I just read something about how PM Mark Carney wasn't "really" Canadian. He was born in Fort Smith, NWT, and raised in Edmonton, so definitely a citizen. Mark (you didn't know we were on a first-name basis, did you?) played goalie growing up. Can't be much more Canadian than that! So why would some people say he wasn't truly one of us?
Let me explain. Mr. Carney is smart. Very smart. He went to Harvard and Oxford. Can you imagine the debt he came out of those two schools with? But I digress. After completing his studies, he went on to be quite famously the first non-British citizen to be named Governor of the Bank of England. He also worked for Goldman Sachs and the United Nations. So yes, he worked and lived outside of the country for many years. To be fair, most Canadians knew him from his days as the head of the Bank of Canada. His name is still on a lot of our money btw!
So that's the argument. He went away to school. He left the country to work. Didn't stay here. Not Canadian enough. Let's try to diminish him for getting the best education possible and the good jobs that led to better jobs, then to the height of his chosen career path. He's not really one of us. That's the criticism. While many conservatives agreed with this premise and expanded on it, here's how that argument got ripped apart in such a way that left these same loud voices silenced with two words...Sidney Crosby.
Every single person in Canada knows #87. He scored our "Golden Goal" in 2010 at the Olympics. Then helped bring home another gold medal four years later. He's won the Stanley Cup three times, and each time shared it with his fellow Canadians in small towns or with large parades. Sid the Kid, at 39 we can no longer call him that, was everyone's little brother, cousin, grandson, or neighbour kid. We watched him grow up, we cheered him on, and we proudly talked about his accomplishments. All forty-one million of us agree he is Canadian. Hell, we even put him on a postage stamp in 2016!!
Hang on a minute...Crosby went to school in the US at the age of 15. He was drafted by the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2005. Since that time, he has lived in the US for more than half of each year. He pays taxes, owns property, and I'm assuming has healthcare coverage there. Based solely on years lived outside our borders, Crosby beats Carney by three years... and counting! Why then, is Sid "ours" but Mark isn't?
Politics, of course, is the reason. It's not about who lived where or what job they had. Not even close. No one can say the jobs PM Carney had were not evidence of a successful career. Quite the opposite. But we all know politics is about changing the narrative to fit our beliefs and belittle our opponents. This is just the latest attempt by the Conservative Party to garner support. Not a very good one, in my opinion.
Being Canadian doesn't mean you must necessarily live or work within our borders. It's about how we treat people. How we do the right thing even when it's hard. Our morality. Our dignity. Our pride in where we come from and what that maple leaf stands for throughout the world.
That's what makes us Canadian...not geography.
Ang
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