EDITORIAL:
Sparkle in the night
by Brandon Mayer
The calendar was not a friend of the Times this year. This June 19 issue of the Times happens to be the last one before Canada Day comes on Tuesday, July 1. As such, it’s our Canada Day issue. One advantage of marking the occasion early in print is that it gives us all plenty of opportunity to reflect on Canada Day musings leading up to the day we officially celebrate Canada’s 158th birthday. This year, many of us are reflecting on our commitment not to allow 2026 to be the year in which we “celebrate” Canada’s 1st birthday as a US state.
I try not to dabble in politics in print anymore. I had a column in a Cornwall newspaper in my teenage years and wrote a lot of political opinion. I also suffered from “keyboard warrior syndrome” in my teen and young adult years, getting in some fairly heated arguments out of loyalty to one party over another. I still have my own political views when it comes to Canadian politics, but they aren’t rigid, and I only express my opinion in snippets. When it comes to American politics, I don’t feel the need to sugar coat the same way: Donald Trump is a deranged criminal with no class, no respect, and no brains. He is not fit to be president, and far too many people turn a blind eye to his open and unapologetic threats to the sovereignty of our great nation.
The world has thrown a lot of things at us in the last decade. The COVID-19 pandemic changed my view on the world. The idea that life could become disrupted in such a profound way, completely out of our control, was an unwelcome shock to me as I’m sure it was to many others. If the pandemic taught us anything, it’s that we should be prepared for our lives to be suddenly uprooted on a moment’s notice. I was completing the practical training for my master’s degree in counselling psychology when the pandemic hit. When my clinical supervisor mentioned offhandedly that this new “coronavirus” might restrict our ability to meet with clients, I laughed it off, until the day I showed up at the office and the secretary backed up in a fit of panic when I leaned over the counter to talk to her. That same day, I had to call my teenage client’s mother and get her to turn around and go back home because it was deemed unsafe for us to have clients in the office.
That same week, I remember many students at Winchester Public School expressing anxiety over the “coronavirus” and its reported 3% death rate at the time. I remember telling one particular 5th grade boy that everything was fine and to stop worrying. Then schools shut down, and I didn’t see him or the majority of my students for almost 6 months. It was beyond sudden. It felt like a very bad, and very long dream.
The pandemic ended up lasting for what felt like an eternity. I don’t miss the days of enforcing mask-wearing on students who simply didn’t understand why they were being forced to wear an itchy, stinky mask all day. There were points when it felt like the pandemic would never end, and as I sit here on this absolutely beautiful sunny and breezy Saturday afternoon in my backyard listening to one of my neighbours in South Mountain mow their lawn, I am proud of each and every one of us that was strong enough to survive – not physically, but mentally.
COVID-19 was a virus, plain and simple. Many debate its origins, and the efficacy of government efforts to reduce its spread and death toll, but a virus it was nonetheless. What Trump is currently threatening Canada with hurts far more. COVID-19 turned our lives upside down due to a force of nature. All we could do was manage it, and there were certainly different schools of thought on how to do so, but in the end, we were all on the same team.
Now, it feels like our lives could be uprooted once again any day now, if the 51st state nonsense ends in a war between Canada and the USA. We know that our leaders will not give up our country willingly, but when the president of the United States repeats his inflammatory comments with a 3rd grade maturity level in public forums repeatedly, it stands to reason that the status quo is in a very unstable position. Trump’s never ending “51st state” rhetoric adds an extra punch because it’s intentional, offensive, and... pointless.
Why would the president of the United States, often nicknamed in highly arrogant and thus classically American fashion as the “leader of the free world”, be so desperately focused on conquering other nations? Dare I say that the 1700s called and they want their ambitions back? What self-respecting nation, in 2025, has their eye on taking over other sovereign nations against their will? Russia is notably excluded from my question because I said “self-respecting”.
Ultimately, there is nothing the average Canadian can do to “change the world”, as the saying goes. We are dependent on Mark Carney’s successes or failures when it comes to defending our home. There is undoubtedly a collective hope across the nation that he will succeed in making it clear that although Canada has much to offer, and we understand why someone would want it, it’s not for sale. I wonder if Carney will show his Canadian pride by taking his vacations at one of the countless amazing and scenic destinations available right here at home – something that Justin Trudeau failed at time and time again in his time in office, showing that Canada was not good enough for him each time he took his family to a vacation destination down south.
This July 1, we need to send a particularly strong message. The sparkle in the night from this year’s fireworks should come with extra meaning this year: Canada will remain sovereign, or Canadians will die trying.