“I will not cease from Mental Fight,
Nor shall my Sword sleep in my hand,
Till we have built Jerusalem,
In England’s green and pleasant Land.”
—William Blake
When William Blake crafted those iconic lines, he did not have to mention England to make it clear that he was not writing about Canada, a far different place across the ocean. Nonetheless, it reveals the importance of land as one of the pieces that make up any one national identity, including Canada’s.
Our country certainly has some quaint pastures, but the majority of it is a wild, rugged place, and so vast that running across it can turn people into national icons. From the Bay of Fundy to the Nahanni Valley to Tofino, Canada’s landscape continues to inspire wonder and adventure.
It has also made us rich and happy in a way few countries can understand and many more can envy.
Rejecting post-nationalism, as espoused by the Liberal government, has never been easier. Between the diaspora violence in our streets before Trump’s second presidency and his threat of economic warfare and annexation after it, the appetite for a strong Canadian identity has rarely been greater.
However, if this wave of nationalism is to last beyond the noise of a trade war, more is needed for a lasting, unifying identity than goes beyond simple anti-Americanism and hollow slogans. Canadians are often criticized for lacking a real national identity, and there is some truth to this.
There has always been one faction or another claiming that their vision of Canada is the true one, echoing the height of 20th century European nationalism, when debates were being had over what it meant to be French or German.
A culture war fought over Canadian identity is far better than surrendering to the idea one can never exist. If we ever finally settle on what makes somebody “all-Canadian” it will include the great wilderness in some way or another.
Before the first Europeans arrived in North America, Indigenous peoples migrated and settled here according to where and when crops, game, and fresh water could be found. The wind, cold, and snow dictated where they avoided or dared not venture.
After the British and French arrived, the colonial economy formed around staples like fur, timber, and fish, all of which were exported abroad. The St. Lawrence River was the vital waterway that shipped it all east to Britain and other markets.
It was remarkable how Canadian history has continued to rhyme. Today, projects like the Trans Mountain pipeline serve the same role that the St. Lawrence played, transporting Canadian oil to the Pacific.
Petroleum-sourced commodities remain the largest and most important share of Canadian exports abroad, which Canada’s standard of living depends upon.
To this day, the resource sector continues to make middle-class lifestyles possible for blue-collar Canadians in provinces like Alberta, British Columbia, and the Maritimes. In Prince Rupert, the Fairview Container Terminal project was created in-part to help handle the loads of resources going abroad for export, lifting local incomes by nearly $30,000 from 2001 to 2020.
There was a time when Canadian institutions expressed far more pride in our resource industry. Former Conservative cabinet minister Jason Kenney remarked on social media earlier this week how banks built in the mid-20th century were decorated with images of industry, in what Kenney referred to as a “Dominion aesthetic”, and that helped tied resources to identity
Unlike the cultivated and verdant fields of Europe and elsewhere, Canadian wealth flows from our raw, far more untamed landscape, helping to define the people, whether it be oilmen in Alberta or fishermen in Nova Scotia.
This country can be as hostile as it is giving, claiming the lives of countless workers, families, and explorers, such as the doomed Franklin expedition that perished in the Arctic in 1848. In the past few weeks, brief earthquakes in BC near Vancouver have reminded local residents that the long-predicted “Big One” could come at any day, potentially devastating the region.
Compared to the United States, far more of Canada is devoid of human life or presence, with 90 per cent of it uninhabited. The cold that envelopes the country for most of the year has kept the population concentrated along the southern border, keeping the continental political dynamic front of mind since the American Revolution.
Yet the frigid climate is what gives us ice hockey, which is one of the few cultural elements that Canada can truly lay claim to as its own. It was brought to Canada by sailors and found a natural home on the frozen lakes and rivers, and today is the one sport in which Canada is king.
The recent Four Nations tournament proved how the sport can still unite the country.
When Connor McDavid scored in overtime to win the tournament for Canada, it felt far more meaningful than vague slogans like “inclusivity,” which certain politicians like Mark Carney have touted as something that sets Canada apart from the U.S.
Cosmopolitan buzzwords are not unique in any way. It is merely the conversational markers of international elites who care little for what is rooted or historical.
Canada will never stand apart if its leaders only trumpet modern progressive platitudes that are echoed in cities like New York or London. Hockey is the antithesis of that, as something old, elemental and not yet flattened by 21st century homogeneity.
In terms of identity, history is as important as geography.
Being able to claim the northern half of the continent with a railway was fundamental to the vision of Sir John A. Macdonald. Building more natural resource infrastructure to further harness the wealth lying in the soil is one of the best ways to honour that legacy.
No matter how one conceives of Canada, it will always be deeply connected to the land, as equally beautiful and dangerous as it is. The riches of it made us wealthy, and the Canadian economy will not be revitalized without them, nor will a renewed sense of identity in this new age of nationalism.
National Post