Does One Have to Return to British Symbolism to be Conservative

Henry Srebrnik, [Charlottetown, PEI] Guardian

As my surname suggests, my forbearers are not from the British Isles. In fact, my family arrived in Canada in 1948.

But I did grow up in the pre-Trudeauvian Dominion of Canada, with its Red Ensign flag and little crowns above the numerals on highway signs in many parts of the country.

At our elementary school, we sang “God Save the Queen” as well as “O Canada” every morning.

Yes, much of our history and, more importantly, political institutions originate in the United Kingdom, and most Canadians outside of Quebec in the past had little problem with Canada seeing itself as an offspring of Great Britain.

From the 1970s on, however, there was a conscious attempt, partly to accommodate nationalists in Quebec, to eradicate much of the symbolism of Canada’s connection to Britain.

The Queen, though still the official head of state of Canada, was stealthily relegated to a position of less importance than the governor general, who became the de facto head of the country. The Commonwealth connection, too, was minimized.

Much of this was the work of prime ministers who originated in Quebec – with very brief interludes, they governed the country between 1968 and 2006.

We now have what is basically an English Canadian government, headed by a prime minister from anglophone Alberta.

Stephen Harper is working to bring back a sense of history for Canadians, after decades of emphasis on supposed Canadian values such as medicare and multiculturalism.

This is part of his effort to promote a more conservative national identity. Liberals often saw the period before the 1960s as a kind of “dark ages,” in which bigotry and racism flourished.

But is restoring the label “Royal” to the Canadian navy and air force not perhaps a step too far? It had its place in the past but Canada is no longer that country. Millions of us without ties to Britain had no trouble with its disappearance.

The Harper government also ordered all of Canada’s 260 embassies, high commissions, consulates and trade offices to display a portrait of the Queen.

Harper’s decisions have angered many Canadian nationalists who say the prime minister is out of touch with modern-day Canada. And it certainly won’t help him in Quebec.

What’s next, the Union Jack alongside the Maple Leaf? Surely being a conservative needn’t require a return to a British past which in any case is no longer really relevant to either country.

Turning the clock back like this isn’t conservative, it’s reactionary.