A blessed Dominion Day to all our readers, on which we celebrate the official founding of ‘Canada’ as a (mostly) independent part of the British Commonwealth since the signing into effect of such in 1867. Although we gained further sovereignty, of a sort, with Pierre Trudeau’s 1982 Constitutional Act – along with his bland, but insidious Charter of Rights and Freedoms – we are still technically a democratic-constitutional monarchy, with full authority residing in the Queen, through her representative, the Governor-General, who bestows authority to rule on the Prime Minister, his cabinet and party, and the parliament overseen by them, whether as a majority or minority rule.
As someone once quipped: North of the 49th parallel we value equality; south of it, they treasure freedom.
For all the talk of democracy, we don’t have much say in Canada, except a vote for a member of parliament every four years or so, who cannot do much but sit mutely by. Back to Pierre Trudeau, who spoke more truth than he perhaps wanted to let on, when he called such back-bench MP’s ‘nobodies’. Power now resides in the Prime Minister and his ‘chosen few’, his cabinet ministers, and, if a crisis arises, in unelected judges, as we just discovered with the carbon tax fiasco. The National Post reports that Justice Grant Huscroft really ‘gave it’ to Ottawa in his dissent, when the rest of the judges decided that the rapacious and illegal tax to be just fine and dandy. Well, so what? Should not the majority choose whether they want to be taxed to ‘fix’ the environment, and if the majority says no – as they inevitably would – should not the tax be abolished?
But let us today rejoice in what Canada does have: Not only an unsurpassed scenic beauty, as well the freedom to move about and explore that beauty. We also, so far, and far more importantly, have the freedom to worship, associate, write and teach and criticize the government, our dear leaders, to our heart’s content. Yes, such freedom is being whittled away, especially in our public institutions, so let us fight and defend our freedom, and use wisely what freedoms we do have.
The best way to do is to keep firmly in our hearts and minds that Canada was founded on Christian principles, as embodied in the one, true, holy Catholic and apostolic Church, spread and watered by the blood of martyrs, apostles, missionaries, pioneers, and all the noble first dwellers in this land. We have made ourselves slaves by jettisoning that heritage, for a government can only control people who, at some level, want to be controlled, and have sold their birthright for a bowl of milquetoast Liberal-esque pottage.
We would do well to honour their memory by waking up, and telling the powers that be that enough is enough, and that the only way to live, is to live free.