A Canada Day Unlike Any Other?

 

This is a Canada Day unlike any other in my lifetime, having been born in the mid-1950s. I am  old enough that I was well aware of the adoption of our new Maple Leaf flag and when I spent time in Europe  as a nineteen-year-old that flag was sewn on to my backpack. Times and awareness change so while I'm still proud to be Canadian I'm also aware that "our home on Native land" might be an honest and necessary change to our national anthem.

Canada Day 2026 will be celebrated with an awareness that our closest neighbour can no longer be construed as "our best friend whether we like it or not", as the quip goes. The disrespect and outright hostility exhibited by the US administration makes America an existential threat to our wellbeing and sovereignty.

Prime Minister Carney has countered these realities with legislation and proposals that will expedite our security in many facets of our national life, including infrastructure. There was a timely opinion piece in the Globe and Mail on Monday with the title: Canada needs to invest in nature as infrastructure. 

The authors argue persuasively that as a nation we can't dismiss what I would call caring for Creation as vital to our health and independence. They term it differently, of course, and here are a few paragraphs: 

Anastasia Mourogova Millin is a founder of Ombrello Solutions and DanSa Capital Innovation.

Jeremy Guth is director of conservation programs at the Woodcock Foundation.

Nina-Marie Lister is professor of urban planning and director of the Ecological Design Lab at Toronto Metropolitan University.

This spring, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced the Force of Nature strategy, followed later by the Canada Strong Fund. While the two are separate initiatives – the first to protect and enhance the country’s biodiversity, the second to stimulate investment in Canada’s economy – they are, in reality, closely integrated. Nature is the primary vital infrastructure on which Canada’s economy and its future depends. We need new investment tools to finance its permanence.

We are all familiar with grey infrastructure – roads, bridges, sewers, pipelines, rails – and Canadians especially are equally aware of the critical value of nature. Without biodiversity (the basis of nature), there is no foundation for our economy, which relies on pollination, food, forests, soils, and clean water. Biodiversity is also our best natural defence against climate change. But what we often miss is the direct value relationship between nature, private assets, and grey infrastructure.

What follows iin the piece wise and to my way of thinking as a Canadian and a Christian absolutely necessary for our future.

We aren't declaring "elbows up" much anymore and that's probably a good thing. It was a patriotic slogan for a particular moment but hockey metaphors can become tired, eh? 

 I figure we should sing "God keep our land, glorious and free" with a renewed fervour (with a U) and awareness that this land, "from sea to sea to sea"  is a gift from the Creator for all. We can woof all we want about the threat posed to Canada by America but we need to ensure that this land is abundant and livable, a force of nature, through the choices we make now for generations to come.