Canada is an oasis of calm in an increasingly turbulent and violent world, something that should be celebrated this Canada Day, but never taken for granted.
This country has been shielded from war, and has been free from the kind of domestic strife that has torn apart other nations. That placid history is a piece of good fortune that has persisted for so long that it has come to seem both unremarkable and immutable.
But the world is changing. The international order that has underpinned the Canada’s peace and prosperity since the end of the Second World War is under assault.
A full-scale land war is being fought in Europe, as Russia’s illegal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine drags into its third year. Cities devastated by bombing, infantry trenches carved into the countryside, tank battles, casualty lists running into the hundreds of thousands: these were all things that were scenes in old battlefield footage or pages in a history book. They are now bloodthirsty reality.
But Ottawa, and too many Canadians, seem to want to ignore that reality, and to duck the urgent need to rebuild this country’s military. Other Western countries have recognized that serious resources must be devoted to confronting and containing the emerging authoritarian alliance of Russia, China, North Korea and Iran.
Canada, shamefully, has refused to follow suit, and is now at the back of the pack for defence spending within the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
To be clear: Rebuilding Canada’s military is not a favour to our European allies, or to the United States. Sharply increased defence expenditures are simply the most fundamental duty the government owes its citizens: to protect them from hostile forces.
The federal Liberals have failed to meet Canada’s obligations, but the Conservatives have made only vague commitments to do better. Neither party is willing to spell out what sacrifices will be needed to rebuild Canada’s defences.
That studied silence is only made possible through the indifference of voters, who should be outraged that Canada is not doing its part to defend freedom and international law – something that earlier generations fought and died for. Instead, there is a shrug; others can do the fighting. After all, who could ever disturb Canada’s oasis?
There is a similar complacency at work with the emerging cracks in Canada’s (increasingly less) civil society. Protest, however vigorous, is a fundamental right and is at the heart of democracy. Canadians have every right to tell politicians what they think of their policies and performance.
All of that is true. But so is this: Canadians owe each other respect in exercising those rights – civility, in a word. Increasingly, that obligation is being ignored.
Politicians aren’t just being criticized. They’re being attacked, spat on and threatened. Protests aren’t just aimed at making a point. They’re aimed at occupying spaces and controlling the streets, an exhibition of mob power. That is not democracy.
The border blockades and the lengthy occupation of the Parliamentary district in the winter of 2022 were a vivid illustration of the difference. There’s no contradiction between opposing the Trudeau government’s use of vaccine mandates as a wedge issue and also being opposed to those anti-democratic tactics.
More recently, some pro-Palestinian protests have drifted in the same unfortunate direction. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was hounded out of a Vancouver restaurant. He and other cabinet members had to cancel a planned meeting with the Italian prime minister because protesters had blockaded the venue.
Other protests have targeted Jewish-Canadian communities, businesses, institutions and even synagogues. There is no contradiction between opposing Israel’s actions against Hamas in Gaza and also being opposed to those anti-democratic tactics.
Canada is not automatically immune from the divisions that have scarred other countries. It took decades of hard work to build Canada, and to help build a world in which Canadians could live in freedom, without fear.
Our oasis of peace, order and good government is a gift from earlier generations.
It’s an inheritance that should be celebrated – and safeguarded.