Канада обладает лучшим национальным символом: её репутация и потенциал для роста

When Mark Carney said we will not give up our sovereignty for a trade deal, it made me think of statues. To be specific, statues that I’d seen in two recent blockbusters: “The Odyssey,” Christopher Nolan’s epic filmed in authentic, heart-pounding Imax, complete with a cyclops, a couple of gods, and the Trojan horse; and Ken Burn’s compelling history of the Statue of Liberty. It’s the statues in both productions — Lady Liberty and the Trojan horse — that made me wonder why the current occupant of the White House, fond of calling us the 51st state, even fonder of planning our economic ruin, looks on us with disdain, even contempt. Why? The movies made me wonder that it might be our lack of a single, iconic monument. The occupant, for example, covets England’s royalty, China’s autocratic rule and Russia’s rapacious ways. Could it be Buckingham Palace or the Great Wall or the Kremlin that he truly admires? He’s obviously in love with architectural monuments — his own in particular. We could build a colossus — Terry Fox say — striding the St Lawrence Seaway. Or create a 20-storey Great Canadian Loonie beside the Gordie Howe International Bridge, or maybe carve an enormous beaver into the side of Mount Robson. How about this: two giant elbows, one on each coast, pointed — you guessed it — firmly up. We could make them bigger than the occupant’s ego. The truth is we don’t need a statue (and in any event, building something bigger than this occupant’s ego would be difficult). There’s the great sweep of Canadian history to point to — from the story of Indigenous nations, to colonization by French and English, to settlements by Hungarians, Ukrainians, Italians, and now the wider world. There are numerous inventions from insulin to basketball. There’s the massive weight of our artistic and written culture and accomplishments. There’s the national personality, strong and generous enough to welcome millions of immigrants, angry enough to mount truck convoys and shove each other around hockey rinks, and resilient as hell. There are war stories (often, ironically, supporting our American friends). And then there are the standings in education, universal health care, quality of life, equity and diversity, political stability and a host of other metrics. It’s a long list, and Canada’s name is consistently near the top. The country represented by the Statue of Liberty? Not so much. And then there’s something called self-esteem, difficult to measure at the national level. Here’s an analogy though. In my practice years, I saw dozens of examples of growing self-worth. In particular, I observed personal growth in those recently widowed, separated or divorced, the spouse (often, but not always, a woman) left behind on their own after a long period of interconnectedness and even dependency. You’d recognize the phases they’d pass through: initial anger, sadness, denial and self-doubt; a reworking of plans and goals; building connections with new friends, family, co-workers, others. Finally, this: growth into full, adult separateness, independence and yes, self esteem. Canada, dear, modest, polite Canada — troubled by the words crafted by the occupant’s personality disorder, worried about the effect of tariffs and heightened trade tensions — is a bit like that. Yet, there is huge potential for growth, independence, and new relationships, a healthy movement toward energized national pride and yes, self-esteem. It’s a flame that needs fanning however — more stirring Churchillian rhetoric, more economic battles won and celebrated, less dry economic analysis. And most certainly, even at the margins, less talk of separation. No, we don’t need a physical monument to make a statement. They’re impressive works of wood, steel, copper and hope, but that’s all they are. In fact, they’re not free of problems: look how a Trojan horse tricked the Trojans; look how the Statue of Liberty’s promise (“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free …”) has become a mockery. Looking for a blockbuster? For a monument? We’ve got it already — Canada.