It may be time for provinces to have their own provincial holidays in the wake of the upcoming National Day of Truth and Reconciliation (NDTR) set for September 30.
While the federal government established the NDTR as a statutory holiday, it is hard to say that the NDTR is really a celebration. Instead, the NDTR seeks to air the racial grievances of some indigenous groups and self-hating white people annually at the expense of the accused “colonizers.”
The Orange Shirts who ravaged the country earlier this year, destroying Canadian monuments, are getting rewarded for their efforts in destabilizing the country, undermining Canada’s proud history, and further dividing the nation.
Indeed, rather than celebrating past glories, the holiday stops just short of total condemnation of the entire nation, a mere chance to point out a stain on our record.
Given that many activists wish to see Canada Day cancelled, it appears that celebrating our history may need to fall upon the provinces, as the federal government is impotent in this regard.
To this end, Quebec already has its own provincial holiday for the Quebecois known as Saint-Jean-Baptiste-Day or the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist.
The next best candidate is arguably Alberta, mainly because Albertans have never felt more separated from the rest of the country.
After the blue wave that all but consumed the province in the 2015 election, Alberta has confirmed that whatever is happening in Ottawa has nothing to do with it or its inhabitants’ best interests.
As such, the province should institute a provincial holiday to celebrate everything great about the province, which the federal government has neglected. A day which would be a true celebration of all Albertans, rather than a small special interests’ group.
