Canada 150

Fifty years ago I canoed at the age of 17 years with a high school chum from the City of Kingston, Ontario up the Rideau canal system to Ottawa for Canada’s 100^th celebration of Confederation. That was before heading down the Ottawa River to the Expo 67 World’s Fair in Montréal, Quebec.  It was a time of innocence, both for myself and for this country.

This year, my partner and I drove to Ottawa from our home in the Northumberland Hills for the 150^th celebration of Confederation. Yes Confederation, the time in 1867 when Canada became more or less independent of colonial rule by Britain. Now we know well enough that this land mass known today as “Canada” has existed for millennia – not always in its present formation by any means. And we know that this land – or parts of it at any rate has been inhabited by homo sapiens for many thousands of years, notably the collection of indigenous peoples known variously as Indians, Innuit, (once upon a time as Eskimos), aboriginals, and First Nations. More than 1000 years ago, Norsemen briefly settled on our shores too. Then came the French, followed quickly by the English and subsequently by Scots and Irish, then Africans under regrettable circumstances, followed by Ukrainians, Germans, Russians, Icelandics and finally people from virtually every continent and every country of this planet earth.

So whose land is this anyway? Does anyone have a superior claim to it? Aren’t we all just stewards of this place now called Canada? Whether the dominant culture is this or that, whether one group or another has variously attained ascendancy or control of sorts, whether our past has been kind and generous or greedy and cruel – or a combination of both – we do have much to celebrate – much to rejoice in and of course, much to regret and atone for. But as has been said before, “hindsight is a poor judge of history”. Much of the harm came from good intention, as that “Good” was understood in days gone by. We now realize from our contemporary understanding, I hope, that the “Good” our ancestors believed in is not a “Good” we can accept today.

But in saying this, I also say that perpetuating a sense of victimization is not helpful. If those who feel they and their ancestors have been oppressed are not willing to rise above their sense of victimhood, then I fear there is no hope for reconciliation or moving forward in a positive manner. It is not enough to say “You hurt me, so fix it”. Help us collectively to find a way to fix it in a manner that is meaningful and practical given the realities of this world, which we all share, in this difficult 21^st Century. So far, there is no consensus on how to move forward. Personally, I do not believe that continued segregation or isolation can ever be healthy for a people.

However, I started to speak of celebration, and to that topic I now return: My partner and I were merely two of hundreds of thousands of celebrants who had descended on this nation’s capital for the festivities. And we descended in rain ponchos and under umbrellas because it rained incessantly for many days. But under those rain shields were patient, smiling, cheerful faces of young and old and of all imaginable races and mixtures of races. As far as we experienced there was no ill-will or bad behaviour by the city’s guests. People were there simply to have a healthy and respectful “good time”.

We had arrived two days ahead of July 1, the actual date for the anniversary of Confederation. Indeed, we had made our decision to attend and fortunately our reservations for accommodation one year in advance. Hotels we had called were already booked even then, and so we found ourselves a delightful Bed & Breakfast in the heart of the City. And we walked all over Ottawa those first two days, watching the streets grow more and more crowded with visitors, observing the erection of security barriers and the closure of streets to vehicular traffic. The City was teaming with police, military, volunteers and general security – polite, smiling, respectful and helpful all.

Our first and second days we walked down Elgin from our B&B, into the wonderful Market area, and along the canal. We made our way by the National Gallery and visited the Canadian Collection there on our second day. It was fantastic. Across the street was  the Peace Monument where the inspection of the Royal Guard would take place on July 1. And finally a day early we wound our way through the new security maze for Parliament Hill in order to get our bearings and to find out how “the Day” would unfold. And we are so glad we did because we learned what to expect, just how to approach it, how early we would have to be there to be sure of getting our place on the Hill and near the massive stage that was being set up in front of the Peace Tower of our Parliament building.

By the end of those first two days, we would fall into bed exhausted and happy, aching and desiring sleep, well sated at various pubs and restaurants. Our favourite and most expensive meal was at the Social on Sussex Street. And it was worth every penny. The meal was scrumptious and we were treated like celebrities by the pleasant staff. We had made that reservation a year prior too!

We woke early on July 1. It was raining. It was pouring. And we left the shelter of our B&B at 7:30 a.m. after a hasty breakfast, progressing down Elgin Street under our two umbrellas. It was at least warm. Even then people were streaming out of the various side streets toward the entrance to the security maze. One just accepted the rain, after all we had already had two days to get used to being in it. We and the other early birds made our way through the security maze with relative ease and good humour.

The grounds of Parliament Hill were already saturated when we settled into our place to the right of the stage at 8:00 a.m. There we stood for hours in the rain, sometimes torrential, chatting, laughing, watching, and splashing in the puddles at our waterlogged feet. The Hill gradually filled up with people, most standing with umbrellas or in ponchos, and some with chairs or stools, or even ground sheets that were soon abandoned. There was a patient, happy-go-lucky acceptance of the rain and wet on the faces of the crowd.

In front of us was a family of four, two adolescent boys and their young parents, sitting content and cheerful. Next to us was a couple from Nova Scotia. Behind us standing was a large intergenerational family of Indians (aboriginals) who were very much into the festivities. People were engaged with each other with conversation, a smile or the nod of the head.

The official ceremony did not begin until after 11:00 a.m. after much testing of the audio and visual systems. A duo got the crowd going with a robust chorus of Leonard Cohen’s “Halleluiah”. There was a carillon from the bell tower softly chiming songs of Canada: O’ Canada, God Save the Queen, The Maple Leaf Forever and many more, even as the cacophony of sound testing continued.

Large screens where placed to the side of the stage to supplement the in person experience of the tiny figures visible on the large stage. This was a great benefit because otherwise we would have missed much of the events taking place around us.

We had no idea what was going on outside the confines of the Hill. However, later we would see that thousands of people had been filling the blocked-off streets and had watched the proceedings on the many large screens that had also been placed there. The streets, Elgin, Rideau, Sussex and the Market area, were ablaze with a sea of people in red. Many stood for hours waiting to pass through security to get onto the Hill – but in vain because the Hill had filled to capacity quite early. Security was tight, reassuring and friendly. This was a new world from the one on Parliament Hill I had experienced in 1967.

From our vantage point we were not cut off from events outside. We were able to watch the Prince of Wales and the Governor General inspect the guard at the Peace Monument we had visited the day before. We watched the Royal and Vice-Regal motorcade drive off, only to see them mount an open landau and progress through the streets to Parliament Hill in an equine cavalcade of Royal Canadian Mounted Police. There was the welcome by the First Nations dancers and the Grand Chief. Then the walk about as the Royals and Governor General progressed to their seats in front of the stage.

The ceremony was nicely paced and interspersed by commentary by the two MCs, dancers, musicians, choirs and of course the speeches. It was very Canadian. Very pride inducing. Contemporary dancers from First Nations performed beautifully. Buffy Ste. Marie was amazing. Even Bono appeared and sang and gave praise to Canada and what it stood for. And there were others too. Fortunately the speeches were mingled in with the performances. The Prime Minister gave a very uplifting but long-winded speech, dotted with dramatic pauses and greeted with loud applause from the audience periodically. I was somewhat nervous that the Prince of Wales would be greeted coldly by the audience and would fall flat in his delivery of his speech; but I was pleasantly surprised, not only with the response of the audience but also with the nature of his speech, which was also met with periodic applause. The Governor General was much more succinct but all three speakers talked not only about the successes of Canada but also about our failures and of a striving to be better.

All of this went on until about 2:00 p.m. when the opening ceremony ended and the dignitaries left the grounds. Much of the crowd then dispersed to other areas, many seeking out restaurants, which were packed to the gills. However, events continued for the rest of the day and into the night and next day on various stages around the downtown area.

Our time in Ottawa was exhilarating to say the least. It was memorable beyond belief. When we departed from Ottawa the next morning, we headed by car to our cabin near Parry Sound. In doing so we travelled across the expanse of Algonquin Park. Just one more reason to proclaim “O Canada”!

(More pictures are available on my YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqEHcG6y3iY)