Is the new passport erasing Canada’s history? What’s behind the controversy – National | 24CA News
The authorities hit delete on Terry Fox.
That’s how Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre put it when he posted a nearly-five minute video on Twitter condemning the Liberal authorities for its passport redesign, whereas standing in entrance of the National War Memorial, one other picture faraway from future Canadian passports.
That video, which calls the passport Justin Trudeau’s “colouring book” as a result of it options pictures of a squirrel consuming a nut and a person raking leaves, reached almost one million folks in every week, far exceeding Poilievre’s different latest movies.
“This is troll politics,” mentioned Jason Hannon, an affiliate professor on the University of Winnipeg within the division of rhetoric, writing and communications.
“It’s not like Canadian identity has ever hinged on passport design. It’s not like Canadians ever went to bed at night thinking happy thoughts about passports. It’s an utterly fabricated issue.”
The Liberals aren’t the primary to “delete” advertising and marketing, branding or promoting work accomplished by earlier governments, mentioned Alex Marland, a professor of political science at Memorial University of Newfoundland who research political advertising and marketing.
“The reality is that all governments do these things and shape countries in their own image whenever they can,” he mentioned.
“The general pattern is the Liberal party tends to take Canada in a more independent direction, and Conservatives tend to take Canada in a more historical direction, in a history as they perceive it.”
Marland mentioned a particular portrait of Queen Elizabeth II would dangle within the overseas affairs workplace when Conservatives had been in energy, and get replaced with paintings by a Quebec artist when the Liberals took workplace.
Then there was former prime minister Stephen Harper, who repainted the federal government aircraft crimson, white and blue with “True North Strong and Free” written on it, and put “royal” again into titles.
The Liberals have been concerned in altering the coat of arms, the nationwide anthem and the Canadian flag to the present variations.
While it’s not new for politicians to assault authorities choices, Poilievre has framed the passport redesign as a tradition battle concern, suggesting that Canadian historical past, id, values and iconic figures are at stake, mentioned Hannon, who’s writing a guide on the subject.
Hannon mentioned a tradition battle is a battle for the guts and soul of a nation. The notion exploded in Canada throughout the COVID-19 pandemic with the politicization of masks and vaccines.
“It’s a struggle to define what we stand for, what we should be striving for. It’s a struggle over what it means to belong to this or that country, over what it means to be Canadian, who we are and who we’re not,” Hannon mentioned.
“So if you can control that conversation, you can wield considerable political power.”
Hannon mentioned this may result in a dangerous and poisonous tradition, like what has been seen within the United States lately.
“It’s severely corrosive to the culture of democracy because it elevates these fake issues over real and substantive issues,” he mentioned.
“Unfortunately, when you don’t have a meaningful political vision for a better society _ when you can’t actually say what it is that you want for Canada other than vague ideas and meaningless talk about ‘freedom’ _ then you stoke fear and outrage and hatred.”
He mentioned if politicians are profitable in stoking that concern, they will “bring people who would ordinarily never talk to each other ? in a kind of unison, shouting against the enemy.”
But on condition that the following authorities can usher in its personal redesign, some say the outrage is overblown.
“These things are not forever. We’re not redesigning our Parliament buildings that will be built for 100 years,” mentioned David Soberman, a professor of selling on the University of Toronto.
© 2023 The Canadian Press
