At the Macdonald-Laurier Institute we’re deeply grateful to be Canadian – and we believe Canada is worth fighting for.
Our forebears were proud of the country they built and for good reason. Canada’s founding and first exploits were incredible!
A diverse people on a vast land, and our founders – principally Sir John A. – unified Canada and set in motion a government and a way of life that isn’t merely a copy of our neighbours to the south.
We were a truly dynamic and freedom-loving nation. An example to the world – and a sought-after home for many, many newcomers.
As MLI’s managing director Brian Lee Crowley wrote, Canada’s founders believed:
“Our success was bound up with our character… we could welcome people from all over the world and we could populate this huge and sometimes stern piece of geography and make it all work because of the kind of people we were and the kind of people newcomers were expected to become.
Central to this view of the character of Canadians and their institutions was a notion of individual freedom and responsibility, a belief that each of us was endowed with a nature that required us to be responsible and accountable for our choices. The corollary was that if we deprived men and women of their freedom and responsibility for themselves, we prevented people from being fully free and fully human. Dependence on government or on charity was therefore to be abhorred… because of the damage it did to those who ‘benefitted.’”
We were a great nation founded on high ideals but today we’ve too often turned from these ideals and lost sight of who we are.
After years of dishonest indoctrination, Canadians increasingly believe lies about our national history and are succumbing to self-hatred.
As MLI senior fellow Chris Dummitt wrote recently for the National Post:
“For years now, Canada’s elite have been acting as if there is no real legitimate national interest. Imagine a new prime minister trying to invoke a Canadian version of JFK’s self-abnegating admonition to, ‘Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.’ Young Canadians would say: ‘But I thought you told us we lived on stolen land?’”
We’ve torn down monuments and beheaded our history, abandoned our friends and allies globally, and turned on each other internally, fraying under the weight of identity politics and cultural socialism.
Our leaders, when they aren’t busy denigrating our history, have actively damaged our country. They’ve shown a serious disregard for the rule of law, going so far as to use emergency measures to crush political dissent, and they’ve failed to address foreign interference from malicious actors actively undermining our democracy.
In many ways, Canada is in rough shape…
And yet, at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute we remember the Canada that was and believe in the Canada that could be. We’re not ashamed of Canada and we won’t be cowed into silence.
We seek to tell the truth about our incredible Canadian history, to defend the rule of law, and to push back foreign interference by calling out malevolent actors (which is why we’re sanctioned by both China and Russia).
Ultimately, we believe that if Canada was to recommit to its founding values – freedom and personal responsibility – it could heal its internal divisions and once again punch above its weight as a force for good in the world.
We believe in Canada and we will continue our work to defend it from malicious misrepresentations of our past, foreign attempts to undermine our sovereignty, or short-sighted policy that puts our future at risk – MLI will always stand up for Canada’s interests.
Support our work to make Canada the best governed country in the world!
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