(Image Credit: Mel Rothenburger)

By Mel Rothenburger

ARMCHAIR MAYOR

ROTHENBURGER: For one day, Canada Day, can’t we all just have fun?

Jun 27, 2020 | 10:18 AM

CANADA DAY WILL BE very different this year, but that’s stating the obvious.

No art in the park, no multi-cultural food fair, no beer garden, no speeches or oath of allegiance, thanks to COVID-19. We’ll mostly be celebrating from home though I expect some stalwarts will show up at Riverside Park anyway.

I fear there will be no fun this Canada Day for another reason — we’re in a censorious mood right now.

The lack of large-gathering celebrations won’t stop those who regard Canada Day as an occasion to complain about everything that’s wrong with our country. They’ll make liberal use of social media to explore Canada’s imperfections and historical wrongs.

It’s something that’s grown over the past few years. It used to be that Canada Day was a reason to be joyful about Canada. I used to write about the many things we had to be proud of — the things we had invented, Canadians who had made the world better, our proud institutions.

Sound Off

SOUND OFF: Prosperity through partnership and conversation

3h ago

Question of the Week

With King Charles III visiting Canada this week, do you feel the monarchy is relevant to Canadians?

May 26, 2025

1000 Ways to Heal

1000 Ways to Heal: Exploring the Outdoors

May 26, 2025

Nowadays, we’re not supposed to be proud. We’re supposed to shout out our discontent.

I must choose my words carefully here; words are dangerous nowadays. I say this: there is serious racism in Canada that must be addressed, but Canada is, on balance, still a great country.

Will that get me in trouble? Is it not unequivocally condemnatory enough?

I stand with those demanding change but I disagree that it’s necessary to tear everything down and start over. I don’t under-estimate the seriousness of the issue, nor the urgency of the need to address it.

Canada has been around officially for 153 years; unofficially for much longer than that. It would have been amazing, impossible actually, if we had not in all that time done some things wrong. And some things, very wrong. That’s not an excuse; it’s an explanation.

Part of what saddens me about the current social upheaval is that we have categorized each other as either friends or enemies. Either you agree with me 100 per cent, or you are my enemy.

And police? They are the enemy, or so the thinking goes. This all-or-nothing book-burning approach is heartbreaking to me. Police are not the enemy. Some police are the enemy. Politicians are not the enemy, though some of the decisions they make are wrong. And no, the media are not the enemy of the people. They just mess up sometimes.

We need to acknowledge that we start from a common place, which is agreement that we must change some things pretty radically. Where we diverge is how we go about it and to what degree.

“Off with their heads” is no answer. Getting along will get us a long way.

So how about we start with Canada Day? Let’s take a day off from the good fight and just enjoy a day as Canadians. Let’s allow the burden of this change to slide from our shoulders and celebrate the good things, those things we used to have fun reminding ourselves of — yes, I mean how we invented the baseball glove and the Wonderbra, that the world’s two most famous Ryans — Reynolds and Gosling — are both Canadians, that U.S. Senator Ted Cruz was born in Calgary (not sure whether that’s something to celebrate) and that Banting and Best gave the world insulin. I see no need to mention Justin Bieber.

Let’s fly our flag high and remember that we’re a mosaic, not a melting pot, and that diversity is truly our strength, not our weakness.

Let’s be happy that we’re all Canadians, together, and that while it’s imperfect this is a great place to live, from Bonavista to Vancouver Island, as the song goes. Or, if you prefer, from Coast to Coast to Coast.

What if we reserved Canada Day for saying only nice things about each other and our nation? Tweet or Facebook something we’re grateful for about Canada. If we want to debate something on July 1, let’s discuss whether we should ditch the beaver and adopt the moose as our national animal.

Let us not be embarrassed. Let us not be ashamed. Let’s go forward towards July 2 and beyond with mutual joy in the knowledge that our Canada is a country of fundamentally good people and that it is a country in which change is possible. Because many places aren’t.

Happy Canada Day.

Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops and a retired newspaper editor. He is a regular contributor to CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a director on the Thompson-Nicola Regional District board. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.

—

Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group.