• by Gord Hotchkiss , Featured Contributor, July 1, 2025

"You can't really know where you're going until you know where you've been." – poet Maya Angelou

Today is Canada Day -- the Canadian version of the Fourth of July. In the past decade or so, it’s been a day fraught with some existential angst, as we try to reconcile our feelings of pride with our often-glaring imperfections as Canadians. In a country known for its readiness to apologize, this is perhaps the most Canadian of Canadian holidays -- a day made for wondering if we should be saying “we’re sorry.”

This year, it will be interesting to see how Canada celebrates. As I’ve mentioned before, what is happening south of the border has caused Canadians to have a renewed burst of patriotism and pride. We may not be united on much, but we know, universally, that we don’t want to be the 51^st state. No offense (heaven forbid),  but we’re good as is, President Trump. Really.

A few days ago, I happened across a little video posted to celebrate Canada. It was a montage of “Heritage Minutes” -- little vignettes of our Canadian past produced since 1990 by Historica Canada. This montage was set to a song by another Canadian icon, “It’s a Good Life if You Don’t Weaken,” by the Tragically Hip. The four-minute-and-29-second video checked all the boxes guaranteed to generate the warm fuzzies for Canadians: Anne of Green Gables (check); the invention of basketball and the telephone (check); the discovery of insulin (check); the origins of Superman (check); the naming of Winnie the Pooh (check); our contributions in two World Wars (check and check). It was Canadiana distilled; more than maple syrup, which is mostly an Eastern Canadian thing. More than poutine, which most Canadians had never heard of until 20 years ago. Maybe on a par with hockey.

But the montage also reminded me of some not-so-glorious Canadian moments. We were imperfect in our abhorrent treatment of immigrants in the past -- especially the Chinese and Japanese. And our ignoring -- and worse, our attempts to eradicate -- the incredibly rich and diverse indigenous history and culture because it was inconvenient to our dreams of nation-building.

Canada’s history is distinct from that of the U.S.A. In the last half of the 19^th century and the beginning of the 20^th century, when immigration started in earnest, we were very much a British colony. Anyone who was not British was treated as either a necessary evil (providing the manual labor required to build a new country) or as a persona non grata. As for those that preceded us -- the indigenous population of Canada -- the British saw them as an inconvenience and potential threat, to either be tamed or systematically eradicated.

This, too, is part of Canada’s history. And we have to acknowledge that, because to do so gives us a compass to navigate both the present and future. That montage reminds us that immigration built this country. And Canada’s thousands of years of indigenous past needs to be recognized so the entire history of our nation can be honestly reconciled. We need to fix our bearings so they read true before we move forward.

Canadians today needs to decide what we aspire to be as a nation in the future. And to do that, we need to remember where we’ve been. Do we ignore the fact that we are a nation of immigrants and are so much the richer for it? Do we conveniently forget that there were people here thousands of years before the first European set foot on Canadian soil? We need to fully understand what made Canada what it is, both good and bad -- an imperfect country that still happens to be a pretty great place to live.

In the song that the montage is set to, the Tragically Hip’s Gord Downie sings:

In the forest of whispering speakers
Let's swear that we will
Get with the times
In a current health to stay

But maybe we can do better than just maintain the status quo. If we remember where we’ve been, maybe we can do better in the future than where we are now.

Happy Canada Day!