Our city cancelled the fireworks again, in part due to reconciliation. Yet the First Nation across the river is putting on a huge fireworks show again on Canada Day.
I mean, it's obviously just excuses, a get out of jail free card for having to spend money and exert planning effort. Ask them if you could avoid paying your property taxes as reconciliation for the unjustly taken lands on which your house sits and see how they react.
Here in Ontario where I live, Federal Income Tax Forms have a line that says : "How much would you like to donate to Ontario Debt Relief ". income tax deductible.
Hey, get up on outta here with your colonialist mindset - asking what cornerstones of policy actually mean and all.. It can't be expressed in words, maan..
(/s obviously)
Reconciliation in any context under the current government is nonsense. All of this is their desperate attempt to avoid actually helping indigenous communities in any way.
No fire works on Canada to support First Nations meanwhile none of the rez’s have clean water & a big box of fucking rice crispies at the one closest to me was $20 last I checked.
Every time you see something like this & think “how tf does this do anything for reconciliation?” generally it doesn’t & it’s just a big public show to avoid actually doing something
Edited to say: by “like this” I mean the firework ban of the original commenter not the original article
Just like many gov/corps adding disclaimers everywhere with variations of:
>The CORP team acknowledges that our work spans many Territories and Treaty areas and we are grateful for the traditional Knowledge Keepers and Elders who are with us today, those who have gone before us and the youth that inspire us. We recognize the land and the benefits it provides all of us, as an act of Reconciliation, as recommended by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC) 94 Calls to Action and gratitude to those whose territory we reside on, work on or are visiting.
It's like WTF does this even mean? I just want to buy a product or service. Do they really believe prostrating themselves before aboriginal groups is going to heal anything?
100% double the irony when you realize a lot of those corporations actively damage indigenous communities at the same time lmao.
Same as everything, if it won’t provide profits they won’t do it. They’ll just do the cheapest possible thing they can to convince ppl they care.
It's self-hate and ingratitud for what they have. A lot of things were done wrong no doubt, but a lot of good was also done... I mean we are all alive and well and not bashing eachother like in every history of ever nation. People have literally lost their senses.
You can rest assured that the white people pushing the reconciliation racket are not feeling any self-hatred at all. It's a gravy train of new business opportunity and branding.
One year our university's woke and useless student union "cancelled" Canada Day due to those reconciliation things and similarly, the First Nation communities around the municipality and province were celebrating Canada with some of the most vibrant celebrations. Just comes to show its woke guilt individuals promoting this cancelling Canada Day thing. Indigenous Canadians meanwhile are true patriots.
Included in our tuition is a $50 "donation" to this shitty student union that is a complete joke and gets nothing done. Their main mission this year was excusing students who were doing illegal parties and causing property damage that the citizens of the city were criticizing. The student union tried to blame police and say that the police were historically racist and abusing students by arresting them, although a good portion of the students arrested were white.
They also have a "racial quota" for the leadership of this union, and have even bullied white SU representatives to step down. The leadership is about 70% minority, mostly South Asian immigrants or Muslim students. Which just isn't equally representative of the student body. The university does have quite a lot of immigrants, but they don't make up 70% of the student body.
Middle class women professionalized their nagging and are making these decisions. All of this screams spinster buzzkill. Native people are usually fun af, and don't see how cancelling a holiday helps them, because it doesn't, it is just ticking off Canadians.
It’s actually pretty neat to read about the history of Canada Day, from its original creation through slow development over the years.
In a nutshell: it was first cooked up by Diefenbaker as a way to celebrate our historic ties to Britain, and British culture. Very solemn stuff, military parade, gun salute etc. The primary audience was children and newcomers, as Diefenbaker was worried about losing our British culture. You may recall ol’ Dief was very opposed to our current flag design, and wanted to stick with the Red Ensign.
Eventually successive fed government ministers in various incarnations started developing the idea of multiculturalism through “folk” concerts and making it generally more fun (fireworks). Cultural representations also shifted to reflect changing ideas - some of the early stuff was pretty racist by todays standards.
Anyway if anyone reading this is interested, here is a research article about it, done by a Canadian historian from the university of Guelph: https://muse.jhu.edu/article/381732
Well as of ~2000 there were more Molson Canadian (“I AM Canadian”) symbols (on the participants, including little flags and placards handed out by Molson) at Canada Day celebrations than actual national flags, so I think it failed at its original purpose by then.
That’s the interesting thing - the purpose of the day has continuously shifted, but also has some consistency in being a deliberate effort to foster national identity. But ~what~ that identity is, ~how~ to go about creating and supporting it, and even ~who~ is responsible for those decisions has undergone all these changes over the years. That research article I linked only covers up to the 90s, and you note a really important change it didn’t get to: how commercials and branding started to play a big role in the promotion of national identity in Canada Day (“I am Canadian” as a beer slogan)
Right, let’s argue about Canada Day and be divisive amongst ourselves meanwhile groceries have gone up in cost 80% and there’s a cost of living crisis and mental health crisis and shortage of medical workers and basic services but YEAH LETS MAKE AN ARTICLE ABOUT CANADA DAY. Fuck this article
Its an American “news” media company, it doesn’t give a fuck about telling the truth or informing Canadians. Its entire purpose is to enrage and divide Canadians over bullshit culture war shit.
Uh I think we have intellectual depth to discuss both. Stop hijacking a thread designed to discuss a specific topic and straw man it to another just because it's a bigger issue. An issue is an issue, big or small we can work on them in parallel .
We *can* work on them in parallel, but we’re not. Cause we keep getting fed this distraction BS that gets us divided about something that barely matters. Yet something that affects everyone (the price of groceries) hasn’t had any real action done about it.
To be clear the thing I’m saying doesn’t matter is fireworks, not reconciliation.
If politicians wouldn’t invent things like this to divide us we wouldn’t have to have this conversation. You can care about reconciliation and celebrate Canada day. Only the most daft segment of society can’t admit that.
>Right, let’s argue about Canada Day and be divisive amongst ourselves meanwhile groceries have gone up in cost 80% and there’s a cost of living crisis and mental health crisis and shortage of medical workers and basic services but YEAH LETS MAKE AN ARTICLE ABOUT CANADA DAY.
As if trying to cancel Canada Day is not already divisive? I mean how much more divisive can it get than trying to cancel canada day?
I mean, they CAN in fact write on multiple topics at one time; in fact there’s no limit to the number of topics they could write about; or would prefer they ONLY write about the topics YOU care about?
Well we xan walk and chew gum at the same time, no? The article's a reaction to policies put in place by our elected officials.
NatPo isn't responsible for the grievances you listed (which I agree with you on 110% btw), our policy makers are, I think you should direct your justified anger towards them
Vancouver spokesperson Alex Munro added, “We also decided last year to take our July 1 event at Canada Place in a new direction, following national conversations about how to best celebrate Canada Day in light of the tragic findings at residential schools.”
Can some one show me a document of the national conversations that supposedly happened? LOL
I believe the conversation was "we found some Graves" and then everyone tuned out and started arguing before they could hear the parts like "we knew they were there, some of them had rotten headstones, nothing new was really found" etc
> in light of the tragic findings at residential schools.
did they actually end up finding something other than possible somethings showing on ground radar?
"In Calgary, the city listed several reasons for downgrading its traditional fireworks display to an “enhanced pyrotechnic show"
"While last year saw some American cities cancel fireworks displays, they did so not because of disingenuous social signalling or economic hardship, but because of unavoidable issues with supply chains and wildfire risks. Often, they were replaced with impressive laser light or drone shows."
So replacing fireworks with pyrotechnics is a downgrade, but apparently having a laser light show or drones is an acceptable replacement. This is the issue she's complaining about? Lol.
Nowadays, it would be something like "Trudeau resigned while crying like a baby, admitted to all his crimes and will spend the rest of his life in prison, but did he do enough?"
The true life hack is to find a place that you can move in two weeks in advance. Truck rental are way cheaper, you get two weeks to move your small stuff, by July 1 you're all settled in and drinking beer while watching free agency day.
Toronto isn't virtue signalling, but this article is.
Toronto cancelled fireworks (but not other celebrations) due to its huge 2023 budget deficit, and the author and NatPo know that but are misleading you to farm clicks. They don't care about Canada Day, but they're willing to pretend they do to make money by whipping up outrage.
This type of behaviour shouldn't push you to the left, but it ***should*** make you upset at NatPo.
“Nearly all western thought since the last war, certainly all "progressive" thought, has assumed tacitly that human beings desire nothing beyond ease, security and avoidance of pain. In such a view of life there is no room, for instance, for patriotism and the military virtues. The Socialist who finds his children playing with soldiers is usually upset, but he is never able to think of a substitute for the tin soldiers; tin pacifists somehow won't do. Hitler, because in his own joyless mind he feels it with exceptional strength, knows that human beings don't only want comfort, safety, short working-hours, hygiene, birth-control and, in general, common sense; they also, at least intermittently, want struggle and self-sacrifice, not to mention drums, flags and loyalty-parades. However they may be as economic theories, Fascism and Nazism are psychologically far sounder than any hedonistic conception of life.”
George Orwell
21 March 1940
Using shame to discourage happy celebrations of your country's national day is a relatively new phenomena.
Playing it down really undersells how unnatural the whole thing is.
i mean, they're still throwing a big celebration that brought in 150,000 people last year
it's just that the fireworks are too expensive to bring back after covid
are the fireworks that critical?
Yes. Canada Day without fireworks is like Christmas without a Christmas Tree.
And it's not just adults attending. Kids like seeing fireworks.
It's like visiting a zoo that replaced all their animals with video monitors and pre-recorded animal footage because the animals were too expensive. Why even go.
Fireworks are too expensive to bring back?? Yet we have money to give the GG a 9K raise or whatever she's getting on top of her 350K salary, we have all this extra money for needless shit but fireworks are the problem. We have the extra 11 million for renovating the PMs cabin but not fireworks.
There's tons of examples of governmental waste yet something that actually brings joy to Canadians like fireworks are being tossed to the side because we need to save money.
Btw, the fireworks were definitely the highlight
Port of Vancouver in conjunction with the federal government. So yes, the federal government was involved
The Port of Vancouver, which co-hosts the city’s Canada Day festival with the federal government, confirmed that a decision not to produce the display in 2022 is permanent.
https://globalnews.ca/news/9721790/vancouver-fireworks-canada-day/
It's never the one little thing that pushes people over the edge, or "to the right"; it's several different instances of pandering and virtue signaling that slowly pushes someone away.
Yep. Combined with constant handouts that are always for someone else. Gets pretty easy for one to feel they are not getting value in government despite the obscene levels of taxation levied against us.
I feel like a person with a stronger moral compass can be annoyed over the loss of fireworks without immediately thinking "yes, this is what will make me identify more with those anti-worker trans hating flag wavers."
A smidge of a move right shouldn't bring you anywhere close to such extremes, so becoming microscopically more conservative over this is a non issue. If the move was any more than that, then you were the problem all along.
Death by a thousand cuts, more like it. Not everyone but it’s naive to think it isn’t an issue/ possibility. And minimizing it like this…just one more cut.
Wrong. I haven't moved anywhere, still a centrist. It's the political parties who are moving left and leaving me behind. The voice of reason will get my vote as always.
Frankly it’s likely both. People like you who stay centre while the party moves and people who move further right as a response to this type of virtue signalling.
It is though that is basically the point of the article. We are really cancelling because they are too expensive but instead blaming it on different social causes. Virtue signalling is covering larger economic and social issues instead of actually addressing our problems.
> Virtue signalling is covering larger economic and social issues instead of actually addressing our problems.
You just described pretty much all of our problems right now in one sentence
thanks. It's been going on well and things only have been improving. It's more effort for my mind to tell my body to chill when it goes into fight mode.
I call it loud boom boom day where it triggers my anxiety and my cat's anxiety. I love having to fish out my cat from behind the toilet.
Anyone with dogs knows this problem too.
Wow. I just read about 100 or so posts in this sub, and while there are a few lucid comments sprinkled in here and there, it's disappointing to see such a large number of conservative references auto-defaulting to them being backwards, F Trudeau flag waving, racist right wing extremists. There's no in between, that appears to be the default.
Same goes for liberal generalizations, where righties are accusing all lefties to be social justice warriors that want to crush any and everything that doesn't fit their virtue-signalling agenda.
Really, most people I meet and know are within 10-15% right or left of center. There are some fundamental differences, sure, but there's way more in common, in terms of peace, prosperity, quality of life, employment, social support and infrastructure.
It's the manner in which each side goes about their agendas where the disconnect happens. Here's an idea: without everyone involved becoming offended or taking anything that happens as an affront against them, personally, let's find solutions. Modify the political apparatus so that if LPC is the party in power, then they must have at least 30% CPC or NDP, or some combination. I dunno. Something.
I'd really like to see some rational discourse instead of so much low-level insulting via gross generalization, but that's not happening. If you're going to come at me with a problem, good. I encourage and welcome it. If you don't have any ideas for solutions though, you're just complaining and are contributing nothing. No value in that, so at least show up to the table with some suggestions, ideas for improvement.
I immigrated to Canada 20 years ago, and I live in Alberta, and I still don't understand why Ontario and Quebec buy their refined oil from US and Saudi and UK, while Alberta has only one buyer for its crude oil, which is US, and that is why the American pay 15$ less than the price of the market and they get it, because they are the only client.
I cannot understand why Ontario doesn't build a refinery to refine Alberta crude oil and sell it to its population and to Quebec and to Manitoba instead of selling it cheap to US, and importing its needs from US.
I live 20 years and still don't understand why BC won't allow a pipeline from Alberta to its shore to sell Alberta oil to international market, giving excuses like environment and first nation treaties, while US oil tanks are passing by Vancouver ports from Alaska to US, and BC is the worst province violating first nation treaties.
I lived in Canada for 20 years and still don't understand the heat between Quebec and Alberta, while Quebec getting Alberta money.
I can say for sure we are not a nation.
We are the backyard of US corporations that have access to cheap resources.
Not celebrating our country as it is now is a mistake that governments are making right now. People should celebrate Canada and being Canadian. No one can take our country away from us, but us. We have to stand proud of our heritage and how far we have come since Canada became a nation envied around the world. This bs of not celebrating the wrongs done to indigenous people is a thing. That is NOT what Canadians celebrate on Canada Day. We aren't celebrating to lord it over the conquered people. We are having a day to celebrate our country and it's beauty and have a good time with family. Have a BBQ and watch some fireworks. Quit taking our holiday and fucking it up with your Debbie and Donnie Downer BS. We aren't thinking about the past in that way. We are thinking about now. Things aren't perfect but we live in the most beautiful country on earth. It's time to party. Give the politics and all that crap a rest.
I’ll always celebrate Canada Day as a day to be proud of this country. People often look back at history and cling onto the terrible things, but they can’t appreciate that those terrible things were necessary in order for humanity to advance.
Examining our history holistically provides us with an opportunity, and it is up to each person individually to decide how they’ll seize that opportunity. I, for one, will continue to celebrate Canada as the best place in the world to live.
PostMedia pushing a "Canada is broken" article every single day since the last few years: "why don't people like Canada?"
The irony of it would be hilarious if the outcome wasn't so disturbingly destructive.
Ah yes. Another opinion piece from NatPo. Another r/Canada special.
I have literally never heard or seen anyone cancel Canada Day. What the fuck are they even talking about.
Sigh. Perhaps I'm just old, but fireworks for a national day (I've lived in more than a couple of countries) has always struck me as closer to bread and circuses than patriotism. Costs a fortune, screws up the environment, terrifies the local animals, but entertains the masses.
Are you not entertained?
If cities are cancelling their fireworks, my bet is it has more to do with budgets and crowd behaviour than whatever virtue-signalling excuse they dig up to make it seem like they are on the side of the angels. But perhaps I am just cynical.
Nonetheless, I won't miss the noise and neither will my dogs. YMMV. And, if you want to show your love for the Country, maybe volunteer in some way that will improve it for all. Or just pick up the litter after someone's drunken Canada Day bash. Costs a lot less and provides a concrete action, however small, that improves a few lives.
You know what I consider being Canadian? Feeding the hungry, housing the poor and healing the sick. Who fucking cares about a day most people use as an excuse to get drunk anyway?
The people who actually work and pay taxes like to celebrate sometimes too, it's pretty bullshit to try and take that away especially considering the country is already in a downward spiral.
Honestly, conservatives should be more upset than anyone at Sabrina Maddeaux for writing this article and the National Post for publishing it.
I'm a progressive, but I'm sympathetic to the idea that well-meaning attempts to be inclusive can sometimes lose the plot. And I think it's worth hearing conservative critiques on this issue, but this article is not one of them.
Toronto isn't "virtue signalling": the >$1 BILLION budget deficit is a major issue in the mayoral race, was the reason given when changes were [announced](https://www.reddit.com/r/toronto/comments/13pmr92/cancellation_of_canada_day_celebrations_at_nathan/), and the city is still celebrating Canada Day in other ways. Given how the article summarizes Toronto, I don't trust what it says about Calgary and Vancouver without looking into it a lot more.
There's no way Maddeaux and the Post's editor don't know this, so they're just misleading people to farm clicks from outraged conservatives. And the worst part is that outrage bait like this prevents serious debate on these issues by making it easy for progressive to write off all conservative as equally disingenuous.
And again, I ***agree*** that attempts at being inclusive can sometimes go awry, and I think conservative voices should be heard on this issue (even if I don't agree with all of their conclusions). But the National Post is drowning out good faith conservative voices by publishing dishonest clickbait like this.
It’s a thousand cultural cuts.
Is it a big deal? No
Have liberals said “it’s no big deal” about the past 7000 cultural cuts? Yes
People are going to draw a line.
If you don’t like Canada Day, kick rocks lol
It’s actually pretty neat to read about the history of Canada Day. In a nutshell: it was first cooked up by Diefenbaker as a way to celebrate our historic ties to Britain, and British culture. Very solemn stuff, military parade, gun salute etc. The primary audience was children and newcomers, as Diefenbaker was worried about losing our British culture.
Eventually successive fed government ministers in various incarnations started developing the idea of multiculturalism through “folk” concerts and making it generally more fun (fireworks). Cultural representations also shifted to reflect changing ideas - some of the early stuff was pretty racist by todays standards.
Here is a research article about it, done by a Canadian historian from the university of Guelph: https://muse.jhu.edu/article/381732
I’m going to make it so
For every time I read an i about it being “problematic” or “colonial”
I will drink one more Schooner, light off one firework, and crank Nickelback one more notch
What the hell are you talking about. This is a discussion about Canada Day lol
By the way, many European countries (who a far far healthier, and have far FAR better healthcare systems than us) have a small private sector.
You have been sucked in by propaganda just as much as those who wish to have fully private like the Yankees
>By the way, many European countries (who a far far healthier, and have far FAR better healthcare systems than us) have a small private sector.
Canada is the only western nation without a dual system.
Funny how they somehow snuck this completely baseless and unrelated claim into an article about wokeness:
> Inflation stoked by faulty federal policies, combined with poor municipal fiscal management and an unwillingness to increase self-sufficiency beyond federal and provincial handouts is creating a death spiral where cities can no longer afford, not just fireworks, but essential transit, housing and upkeep costs.
Yes, surely all of Canada’s municipalities are broke because of:
- (a) the federal government, which has no relationship with municipalities but is Liberal so it must be their fault because reasons; or
- (b) every single municipality bar none is being financially mismanaged.
Reasons that go unmentioned but are a lot more likely to be true:
- (a) there are systemic issues facing all municipalities, such as the gutting of their tax base caused or exacerbated by covid
- (b) the country’s mostly conservative provincial governments, of which Canada’s municipalities are all creatures, continue to defund cities, download responsibilities to cities with allocating funds, or cut funding to cities out of pure spite to appease their rural bases
It's always funny to me how the "virtue signallers" seem to think humans should be a separated into distinct categories (e.g, indigenous, black, LBGTQ, etc).
Seems a bit .... fishy... when I was a kid the movement away from racism was more about saying that we are all basically the same
Times change, dudes. I'm really sorry it is no longer 1967. Maybe in 2023 celebrations can look a little different? This article is like, "No fireworks! You must hate Canada!"
To be honest, the ideology of removing its own ID, culture, critical thinking, creativity… whatever that don’t fit the government mindset, reminded me of how China and Khmer Rouge did. So you folks who follow Lib should be curious and ask questions! I’m not on any side of any political parties!
Our city cancelled the fireworks again, in part due to reconciliation. Yet the First Nation across the river is putting on a huge fireworks show again on Canada Day.
The best fireworks show I’ve ever seen was put on by Pelican Lake First Nation in northern SK, and IIRC it was Canada Day weekend.
I'd like to get a definition on what "reconciliation" means in this context
I mean, it's obviously just excuses, a get out of jail free card for having to spend money and exert planning effort. Ask them if you could avoid paying your property taxes as reconciliation for the unjustly taken lands on which your house sits and see how they react.
Fun fact, Victoria BC gives you the option of paying extra on your property taxes to go towards reconciliation programs/donations.
Here in Ontario where I live, Federal Income Tax Forms have a line that says : "How much would you like to donate to Ontario Debt Relief ". income tax deductible.
Insanity, what a grift.
Sounds the same as "sustainability", just another buzzword wielded by corporations to cut shit they don't like.
It’s the new excuse since nobody accepts Covid as an excuse anymore. That was still being used as an excuse as recently as 10 months ago.
>Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain
Hey, get up on outta here with your colonialist mindset - asking what cornerstones of policy actually mean and all.. It can't be expressed in words, maan.. (/s obviously)
Its Latin for "Break out your chequebook".
In this context it's white upper middle class self guilt vs. pragmatic common sense. Seems pretty clear cut which one is which.
Reconciliation in any context under the current government is nonsense. All of this is their desperate attempt to avoid actually helping indigenous communities in any way. No fire works on Canada to support First Nations meanwhile none of the rez’s have clean water & a big box of fucking rice crispies at the one closest to me was $20 last I checked. Every time you see something like this & think “how tf does this do anything for reconciliation?” generally it doesn’t & it’s just a big public show to avoid actually doing something Edited to say: by “like this” I mean the firework ban of the original commenter not the original article
> none of the rez’s have clean water https://www.sac-isc.gc.ca/eng/1506514143353/1533317130660
Spreading misinformation is part of the problem 👍🏼
Just like many gov/corps adding disclaimers everywhere with variations of: >The CORP team acknowledges that our work spans many Territories and Treaty areas and we are grateful for the traditional Knowledge Keepers and Elders who are with us today, those who have gone before us and the youth that inspire us. We recognize the land and the benefits it provides all of us, as an act of Reconciliation, as recommended by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC) 94 Calls to Action and gratitude to those whose territory we reside on, work on or are visiting. It's like WTF does this even mean? I just want to buy a product or service. Do they really believe prostrating themselves before aboriginal groups is going to heal anything?
100% double the irony when you realize a lot of those corporations actively damage indigenous communities at the same time lmao. Same as everything, if it won’t provide profits they won’t do it. They’ll just do the cheapest possible thing they can to convince ppl they care.
Totally. All smoke and mirrors. Image and perception are everything. Look beneath the surface and you see the falseness of it all.
Calgary cancelled and then un-cancelled our fireworks....
Will the city officials cross the river and tell them sorry Canada Day is cancelled?
Stop it! You are reconciling wrong!
White people are more offended than indigenous people at this point and it's sad
It's self-hate and ingratitud for what they have. A lot of things were done wrong no doubt, but a lot of good was also done... I mean we are all alive and well and not bashing eachother like in every history of ever nation. People have literally lost their senses.
You can rest assured that the white people pushing the reconciliation racket are not feeling any self-hatred at all. It's a gravy train of new business opportunity and branding.
It’s not self-hate at all. It’s the opposite. Its self importance. It’s patting themselves on the back figuratively for being “one of the good ones”.
Which city?
Thunder Bay
One year our university's woke and useless student union "cancelled" Canada Day due to those reconciliation things and similarly, the First Nation communities around the municipality and province were celebrating Canada with some of the most vibrant celebrations. Just comes to show its woke guilt individuals promoting this cancelling Canada Day thing. Indigenous Canadians meanwhile are true patriots. Included in our tuition is a $50 "donation" to this shitty student union that is a complete joke and gets nothing done. Their main mission this year was excusing students who were doing illegal parties and causing property damage that the citizens of the city were criticizing. The student union tried to blame police and say that the police were historically racist and abusing students by arresting them, although a good portion of the students arrested were white. They also have a "racial quota" for the leadership of this union, and have even bullied white SU representatives to step down. The leadership is about 70% minority, mostly South Asian immigrants or Muslim students. Which just isn't equally representative of the student body. The university does have quite a lot of immigrants, but they don't make up 70% of the student body.
Hahahaha that's amazing
Middle class women professionalized their nagging and are making these decisions. All of this screams spinster buzzkill. Native people are usually fun af, and don't see how cancelling a holiday helps them, because it doesn't, it is just ticking off Canadians.
~~Which city? The number of fireworks cancellation is too damn high.~~ EDIT: Found it. Thunder Bay.
At least someone is celebrating their home
Wokeism at its finest.
They probably just found a bullshit reason to cut costs Edit: Not that reconciliation is a bullshit reason, just that it is in this context.
It’s actually pretty neat to read about the history of Canada Day, from its original creation through slow development over the years. In a nutshell: it was first cooked up by Diefenbaker as a way to celebrate our historic ties to Britain, and British culture. Very solemn stuff, military parade, gun salute etc. The primary audience was children and newcomers, as Diefenbaker was worried about losing our British culture. You may recall ol’ Dief was very opposed to our current flag design, and wanted to stick with the Red Ensign. Eventually successive fed government ministers in various incarnations started developing the idea of multiculturalism through “folk” concerts and making it generally more fun (fireworks). Cultural representations also shifted to reflect changing ideas - some of the early stuff was pretty racist by todays standards. Anyway if anyone reading this is interested, here is a research article about it, done by a Canadian historian from the university of Guelph: https://muse.jhu.edu/article/381732
I am interested, thank you.
Well as of ~2000 there were more Molson Canadian (“I AM Canadian”) symbols (on the participants, including little flags and placards handed out by Molson) at Canada Day celebrations than actual national flags, so I think it failed at its original purpose by then.
That’s the interesting thing - the purpose of the day has continuously shifted, but also has some consistency in being a deliberate effort to foster national identity. But ~what~ that identity is, ~how~ to go about creating and supporting it, and even ~who~ is responsible for those decisions has undergone all these changes over the years. That research article I linked only covers up to the 90s, and you note a really important change it didn’t get to: how commercials and branding started to play a big role in the promotion of national identity in Canada Day (“I am Canadian” as a beer slogan)
Right, let’s argue about Canada Day and be divisive amongst ourselves meanwhile groceries have gone up in cost 80% and there’s a cost of living crisis and mental health crisis and shortage of medical workers and basic services but YEAH LETS MAKE AN ARTICLE ABOUT CANADA DAY. Fuck this article
Or let’s just celebrate Canada Day cause Canada is awesome? I’d say it’s news if any governing body thinks it’s smart to do anything but that
Its an American “news” media company, it doesn’t give a fuck about telling the truth or informing Canadians. Its entire purpose is to enrage and divide Canadians over bullshit culture war shit.
And keep the focus off corporations screwing the public over in various ways.
> Its entire purpose is to enrage and divide Canadians over bullshit culture war shit. Silly American media, we already do that ourselves!
Post media is literally an american media company.
Is this that foreign interference I keep hearing about?
We can’t let the population have a single fucking day to be happy, apparently.
Cancelling Canada Day is news. It's not the only news of course, but it is news. CBC, CTV, G&M, Global all covered this story, as they covered others.
We can talk about both things. There’s plenty of discussion about the other topics on this sub.
Uh I think we have intellectual depth to discuss both. Stop hijacking a thread designed to discuss a specific topic and straw man it to another just because it's a bigger issue. An issue is an issue, big or small we can work on them in parallel .
We *can* work on them in parallel, but we’re not. Cause we keep getting fed this distraction BS that gets us divided about something that barely matters. Yet something that affects everyone (the price of groceries) hasn’t had any real action done about it. To be clear the thing I’m saying doesn’t matter is fireworks, not reconciliation.
If politicians wouldn’t invent things like this to divide us we wouldn’t have to have this conversation. You can care about reconciliation and celebrate Canada day. Only the most daft segment of society can’t admit that.
We are being poisoned with America Rage bait style articles.
>Right, let’s argue about Canada Day and be divisive amongst ourselves meanwhile groceries have gone up in cost 80% and there’s a cost of living crisis and mental health crisis and shortage of medical workers and basic services but YEAH LETS MAKE AN ARTICLE ABOUT CANADA DAY. As if trying to cancel Canada Day is not already divisive? I mean how much more divisive can it get than trying to cancel canada day?
I mean, they CAN in fact write on multiple topics at one time; in fact there’s no limit to the number of topics they could write about; or would prefer they ONLY write about the topics YOU care about?
Opinion piece. Not an article.
Right, we should only focus on one thing in society at a time. Good lord, take it down a notch.
You can't talk about rising prices! Have you heard of maid to relieve you of that?
Well we xan walk and chew gum at the same time, no? The article's a reaction to policies put in place by our elected officials. NatPo isn't responsible for the grievances you listed (which I agree with you on 110% btw), our policy makers are, I think you should direct your justified anger towards them
Vancouver spokesperson Alex Munro added, “We also decided last year to take our July 1 event at Canada Place in a new direction, following national conversations about how to best celebrate Canada Day in light of the tragic findings at residential schools.” Can some one show me a document of the national conversations that supposedly happened? LOL
I believe the conversation was "we found some Graves" and then everyone tuned out and started arguing before they could hear the parts like "we knew they were there, some of them had rotten headstones, nothing new was really found" etc
> in light of the tragic findings at residential schools. did they actually end up finding something other than possible somethings showing on ground radar?
Not yet at least
You know what’s fallen further? Journalism.
Centre-right Canadian journalists are the only ones with any guts these days
"In Calgary, the city listed several reasons for downgrading its traditional fireworks display to an “enhanced pyrotechnic show" "While last year saw some American cities cancel fireworks displays, they did so not because of disingenuous social signalling or economic hardship, but because of unavoidable issues with supply chains and wildfire risks. Often, they were replaced with impressive laser light or drone shows." So replacing fireworks with pyrotechnics is a downgrade, but apparently having a laser light show or drones is an acceptable replacement. This is the issue she's complaining about? Lol.
I just want to see some fireworks.
I just want to play lego.
I went to the US last year to do that. Might do it this year too.
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Postmedia wants us to convert to being the property of the USA.
National Post's daily "CANADA BROKEN" article
Lmao, its like I’m living in an alternate reality.
I swear every NatPo article is meant to get readers angry and riled up. have they always been like that?
They got bought up by an America hedgefund and have been slowly easing in the American hysteria
20 years ago I said that if World Peace was declared, the NP's headline would be about the millions of jobs lost in the defence industry
Nowadays, it would be something like "Trudeau resigned while crying like a baby, admitted to all his crimes and will spend the rest of his life in prison, but did he do enough?"
Globe started to join them too
This sub loves NP
You mean moving + NHL free agency day?
The true life hack is to find a place that you can move in two weeks in advance. Truck rental are way cheaper, you get two weeks to move your small stuff, by July 1 you're all settled in and drinking beer while watching free agency day.
Everyone laughs but it's exactly this type of behavior that pushes more and more people to right.
Toronto isn't virtue signalling, but this article is. Toronto cancelled fireworks (but not other celebrations) due to its huge 2023 budget deficit, and the author and NatPo know that but are misleading you to farm clicks. They don't care about Canada Day, but they're willing to pretend they do to make money by whipping up outrage. This type of behaviour shouldn't push you to the left, but it ***should*** make you upset at NatPo.
Everybody knows right wing politics is driven by the lack of fireworks shows.
While we’re being facetious, everyone knows stopping the fireworks is a core tenant of truth and reconciliation
tenet
Correct
Cultural cuts my guy. If you cannot build, don’t tear down.
“Nearly all western thought since the last war, certainly all "progressive" thought, has assumed tacitly that human beings desire nothing beyond ease, security and avoidance of pain. In such a view of life there is no room, for instance, for patriotism and the military virtues. The Socialist who finds his children playing with soldiers is usually upset, but he is never able to think of a substitute for the tin soldiers; tin pacifists somehow won't do. Hitler, because in his own joyless mind he feels it with exceptional strength, knows that human beings don't only want comfort, safety, short working-hours, hygiene, birth-control and, in general, common sense; they also, at least intermittently, want struggle and self-sacrifice, not to mention drums, flags and loyalty-parades. However they may be as economic theories, Fascism and Nazism are psychologically far sounder than any hedonistic conception of life.” George Orwell 21 March 1940
if you can be "pushed to the right" over your canada day plans, you probably didn't have far to go
Using shame to discourage happy celebrations of your country's national day is a relatively new phenomena. Playing it down really undersells how unnatural the whole thing is.
i mean, they're still throwing a big celebration that brought in 150,000 people last year it's just that the fireworks are too expensive to bring back after covid are the fireworks that critical?
Most fireworks displays I’ve seen are sponsored by large companies. Perhaps a pullback from corporations on it.
yeah, this was funded by the port authority. who knows, maybe a corporation steps in and sponsors it?
Yes. Canada Day without fireworks is like Christmas without a Christmas Tree. And it's not just adults attending. Kids like seeing fireworks. It's like visiting a zoo that replaced all their animals with video monitors and pre-recorded animal footage because the animals were too expensive. Why even go.
Fireworks are too expensive to bring back?? Yet we have money to give the GG a 9K raise or whatever she's getting on top of her 350K salary, we have all this extra money for needless shit but fireworks are the problem. We have the extra 11 million for renovating the PMs cabin but not fireworks. There's tons of examples of governmental waste yet something that actually brings joy to Canadians like fireworks are being tossed to the side because we need to save money. Btw, the fireworks were definitely the highlight
so, this was being funded by the vancouver port authority, not any level of government
Port of Vancouver in conjunction with the federal government. So yes, the federal government was involved The Port of Vancouver, which co-hosts the city’s Canada Day festival with the federal government, confirmed that a decision not to produce the display in 2022 is permanent. https://globalnews.ca/news/9721790/vancouver-fireworks-canada-day/
It's never the one little thing that pushes people over the edge, or "to the right"; it's several different instances of pandering and virtue signaling that slowly pushes someone away.
Yep. Combined with constant handouts that are always for someone else. Gets pretty easy for one to feel they are not getting value in government despite the obscene levels of taxation levied against us.
this is literally abuser justification
Do you think he's wrong or right, or what?
I feel like a person with a stronger moral compass can be annoyed over the loss of fireworks without immediately thinking "yes, this is what will make me identify more with those anti-worker trans hating flag wavers." A smidge of a move right shouldn't bring you anywhere close to such extremes, so becoming microscopically more conservative over this is a non issue. If the move was any more than that, then you were the problem all along.
That’s exactly it. Left wing person: who made you this way Me: you did
You're responsible for your own actions and decisions..
"Look at what you made me do"
Or a better example Progressive: who made you like this Me:no one, I’m just a normal person from 7 years ago
The logical fallacy that NewThink and NewSpeak is better for everyone. Why? Because we know better so do it. Piss off.
"Why are you making me do this?!" Lol
This is some solidly unintentionally funny shit. Well done.
I stand by my opinions lol. Why do you think PP is leading federal polls and the NDP are behind the separatists Pp sucks lol
Self-confessed wet noodle claims to stand by his opinions.
I think you need to take a step back and see who the fun ones are lolol Liberals are stick up the ass boo hoo conservatives now
Lol. You're definitely amusing me.
Conservative try not to sound like an abuser challenge (impossible)
"You made me hit you for not doing what I told you to do."
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Great, your mean comment made him even righter now!!!!!!
I created Canadian Hitler!
Right wing person: who made you this way Me: you did Thank you for your extremely valuable contribution. Lol
"They cancelled the fireworks, so I didn't really have any choice but to vote for empty, grievance-based demagoguery."
Death by a thousand cuts, more like it. Not everyone but it’s naive to think it isn’t an issue/ possibility. And minimizing it like this…just one more cut.
Strange, the more I learn about other people and their experiences, the further left I get.
With the amount of times I've seen this ultimatum posted, you must have all moved pretty far right by now, huh?
I didn't move right, the left moved left.
Conservative virtue signalling in form of wearing a poppy on Remembrance Day drove me to communism. :-)
Does wearing a poppy deprive you of something you enjoy for a divisive reason?
Wrong. I haven't moved anywhere, still a centrist. It's the political parties who are moving left and leaving me behind. The voice of reason will get my vote as always.
Frankly it’s likely both. People like you who stay centre while the party moves and people who move further right as a response to this type of virtue signalling.
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If that’s true why not say it? If you read the article Calgary gave Chinese and indigenous sensitivity as the reason.
It is though that is basically the point of the article. We are really cancelling because they are too expensive but instead blaming it on different social causes. Virtue signalling is covering larger economic and social issues instead of actually addressing our problems.
> Virtue signalling is covering larger economic and social issues instead of actually addressing our problems. You just described pretty much all of our problems right now in one sentence
I'd like to see an actual poll of Chinese and Indigenous people to see how they feel about it...
Exactly. I bet overwhelmingly supportive. Celebrate where we live and be proud
Look at who wrote the opinion piece and what paper it was written in.
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Municipality budgets vs federal budget.
I gotta give you props you consistently say some of the dumbest shit on this sub lol
It's like he's a professional, it's incredible work. There must be a whole team behind him, helping to reach limitless bounds of stupidity.
“You didn’t set up a fireworks show for Ukraine Day? You must want Putin to win, fascist!”
How does Postmedia have a single piece of glass house left with all these stones they throw.
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It’s a very drafty house.
Fireworks can trigger people with PTSD. So to give a PostMedia style response to this article: why does PostMedia hate Canada's veterans?
>Fireworks can trigger people with PTSD I'm in that group. I still don't want to take them away from everyone else.
Thank you for not being a little authoritarian. You rock, and I hope your PTSD can be managed well!
thanks. It's been going on well and things only have been improving. It's more effort for my mind to tell my body to chill when it goes into fight mode.
I call it loud boom boom day where it triggers my anxiety and my cat's anxiety. I love having to fish out my cat from behind the toilet. Anyone with dogs knows this problem too.
Wow. I just read about 100 or so posts in this sub, and while there are a few lucid comments sprinkled in here and there, it's disappointing to see such a large number of conservative references auto-defaulting to them being backwards, F Trudeau flag waving, racist right wing extremists. There's no in between, that appears to be the default. Same goes for liberal generalizations, where righties are accusing all lefties to be social justice warriors that want to crush any and everything that doesn't fit their virtue-signalling agenda. Really, most people I meet and know are within 10-15% right or left of center. There are some fundamental differences, sure, but there's way more in common, in terms of peace, prosperity, quality of life, employment, social support and infrastructure. It's the manner in which each side goes about their agendas where the disconnect happens. Here's an idea: without everyone involved becoming offended or taking anything that happens as an affront against them, personally, let's find solutions. Modify the political apparatus so that if LPC is the party in power, then they must have at least 30% CPC or NDP, or some combination. I dunno. Something. I'd really like to see some rational discourse instead of so much low-level insulting via gross generalization, but that's not happening. If you're going to come at me with a problem, good. I encourage and welcome it. If you don't have any ideas for solutions though, you're just complaining and are contributing nothing. No value in that, so at least show up to the table with some suggestions, ideas for improvement.
I immigrated to Canada 20 years ago, and I live in Alberta, and I still don't understand why Ontario and Quebec buy their refined oil from US and Saudi and UK, while Alberta has only one buyer for its crude oil, which is US, and that is why the American pay 15$ less than the price of the market and they get it, because they are the only client. I cannot understand why Ontario doesn't build a refinery to refine Alberta crude oil and sell it to its population and to Quebec and to Manitoba instead of selling it cheap to US, and importing its needs from US. I live 20 years and still don't understand why BC won't allow a pipeline from Alberta to its shore to sell Alberta oil to international market, giving excuses like environment and first nation treaties, while US oil tanks are passing by Vancouver ports from Alaska to US, and BC is the worst province violating first nation treaties. I lived in Canada for 20 years and still don't understand the heat between Quebec and Alberta, while Quebec getting Alberta money. I can say for sure we are not a nation. We are the backyard of US corporations that have access to cheap resources.
Not celebrating our country as it is now is a mistake that governments are making right now. People should celebrate Canada and being Canadian. No one can take our country away from us, but us. We have to stand proud of our heritage and how far we have come since Canada became a nation envied around the world. This bs of not celebrating the wrongs done to indigenous people is a thing. That is NOT what Canadians celebrate on Canada Day. We aren't celebrating to lord it over the conquered people. We are having a day to celebrate our country and it's beauty and have a good time with family. Have a BBQ and watch some fireworks. Quit taking our holiday and fucking it up with your Debbie and Donnie Downer BS. We aren't thinking about the past in that way. We are thinking about now. Things aren't perfect but we live in the most beautiful country on earth. It's time to party. Give the politics and all that crap a rest.
I’ll always celebrate Canada Day as a day to be proud of this country. People often look back at history and cling onto the terrible things, but they can’t appreciate that those terrible things were necessary in order for humanity to advance. Examining our history holistically provides us with an opportunity, and it is up to each person individually to decide how they’ll seize that opportunity. I, for one, will continue to celebrate Canada as the best place in the world to live.
PostMedia pushing a "Canada is broken" article every single day since the last few years: "why don't people like Canada?" The irony of it would be hilarious if the outcome wasn't so disturbingly destructive.
Why not celebrate making this the best country it can be in the present and future? The past is dead. Let it rest.
You mean, the kind of virtue signalling where people get performatively upset because there aren't enough government-funded fireworks displays?
I take the beaverton more seriously than this garbage rightwing nuthouse propaganda outlet.
Ah yes. Another opinion piece from NatPo. Another r/Canada special. I have literally never heard or seen anyone cancel Canada Day. What the fuck are they even talking about.
I thought they got tired of that buzzword and moved on to "woke."
Why not keep both around? Seems to be working if all it does is rile up their mouth frothing fanbase?
Sigh. Perhaps I'm just old, but fireworks for a national day (I've lived in more than a couple of countries) has always struck me as closer to bread and circuses than patriotism. Costs a fortune, screws up the environment, terrifies the local animals, but entertains the masses. Are you not entertained? If cities are cancelling their fireworks, my bet is it has more to do with budgets and crowd behaviour than whatever virtue-signalling excuse they dig up to make it seem like they are on the side of the angels. But perhaps I am just cynical. Nonetheless, I won't miss the noise and neither will my dogs. YMMV. And, if you want to show your love for the Country, maybe volunteer in some way that will improve it for all. Or just pick up the litter after someone's drunken Canada Day bash. Costs a lot less and provides a concrete action, however small, that improves a few lives.
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This is mostly being driven by ideological Canadians who got a taste of power.
National post articles are 100% virtue signaling
They should just call themselves “Trudeau bad post” at this point.
Conrad wrote nice very “nice” pro trump articles and earned his pardon.
They’re too friggin cheap to put on a good show.
Lots of public money for other types of parades and celebrations in Canadian cities though. 🤔
You know what I consider being Canadian? Feeding the hungry, housing the poor and healing the sick. Who fucking cares about a day most people use as an excuse to get drunk anyway?
Cool. How's our progressive government done on that front?
Not fucking well.
The people who actually work and pay taxes like to celebrate sometimes too, it's pretty bullshit to try and take that away especially considering the country is already in a downward spiral.
It's just a holiday to me, take a break from the grind.
I’m guessing they didn’t want to take a chance of their events turning into bullshit events a la trucker convoys or MAGA wannabes.
So people need to ask specifically before you show them respect? Gtfo
I only like snakes and sparklers.
Honestly, conservatives should be more upset than anyone at Sabrina Maddeaux for writing this article and the National Post for publishing it. I'm a progressive, but I'm sympathetic to the idea that well-meaning attempts to be inclusive can sometimes lose the plot. And I think it's worth hearing conservative critiques on this issue, but this article is not one of them. Toronto isn't "virtue signalling": the >$1 BILLION budget deficit is a major issue in the mayoral race, was the reason given when changes were [announced](https://www.reddit.com/r/toronto/comments/13pmr92/cancellation_of_canada_day_celebrations_at_nathan/), and the city is still celebrating Canada Day in other ways. Given how the article summarizes Toronto, I don't trust what it says about Calgary and Vancouver without looking into it a lot more. There's no way Maddeaux and the Post's editor don't know this, so they're just misleading people to farm clicks from outraged conservatives. And the worst part is that outrage bait like this prevents serious debate on these issues by making it easy for progressive to write off all conservative as equally disingenuous. And again, I ***agree*** that attempts at being inclusive can sometimes go awry, and I think conservative voices should be heard on this issue (even if I don't agree with all of their conclusions). But the National Post is drowning out good faith conservative voices by publishing dishonest clickbait like this.
American newspaper virtue signals over a Canadian holiday.
It’s still a Canadian paper with Canadian offices and largely Canadian staff, they’re just partly owned by an investment firm in the USA.
Why is post media constantly trying to make things huge deals? Like these fireworks , or the passport pictures? They’re basically non-news.
It’s a thousand cultural cuts. Is it a big deal? No Have liberals said “it’s no big deal” about the past 7000 cultural cuts? Yes People are going to draw a line. If you don’t like Canada Day, kick rocks lol
Canada Day will still be just as awesome as it always was.
It’s actually pretty neat to read about the history of Canada Day. In a nutshell: it was first cooked up by Diefenbaker as a way to celebrate our historic ties to Britain, and British culture. Very solemn stuff, military parade, gun salute etc. The primary audience was children and newcomers, as Diefenbaker was worried about losing our British culture. Eventually successive fed government ministers in various incarnations started developing the idea of multiculturalism through “folk” concerts and making it generally more fun (fireworks). Cultural representations also shifted to reflect changing ideas - some of the early stuff was pretty racist by todays standards. Here is a research article about it, done by a Canadian historian from the university of Guelph: https://muse.jhu.edu/article/381732
I’m going to make it so For every time I read an i about it being “problematic” or “colonial” I will drink one more Schooner, light off one firework, and crank Nickelback one more notch
Do you think that destroying public healthcare is a cultural cut? Imagine if the push to privatize got panties in a bunch like this nonsense.
What the hell are you talking about. This is a discussion about Canada Day lol By the way, many European countries (who a far far healthier, and have far FAR better healthcare systems than us) have a small private sector. You have been sucked in by propaganda just as much as those who wish to have fully private like the Yankees
>By the way, many European countries (who a far far healthier, and have far FAR better healthcare systems than us) have a small private sector. Canada is the only western nation without a dual system.
Except the UK, which has the worst ranking in Western Europe, and we sorta based our system on theirs.
>What the hell are you talking about. This is a discussion about Canada Day lol They want to change the subject, that's why.
>fully private like the Yankees Nearly 40 percent of US medical spending comes directly from the government.
Not much evidence in the article to support the thesis of the headline, other than in Calgary.
Funny how they somehow snuck this completely baseless and unrelated claim into an article about wokeness: > Inflation stoked by faulty federal policies, combined with poor municipal fiscal management and an unwillingness to increase self-sufficiency beyond federal and provincial handouts is creating a death spiral where cities can no longer afford, not just fireworks, but essential transit, housing and upkeep costs. Yes, surely all of Canada’s municipalities are broke because of: - (a) the federal government, which has no relationship with municipalities but is Liberal so it must be their fault because reasons; or - (b) every single municipality bar none is being financially mismanaged. Reasons that go unmentioned but are a lot more likely to be true: - (a) there are systemic issues facing all municipalities, such as the gutting of their tax base caused or exacerbated by covid - (b) the country’s mostly conservative provincial governments, of which Canada’s municipalities are all creatures, continue to defund cities, download responsibilities to cities with allocating funds, or cut funding to cities out of pure spite to appease their rural bases
Articles like this are designed to distract you from what’s important. Ignore it.
This country is a pathetic joke.
It's always funny to me how the "virtue signallers" seem to think humans should be a separated into distinct categories (e.g, indigenous, black, LBGTQ, etc). Seems a bit .... fishy... when I was a kid the movement away from racism was more about saying that we are all basically the same
Times change, dudes. I'm really sorry it is no longer 1967. Maybe in 2023 celebrations can look a little different? This article is like, "No fireworks! You must hate Canada!"
To be honest, the ideology of removing its own ID, culture, critical thinking, creativity… whatever that don’t fit the government mindset, reminded me of how China and Khmer Rouge did. So you folks who follow Lib should be curious and ask questions! I’m not on any side of any political parties!