A survey from the Angus Reid Institute says 72 per cent of Canadians say they believe you can have a good quality of life in this country.Carlos Osorio/Reuters
In late January, 2022, dozens of trucks and tractor trailers arrived in the nation’s capital to take part in a protest.
What started out as a rebellion against COVID-19 protocols morphed into something else, something bigger and more disturbing: It became a demonstration against Canada itself. There were reports of a manifesto that imagined the protesters taking over the federal government.
Patience among those living in downtown Ottawa wore out; residents demanded their city back. By Family Day weekend in February, police had moved in to arrest dozens of protesters and remove scores of vehicles that had occupied the precinct around Parliament Hill.
Somewhere along the way, the dissidents stole our flag.
A guide to The Globe’s Canada Day coverage
You’ll remember this: The same people who broke the law by ignoring city bylaws and disrupting the peace for nearly a month proclaimed themselves Canadian “patriots.” They flew our flag from their trucks. They hung it over their encampments. By the end, many Canadians associated the red-and-white Maple Leaf with the so-called Freedom Convoy.
For a long time after, whenever you saw a truck going down the street bearing a Canadian flag, you likely thought: Freedom Convoy lover. Many of us were afraid to hang a flag outside our home on Canada Day for fear of being associated with the bunch who had occupied our capital and tried to bully our government.
Not any more.
Pride in this country is swelling. There are many reasons for that, of course, not the least of which is U.S. President Donald Trump. When he threatened us with economic damnation through tariffs and suggested we become America’s 51st state, we were at first flabbergasted, and then angry. We have (mostly) banded together in solidarity against his actions.
The past few months have been an epiphany for many of us. We have watched news reports showing masked officers, under the direction of the U.S. President, apprehending people on American streets. We have seen some of them sent to prisons in South America on false pretenses.
We have watched people riot in the streets of Los Angeles, seen prestigious universities cowed into silence, witnessed an unrelenting attack on a free press, observed an undermining of the legitimacy of science. All in America. How is this possible?
When we travel the world and wear a Canadian flag, we are reminded how lucky we are to live where we do. No matter where you go, people embrace this country and those of us who call it home. Canada, you learn, is noted for something worldwide: its goodness.
That’s something to be proud of, not embarrassed by.
For Canada Day, a nation with ‘elbows up’ asks how it should party down
Fresh polling confirms all this. The Angus Reid Institute has just released a survey that shows 72 per cent of Canadians believe you can have a good quality of life in this country. About 80 per cent say they are proud (to various degrees) to be a Canadian. Optimism for the future is up. Meantime, a new Environics poll indicates that around nine out of 10 of us are either very or somewhat attached to Canada. Over the past year, the number who say they are very attached has increased from 51 to 57 per cent.
Of course, not everyone feels the same way. There are regional differences. Many living in Alberta and Saskatchewan don’t share the same warm and fuzzy feeling about the country that exists in other parts of Canada. At least not to the same degree. And that’s okay. Still, I will not forget how loudly the fans of the Edmonton Oilers sang O Canada before the start of every Stanley Cup playoff game in their home arena.
This is all somewhat of a relief. The period after the occupation of the capital, in the midst of the pandemic, was not fun. And the lead-up to a federal election, as we recently saw, can always contribute to some soul-searching, as politicians hoping to form government try and hammer home just how much is wrong with Canada. That’s their job. But sometimes they can be almost too good at it, convincing us that we are a failed nation, that we aren’t as good as we used to be – that we don’t have as much to fight for as we once did.
And they couldn’t be more wrong.
This Canada Day, I am more thankful than ever that I have a Canadian passport. You just have to look around this crazy world to see that. Are things perfect? No. And they never will be. But we’re always striving for better.
Perhaps the best thing about this Canada Day is this: We have our flag back. May it never be hijacked again.