Happy Dominion Day!

From our family to yours, we trust you and yours have a safe and enjoyable July 1.

For the men and women of the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan and other corners of the planet, who wear the flag with pride, we trust you have an excellent day as well. May this day be one marked by peace even in the midst of conflict. God bless you and speed your return to your families today.

And may God bless this glorious nation, Canada! May she be forever strong and increasingly free.

Update 4:51 PM AST: A Vice-President of the Canadian Arab Federation, Omar Shaban, offers his view. (Hat tip to Kate, and an excellent catch by Tarek Fatah.)

F**k Canada Day

All I have to say is there are probably 100 flights per day leaving this country, Mr. Shaban.  Feel free to hop on any one of them at your earliest convenience and never return.  You might live here but you are not one of us.  The sooner you and others like you leave, the better.

Is our future Multicultural, or Multiethnic?

First of, I’d like to subscribe 100% to Multiethnic. Let me make that clear from the outset.

What a fantastic question! And what an amazing differentiation!

[h/t to cynical joe at Unambiguously Ambidextrous]

Let me first describe the problem I have with Multicultural. Straight up? It’s a farce. It’s totally impractical, rife with logistical and social nightmares, and prone to enormous bounds of personal interpretation. To me, being a multicultural society implies that we are willing to incorporate other “cultures” into our existing culture, thus changing what the Canadian Culture is (or was?).

Personally, I don’t think that’s a good idea. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. The reason why so many people want to come to Canada is because it was such a wonderful, stable, and respectful country. We had clear values and respect for one another’s differences. What brought us to that status was a legacy inherited from Britain and France of a predominately Christian philosophy and a structured but flexible legal system based on basic Christian values.

That comes under attack when we seek to ‘incorporate’ other cultures (which may or may not be compatible) into our existing culture. We do not seek to peacefully co-exist under Multiculturalism. We seek to blend. That will become a dog’s breakfast if we don’t stop it. More and more people are beginning to see that.

The virtue of a Multiethnic philosophy is that there is no blending. There is no impetus to incorporate, or to change, or to otherwise alter what makes Canada…well…Canada! By it’s name, it identifies us as being a society composed of multiple ethnic people as opposed to a society based on multiple cultures.

A Multiethnic philosophy allows for the toleration and acceptance of what makes us different, and because of those differences, our society is enhanced. We can appreciate and participate in the wonderous varieties of the cultures of these ethnic groups, without being beholden to them. The difference being that we would not be compelled to change the basic fundamentals of our society in order to incorporate possibly incompatible beliefs and/or justice systems. Canada can remain Canada, and we can maintain the best of all things in this country and of it’s people, while leaving behind that which we (or others) came here to escape.

The alternative, is to continue the cultural collisions and accidents, and in attempting to incorporate, completely homogenize what Canada was and could have been, into a bland, barren and intolerant landscape where the dream of “infinite possibility in infinite diversity” was cast aside in favor of accomodation.

Ottawa, Ontario & The CAW. Oh my!

Something being watched very closely in my neck of the woods, is the current goings-on between the Federal Government, the Provincial Government and the CAW in regards to the Bailout Package. For the record, I was going to call it the “Financial Assistance Package” but when you get right down to the nitty-gritty of it, it is more than anything else a bailout.

Industry Minister Tony Clement came out on Sunday basically saying that any assistance given by the government will be hinged on a number of things, but specifically, that the major auto companies must become cost competitive with other industries. Which is to say, it should cost Ford, GM & Chrysler approximately the same to build a car as it does Hyundai, Honda and Toyota.

As would be expected, the CAW and other unions are screaming mad, and depending on who you talk to, for a variety of different reasons. Some members argue that to accept wage concessions and benefit concessions is a betrayal of ‘everything those who came before us fought for’. Some argue that it is simply propaganda by those who are jealous of “good” paying jobs. I personally would argue that their definition of good is probably more along the lines of astronomical to the average Canadian and that such concessions are simply an acceptance of fact and bending to the current economic times, but that’s neither here nor there. In any circumstance, Ken Lewenza and the CAW are definately making a LOT of noise; and I think it is for reasons not listed above….

The CAW is currently in a war with Government and the Public, not for equality or protection, but for their very existance. Unions are dying a slow and steady death, and they themselves are the ones slowly pushing the knife closer and closer to their own heart.

In days gone by, Organized Labour was a necessary and desireable element in the industrialized workforce. Jobs were scarce, and there was always workers willing to do the job if someone else wasn’t. Industry took advantage of that because there really wasn’t any general protection for the workforce. Through the years since, Organized Labour has forced government and the public to accept that laws and protections must be in place for a healthy and reliable workforce, and that the workforce itself is entitled to equity and reasonable security. Laws have been created and Acts put into practice to reinforce those issues, and make them standard.

The “Great Work” that Organized Labour set out to accomplish has been finished, and Organized Labour has become, to a large extent, merely an administrative advocate who acts on behalf of its members. But what does that really mean? What does that advocate actually provide aside from an administrative service that employees with a little time and research are fully capable of doing themselves?

The CAW and others right now, are making a lot of noise in order to try and stay relevant in areas where they have worked themselves out of necessity and into merely an advantage. An advantage some might argue, that is pushing them out of the economy with breakneck speed.

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