Commentary
Whether President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign for Canada to join the United States is a negotiation strategy, a passing fancy, or reflects a genuine belief, it has provoked a defiant and fiery “Never!” from Canadian politicians and public figures across the spectrum.
But the backlash against the idea of becoming the 51st U.S. state exposes a deep contradiction in a country where in recent years there’s been a systematic effort to erase the Canadian identity and founding history.
This eruption of patriotic fervour is taking place in a country which has been the subject of a statue-toppling campaign directed against its historical figures—more than a dozen from 2020 to 2022 alone. The targets have ranged from Queen Victoria to Egerton Ryerson, a pioneer of public education in Ontario, whose statue at what was formerly Ryerson University (renamed Toronto Metropolitan) was torn down and beheaded by a mob of demonstrators in 2021….