Canadians only: Should Canada have an official day for John A. MacDonald?

[evan@cosocial.ca]

One of the hard things that we here, indigenous and non-indigenous people, have to figure out is what the role of the settler-colonial entity called Canada will be in the future of this land. Maybe it will disappear forever; maybe it changes into something more appropriate for reconciliation. Maybe this is the work of decades or centuries. Whatever Canada becomes, I don't think it will be possible to disentangle its history from Macdonald.

[evan@cosocial.ca]

So, I think yes, Canada should have an official day for the first prime minister, but it should be more complex than simple hero worship. It's a good time to understand and own our history and what it means now and for the future.

[evan@cosocial.ca]

@Chigaze it seems dishonest to me that we Canadians would disavow Macdonald entirely but retain all the benefits of his work.

[johnefrancis@cosocial.ca]

@evan @Chigaze let's go back and re-run the experiment without Macdonald and see how things turn out without him.

[virtuous_sloth@cosocial.ca]

@evan @Chigaze Is there not something between avowing and disavowing? Or, in other words, does removing an existing day qualify as disavowing? Or is it something like just-not-avowing? What if we just stop doing special things on a day that in some list has that special meaning?

[evan@cosocial.ca]

@virtuous_sloth @Chigaze that seems like a missed opportunity for reflection and growth.

Reading the Act, it doesn't seem like a day for particular celebration, even.

https://laws.justice.gc.ca/eng/AnnualStatutes/2002_2/page-1.html

[virtuous_sloth@cosocial.ca]

@evan @Chigaze The act itself misses an opportunity for nuanced reflection.

[emd@cosocial.ca]

@evan we have one for T&R (and we should), one for MacDonald would be good too

[oldmantoast@cosocial.ca]

@evan IMO we have a day to celebrate the country. We don't need days to celebrate individual leaders, either first or last.

[mpjgregoire@cosocial.ca]

@evan I don't think there's been any Canadian political leader who's received much hero worship — maybe Pierre Trudeau? They all have major flaws, Sir John A. notably so.

(I contrast this with the arguably blasphemous https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Apotheosis_of_Washington ; I can't even imagine anyone doing something similar for any Canadian politician.)

#CanPol #cdnpoli