Terry Burton is a retired veteran of Alberta’s oil and heavy construction industry and a former member of the Alberta Apprenticeship Board.Few subjects in Canada generate more passion than the question of who built this country. Unfortunately, the discussion often begins with conclusions rather than evidence. Political advocacy, media narratives, educational institutions, and activist organizations frequently present simplified versions of history that emphasize one set of contributions while minimizing another. The result is not greater understanding but greater division.There should be little disagreement on one point: every generation stands on the shoulders of those who came before. Indigenous peoples lived on these lands for many years before sixteenth-century Europeans arrived, albeit somewhat in a nomadic and tribalist tradition. They developed tribal societies, governed themselves according to their own tribal customs, established beneficial trade networks, and acquired, as part of their daily living, knowledge of local geography, wildlife, and ecosystems. Early European explorers and immigrants interacted with indigenous peoples, thereby acquiring indigenous knowledge, and vice versa, which helped both survive very challenging and harsh environments.The Canada that exists today — with its cities, highways, railways, ports, airports, universities, hospitals, courts, legislatures, electrical grids, telecommunications systems, manufacturing industries, scientific research, military, financial institutions, and social programs — was constructed over centuries through the labour of millions of people.Beginning in the early seventeenth century and accelerating after Confederation in 1867, successive waves of immigrants transformed a sparsely populated territory into one of the world's most developed countries. Farmers, primarily from Europe, cleared millions of acres of land. Labourers built canals, roads, bridges, and railways. Miners extracted the resources that fueled industrial growth. Engineers designed dams and power stations. Entrepreneurs established businesses. Scientists, physicians, teachers, tradespeople, factory workers, police officers, soldiers, and public servants built institutions that continue to serve every Canadian (indigenous and non-indigenous) today..This was not the work of a single ethnic group. French and British settlers, indigenous peoples, Black Canadians, Chinese railway workers, Ukrainian farmers, Italian builders, South Asian entrepreneurs, Jewish professionals, and later immigrants from every corner of the globe all made meaningful contributions to the Canadian mosaic.Yet the overwhelming volume of labour that produced modern Canada's infrastructure, economy, and public institutions was performed after European settlement by generations of pioneers and immigrants. That conclusion is not a moral judgment; it is a demographic and historical observation.Simple arithmetic illustrates the scale. Even conservative estimates suggest the cumulative labour invested in developing modern Canada is well over a trillion work hours since permanent European arrivals. Indigenous labour represents a valuable portion of that history, particularly in the fur trade, resource harvesting, transportation, guiding, military service, and contemporary industries. Nevertheless, because indigenous populations remained comparatively small while Canada's population expanded into the tens of millions through immigration and natural increase, the overwhelming majority of labour invested in building Canada's modern physical and institutional landscape has necessarily come from non-indigenous Canadians. Such labour has benefitted all Canadians, and it’s on those shoulders we now stand and express our gratitude.Recognizing this reality should not diminish the contributions of different groups of Canadians. Nor should acknowledging prior history diminish the accomplishments of those who arrived, from around the world, and contributed, still are, to the Canada we know today..The discussion becomes more nuanced when questions of land, ancestry, and historical grievances, indigenous and non-indigenous, arise. The observation being that a system of jurisprudence that never existed before the arrival of non-indigenous peoples is now purported, by the claimants, to be the basis for deciding who is “entitled” to the land is somewhat puzzling.It is asserted by some that "the land was stolen." The statement begs the question by whom, when, how, and where to go from here. There are thousands of historical precedents around the world where such land acquisition was and is the reality. Thus, one must conclude that such claims of “stolen land” are a global phenomenon affecting all, rooted in tens of thousands of years of history, where ownership was and is determined by those in control of the levers of power at the time. Maybe not the most attractive acknowledgement, but the ugly reality.Furthermore, the land, according to many indigenous peoples, “is a living, conscious entity. Humans are not masters of the land; they are but one part of a web of reciprocal relationships. Humans are granted the right to use the land by the Creator, conditioned on one’s duty to respect and protect it.” Consequently, disputed “land ownership,” now being argued in the Canadian courts by indigenous peoples, appears to call into question that which the Creator intended and expects.Canada's history, however, is considerably more complex than a single slogan allows. Some indigenous communities experienced injustice, displacement, and discrimination. Others, like the Irish, Jewish, and Ukrainian communities, were subjected to similar, if not identical, discrimination and unfair treatment. These realities deserve honest examination rather than denial..At the same time, acknowledging historical wrongs does not mean that present-day Canadians bear personal responsibility for actions taken centuries ago, nor does it erase the enormous contributions made by generations who devoted their lives to building the country all Canadians now share. Millions of immigrants arrived with little more than hope, endured hardship, worked extraordinarily long hours, paid taxes, raised families, fought in Canada's wars, and helped create the prosperity from which all Canadians — including indigenous communities — benefit today.Modern medicine, public education, transportation networks, engineering achievements, constitutional government, social insurance programs, advanced agriculture, communications technology, and countless other innovations are the cumulative product of generations of Canadian effort. Indigenous Canadians have benefited from these developments, just as they contributed to them as doctors, nurses, lawyers, professors, tradespeople, entrepreneurs, artists, public servants, business owners, and community leaders.This should not be viewed as a competition over suffering or virtue. Nations are rarely built by one people alone. Canada certainly was not.If all Canadians genuinely seek harmonization and cooperation, they must move beyond narratives that celebrate one group while diminishing another. Indigenous history and contributions deserve respect. So too does the extraordinary labour of millions of immigrants whose blood, sweat, sacrifice, and perseverance transformed a vast northern territory into the modern Canada we know today.Recognition need not require exaggeration, and respect need not depend upon denying the contributions of others.Terry Burton is a retired veteran of Alberta’s oil and heavy construction industry and a former member of the Alberta Apprenticeship Board.
