New vulnerabilities are surfacing. While most polls suggest the vast majority of Canadian adults are resolute in resisting any such takeover, the younger generation (18-35) is much more inclined – given certain favourable terms – to join the United States. The younger you are, the more likely you are to be susceptible to Trump and his appeals.
One of the most unacknowledged reasons is the failure of our school systems to teach the current generation about historic Canadian resistance to U.S. threats, incursions and trade sanctions going back to the American Revolution.
The result that alarmed Colin MacEachern, a former Halifax high school history educator now teaching in Australia, was the susceptibility of today’s students and their teachers to Trump’s bluster and blandishments.
MacEachern wrote on social media that his students would likely have no comprehension of the U.S. doctrine of “Manifest Destiny” or the American threat to Canada that was a major factor in nudging us toward Confederation.
It’s also fair to assume they have little or no knowledge of critical events of U.S. pressure on Canada such as the American invasion of Quebec in 1775, the War of 1812, the 1911 election reciprocity debate, the nuclear warheads controversy of the 1960s or American pressure to join the Iraq War in 2003.
I read some of it but couldn’t stomach much more. The amount of thinly veiled racism was not the vibe for me. Also, I grew up in BC and am in the “young Canadian” age and we were most definitely taught Canadian history and the concept of manifest destiny. Guy just seems mad that they’re teaching the ugly parts of Canadian history now too.
There’s definitely an issue of how so many young Canadians are favouring fascist bullshit, but this ain’t it.
Knowing about the ugly parts of Canadian history doesn’t make me want to toss out Canada either. It makes me ask how I can help be part of the next history book that says stuff like “and then shit got better when people started thinking critically for a hot minute”.