It is undeniable, Canada is in turmoil. No matter where you look, every facet of our lives seems a bit bleak. It’s tempting to believe the only viable solution is to burn everything to the ground and build new from amongst the ashes. Except that’s not the Canadian way — we always persevere.That said, it’s easy to understand why people are feeling hopeless. Canadians are hurting, some terribly and unfortunately it’s for a wide range of reasons.Our Jewish community is facing a frightening and disgusting resurgence of antisemitism fuelled by pro-Hamas supporters and their idiotic western enablers. While in a totally different vein, a growing number of Canadians can’t afford food or shelter. To say nothing of the spectre of a looming World War 3.In short, things are bad.Thankfully though, Canada and Canadians have a history of forging greatness from adversity. So while it may seem like the challenges we face are extraordinary, I personally think we are on the precipice of another great societal realization of our true character.We can look to our past for confirmation of a better future.We’ve faced similar challenges in our history, be it diaspora politics, war or economic instability. Each time we prevailed and we’re still here.Take the Fenian raids as prime example. For those whose Canadian history is a bit rusty, these were raids carried out on forts and other targets in Canada (then British North America) by a group called the Fenian Brotherhood. They were an Irish republican organization based out of the United States who wanted to pressure the British government to withdraw from Ireland.The attacks divided our then flourishing Irish-Canadian population who felt conflicted over sympathy for aims of the Fenians and loyalty to their new home. This is not all that dissimilar to our pro-Palestinian diaspora and their supporters.Just as our present-day pro-Hamas antisemitic rallies face little in the way of government condemnation, the Fenian raids faced paltry government opposition as well.Back then, the lack of a credible response to the Fenian threat galvanized the pro-Confederation majority of Canada and facilitated at least one maritime government to fall. It bolstered our collective military preparedness and was a major impetus to see Confederation realized and the Fenian threat defeated.I expect we will see the same play out again in the present.The weak response by our prime minister and his Liberal cabinet to the heinous rallies that are terrifying our Jewish population will help usher in its downfall. We will see the majority of Canadians whose moral compasses still point to the true north, find their voices and defeat the evil we see parading in our streets. But that’s just one example. Let’s consider Canada at war next.At the outset of both World War I and World War II, Canada was woefully unprepared to fight a major conflict. Yet, somehow we came together and made a name for ourselves as warriors and a nation to be reckoned with.We captured Vimy Ridge, a feat neither the larger French or British armies could achieve. In World War II we were given our own beach to assault on D-Day alongside Britain and the United States. Hell, we ended that war with the third largest navy of the allied forces.So despite the fact once again a war rages in Europe, as well as the Middle East, Canada finds itself dreadfully undermanned and ill-equipped militarily. Yet, if we are drawn into war, I have no doubt we could turn our industries around to support a war effort as we have in the past.Lastly let’s look at Canada response to economic instability.The Great Depression of the 1930’s was devastating for Canada compared to many other countries. More than 30% of our labour force was out of work by 1933 and one-in-five Canadians was dependent upon government relief for survival.Yet this disaster led to the creation of many of our social welfare and support programs we have today. Our unemployment insurance program is one such example.It was also the progenitor of many political reform movements. While these new organizations were primarily at the provincial level, the Canadian Co-operative Federation (CCF) ultimately morphed over time into the present day NDP.While we’re not quite in a depression, we are seeing stagnation of our economy and, along with it, major shifts in how people feel our government should be managing it. We’re even seeing new political parties emerge such as Center Ice Canadians (CIC) and a few years ago, the People’s Party of Canada (PPC.) Both are looking to offer alternatives to the status quo federal parties. That’s a good thing, even if what they’re offering and the way they go about it is embarrassing, to themselves and others. So there is hope. We’ve successfully managed catastrophe before. So why are we seeming to struggle to overcome challenges that we’ve already faced?It’s just two things — a lack of leadership, and an undermined belief in our nation and it’s worth.Justin Trudeau and his government have failed to lead this country and in doing so have failed every citizen in a most awful and spectacular way. We’ve allowed him to divide us, to infight and doubt ourselves.We aren’t being led by him or his team, except to believe we must self-flagellate ourselves for being nothing more than a genocidal, over privileged society that is poisoning the earth.We are better than this man and his sad fear-mongering government, history shows us that.We will persevere and prevail. We always do.
