by arthur Weinreb, associate Editor,
Thursday, February 10, 2005
NDP MP Charlie angus recently revealed in the House of Commons that the Canadian government had purchased six million Canadian flag lapel pins, to be given away, from the Peoples Republic of China. It seems the rookie MP thinks that Canadian flags should be made in Canada by Canadians. angus added that the government doesn’t care about our culture as this is the government that sold the marketing rights for the RCMP to Disney and issued a commemorative 25 cent coin, honouring Remembrance Day, through Tim Horton’s Donuts.
Disney and Tim Horton’s are red herrings and we really shouldn’t be upset about those outsourcing moves. To begin with, Tim Horton’s is much more of a Canadian institution and a symbol of this country than the current Liberal government is. We all know that Paul Martin doesn’t really see himself as the prime minister of Canada; if he did he would visit more often. Martin sees himself as a man of the world; a true internationalist for whom the problems of Tonga or the Central african Republic are every bit as important as those in Canada. and as for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police go, well they were a Mickey Mouse police force long before they were sold to Disney.
But having our flag produced in another country is a different story.
Scott Brison, the Minister of Public Works, a.k.a. the Minister of Lapel Pins, became indignant at angus’s question. The Tory turncoat showed that he is a quick study when it comes to Liberal arrogance. We have trade agreements with China, Charlie, don’t ya know. and besides, the Canadian government has the duty to get the best possible deal for the taxpayers, said Scotty, huffing and puffing.
It seemed like a good move when Scott Brison left the newly created Conservative Party, crossed the floor and joined his new best friends, the Liberals. Being a Liberal means never having to have any principles which make it so much easier when you reverse yourself as Brison quickly did. The arrogant Brison later announced that from now on, lapel pins given away by the federal government will be made in Canada.
Paul Martin has taken some flak about flying Liberian, Panamanian, and other flags of convenience on his little boats when he was the head of Canada Steamship Lines. Some MPs thought that it was deplorable. Others, with dreams of owning shipping lines dancing in their heads, remained silent. But Martin was a businessman who made business decisions to remain competitive. The Canadian government handing out Canadian flags is not the private sector. Throughout his life, Martin has never showed that he particularly cared about Canada until it was pointed out to him that he could be prime minister one day. Even now that he’s in the top job, he lacks the passion of his predecessor when it comes to this country.
The flag is of course a symbol of our country and our culture. While the government always talks about our cultural sovereignty, it is usually restricted to protecting Canadians from the Great Satan to the south. But the reality is that outside of the province of Quebec, Canada has no culture. Our culture is everyone else’s culture. If the Canadian government really cared about culture and its symbols like the flag, someone somewhere in the bureaucracy would have nixed the idea of purchasing the lapel pins from a foreign country. and Scott Brison would not have condescendingly lectured Charlie angus about trade agreements with China.
Ordering the pins from outside of Canada had nothing to do with money as Brison first claimed that it did. The cost was slightly more than $100,000; chump change for the feds who, all in the name of Canada of course, squandered over $100 million of taxpayers’ money during the adscam years. The controversy over the pins arose because the Liberals, to the extent that they care at all about these things, misread how Canadians feel.
The lapel pin flap was nothing more than business as usual in our one party state. The views of how Canadians feel about the flag weren’t considered--they didn’t have to be.
and the fact that Canada is a one party state is something that cannot be blamed on the Liberals.