Lament for a nation redux
“It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend.” William Blake
We were friends – good friends – for so long. Now suddenly you’ve decided we’re not. And frankly, we’re quite angry about it.
Like our economies, our families are U.S. – Canada intertwined. Sue was born in Beloit, Wisconsin and raised in Ridgefield, Connecticut till the age of 10. On my side, ever since Uncle Don moved to suburban Detroit to raise his family, an entire branch is American.
When we lived in Montreal, Sue formed tight friendships with a group of dynamic women – herself and Shelli born in the States; Ingrid and Cathryn born in Canada; Graciela, born in Argentina and Gillian, born in Scotland, both now naturalized Canadians. Cathryn, Ingrid, and Graciela are still in Montreal – but Shelli has moved on to Massachusetts and Sue and Gillian are in Ontario. The 6 women remain in constant contact by means of regular get-togethers and a group chat entitled ‘The Tribe.’
Every time Trump repeats another falsehood about Canada (about as frequently as he breathes) or threatens us, the group chat begins to buzz… like a lot. The Canadians in the group are panicked and – in a very un-Canadian way – intensely angry. The Americans are both embarrassed and incredulous.
‘The Tribe’ - back row from left: Ingrid, Gillian, Graciela; front from left: Cathryn, Sue, Shelli.
The repeated threats of economic warfare and border adjustments to force us into an unwanted annexation are no joke. For American readers, this may be below-the-fold news, but it’s pretty much all we are talking about up here. ‘The Tribe’ is up in arms and these events have been like a blacksmith’s bellows on the dying embers of a residual and wholesome small-town Canadian nationalism.
George Grant (1918-1988) is widely regarded as one of Canada’s most important political philosophers of the 20th century. I first read Grant in undergraduate courses in the 80’s at Thorneloe University with Dr. Bruce Ward – who mentored under Grant at McMaster University.
A Rhodes Scholar, political conservative, Christian, and social commentator, Grant came to national prominence in 1965 with his first book, Lament For A Nation. The Bomarc missile crisis, where U.S. President Kennedy pressured Canada to accept nuclear warheads on missiles based in Canada, lead to the downfall of Canadian Prime Minister Diefenbaker’s government. Grant saw these events as a watershed moment – symbolic of our loss of sovereignty and autonomy.
But while Grant lamented, his young Canadian readers (me included) were inspired. Lament For A Nation stirred in a generation a sense that Canada should aspire to be different – that we could have a nobler possibility based on the common good. “The very foundation of Canada was to be something different from the United States. It was to build a society that was more ordered, was more reasonable, that wasn’t so full of illusions that wasn’t so full of violence, that wasn’t so full of dreams as the Americans,” said Grant in an interview.
George Parkin Grant (1918-1988)
At the time, Grant did not believe Canadians were willing to pay the economic price that would be needed to assert our independence. “I had hoped that Canada could be a country in the world that wouldn’t serve the purposes of any empire… the extension of power that belongs to humanity by nature is something that must be resisted… Kennedy stated clearly that his allies were going to be brought into line and I think he decided… [with the forcing of atomic warheads on the Bomarc missiles] to bring Diefenbaker into line.”
One reason for Grant’s aversion to empire was that he believed every human should have a chance to partake in actions of real consequences – in political activity that really matters. He argued that in great empires this was impossible. Today, in our sudden upending of geo-political alliances where Putin is America’s friend and Canada its enemy – this chance to partake in politics that really matter (against our will, perhaps) is possible indeed.
Dr. Ward, now retired, recently shared with me his thoughts on Grant and this moment: “It’s a tribute to Grant’s prophetic insight that so much of his analysis in Lament (save for specific political details/ personages) still applies. In one particularly bleak passage, he writes: ‘The kindest of all God’s dispensations is that individuals cannot predict the future in detail. Nevertheless, the formal end of Canada may be prefaced by a period during which the government of the United States has to resist the strong desire of English-speaking Canadians to be annexed.’ I am so happy (he would be too!) that he was so wrong about that desire to be annexed. We are seeing just the opposite. Your anger is widely shared; and anger can be a great motivating political force.”
Grant feared Canadians would not be willing to pay the price of not being members of the affluent society to save our sovereignty and Trump is making the same bet.
But ‘The Tribe’ is motivated. They’re busy registering, voting, encouraging, cajoling, engaging in touchy discussions – not just because they’re angry – but they firmly believe that there is nobility in fighting for the good – even in the face of impossible odds – and there is none in bending the knee to a tyrant at the head of an ‘I got mine’ society.
Grant went on to write the most prescient pieces on how technology had become a comprehensive fate for the modern world – with the US its epicentre – a fate linked to the drive to control. The technology-driven civilizational destiny he foresaw is today fulfilled in our age of reckless, unbridled A.I. investment and an anti-empathy techno-billionaire / greedy narcissist calling the shots.
So, yes, we are angry. And I suppose it’s long overdue that we plot a course without you.
But the question has changed since Grant’s Lament. We are no longer being asked if we are willing to pay the economic price. That price is being forced upon us. Our new question is whether we are to go out with a bang or a whimper.
As another great Canadian, Gordon Lightfoot, wrote in the 60’s about a project of national significance: “Open your heart, let the life blood flow. We got to get on our way 'cause we're movin' too slow.”
There is much work of great consequence to be done.
Bang away, Canada.
Want to learn more about George Grant?
David Cayley’s 3-part podcast is a great start.
