Commentary
Upon the approach of July 1, it is always a temptation to collapse into maudlin platitudes and wave the maple leaf flag around somewhat thoughtlessly.
Regular readers will be aware of my frequent remonstrations about the failure of most Canadians to develop much awareness of our history. This is an abundant country with a neighbour that has not seriously bothered us for over 200 years, and did so at that time only because it had a legitimate grievance against the British but had no other way to take it out on them except to attack us. Because of that, it has been easy to think it has been a simple and uneventful progress through the centuries to our present condition. This severely shortchanges previous generations of Canadians and a sequence of our outstanding statesmen….