canadians.
This past six months have seen the “Elbows Up” slogan emerge, the surge in popularity of “Canada’s Not For Sale” ballcaps, and the desire to see a Canadian NHL team bring the Stanley Cup home burn a little more intensely than usual.
But think back just four years ago. Things were much different. In 2021, many communities outright cancelled Canada Day celebrations while even more dialled them back as Canadians came to terms with the fact there are unmarked graves at residential schools where Indigenous children who died at those schools were buried.
Canadians weren’t in the mood for a party that year as they reckoned with the painful truth of an ugly part of their country’s history. Many still aren’t. Since then, celebrations have continued to be somewhat muted.
But when faced with the prospect that the leader of the most powerful country in the world wants to take away Canadian sovereignty, Canadians naturally got their backs up. When the country takes a holiday on Tuesday, there will be a lot of people thinking about what it means to have an independent country and why what we have is worth cherishing and protecting from outside threats.
Like the country itself, Canada Day has always been evolving. The holiday only officially got that name in 1982. Until then, it was called Dominion Day. That colonial-sounding name was retired the same year Canada’s constitution was repatriated.
In Quebec, Canada Day has typically played second fiddle to St. Jean-Baptiste Day, la fête nationale in la belle province.
Nationally, it has never been the star-spangled, flag-waving spectacle that the Fourth of July has been to Americans. And that’s fine. Canadians are more subdued anyhow. But we’ve seen Canadians respond with their own brand of patriotism.
In recent months, Trump has toned down his “51st state” rhetoric. That talk has been a lot less frequent. But the damage to the Canada-U.S. relationship has been done and it will be lasting.
As Prime Minister Mark Carney has said, the traditional relationship based on economic integration and military co-operation is “over.”
In a country as big and as complex as Canada, there has to be room to lament the mistakes that were made — especially involving the treatment of Indigenous Peoples — to resolve to fix them and do better, while celebrating what makes Canada worth being a sovereign, independent country.
This year’s Canada Day should be a reminder that the right to shape our future belongs to Canadians, not to the megalomaniac leader of a foreign country.
There’s also room to celebrate what Canada is … and what it isn’t — the 51st state of the United States.
To those who celebrate, Happy Canada Day.
Carney may have said during the campaign that the traditional relationship of economic integration and military cooperation is over, but he knows very that this is a ridiculous idea. The US is our neighbour, they are the biggest market in the world, they’re our biggest trading partner, and it’s much easier and cheaper to ship goods to them than to countries in other parts of the world.
So that’s why Carney’s statement is ridiculous, and he knows that since his actions over the last few months completely contradict it: Since being elected, Carney has been cozying up to Trump and praising him as a strong and wise leader. This understandably sickens most people but we’ve seen what’s going on. Carney has also given in to Trump’s demand that we spend 5 percent of our GDP on military defence. Carney even got us excited about a new trade deal with the US, but it looks like that fell through because of our new digital services tax.
We will always have an important relationship with the US. We share the North American continent and anyone who says that our relationship is over is delusional.
I think his point was the ‘traditional relationship’ is no longer guaranteed or even in place.
Of course the relationship goes on, but with less certainty and trust. For now the traditional relationship does seem over. Will it last? What will come of the damaged trust.
The partnership with us will not the the same, not ended entirely but must change and we must diversify, expand and develop internally. Goback and listen to what he actually said not what you think he said. You must be an outstanding diversify g economist and financial wise,and to be able to judge his plans and goals as ridiculous.
At least this overshadows the silly SJWs “cancel canada day” trend… unhappy people trying to make everyone else unhappy.
Weak slogan stolen from the liberals, Carney caves to Trump on everything.
I am constantly amused and verified when I see the alignment of people who hold invalid ideas. I say invalid ideas because the ideas have no basis in causality.
Take for instance the Elbows Up movement, the DIE movement, the Covidmania movement and the Climataclysm movement. Same people who support one movement support all the others; all of the alignment based on individuals knowing only what they are told to know.
It’s a solid argument against majority-rule