Yesterday was Canada Day, and I was reading David Frum’s column in the Atlantic arguing for preserving the legacy of John A. MacDonald. Frum’s point was that “things are forms” and being a symbol of Canada, cancelling Sir John A. delegitimizes Canada.
His analysis of the underlying dynamic was the 60′s era hippie-punching one: some people in Canada are excited to stick it to the man and topple statues, but don’t realize that doing so undermines the structure of society. I think he’s got it exactly backwards and most people involved in this argument don’t at all care about MacDonald specifically, but are just using him as a means of deligitimizing Canada as a nation.
And, with the finding of the residential school graves that is sure to continue, Canada as a nation is not exactly on firm ground in terms of legitimacy. This Canada day (I was heartened to see) there were definitely many more people wearing orange than red. My neighbourhood was full of “consider not shooting fireworks in support of genocide” posters and online, several times I saw my friends sharing messages aimed towards immigrants: “just because you enjoy living in Canada much more than you enjoyed living where you came from, doesn’t mean you should celebrate Canada”.
I think this means that people like Frum, who want to ensure the legitimacy of Canada as a nation (which I think I, ultimately, do too) should willingly forfeit any compromised symbols like Sir John A. MacDonald. Canada-as-a-thing is a lot easier to celebrate if its symbols are Terry Fox, or if it’s Leonard Cohen singing “Un Canadien Errant,” than if it’s about being slightly less efficient than the Americans at killing native people. In any case, civic nationalism is an exceedingly hard needle to thread without turning to ethnic nationalism. No need to up the difficulty level.
Rated Zed 
All Terry Fox ever did was mock wheelchair users with his incessant running, and Leonard Cohen’s so called music is nothing more than thinly disguised cultural appropriation. That these two privileged white males haven’t been canceled yet is a stain on Canada’s reputation.
Yeah, the “everything is problematic” game is extremely easy to play, that’s no revelation. Clickbait makes it easy and lucrative to shit on everything and everyone. The trick imo is being able to distinguish sincere concerns from opportunistic ones.
(Надеюсь, людям, которые не поддерживают георгиевские ленточки и спасибодедузапобеду, не обязательно объяснять, что не всякий патриотизм положителен, а значит надо как-то выбирать, что включать, а что исключать)