Liberalism - Smaller Than Life
At certain levels around the world, people know there is something not right in Canada. For a good portion of Canadian citizens things appear to drift along as normal concerning our image and place in the world, but that’s only because they’re distracted. Ask around and a different picture emerges.Ministers and civil servants in other lands, trade associations, military think tanks, international development experts, ambassadors – these and others have repeatedly inquired as to Canada’s direction. An influential country once respected among these various classes of discipline has quietly departed from the family of nations to pursue an individual agenda than none can quite understand.There are those internationalists out there who claim that countries like our own have left their best days behind them. Emerging giants like Brazil, China and India have begun to dwarf the smaller but influential “soft powers” that once punched above their weight internationally. There’s truth to this, but for Canada it’s just too difficult to accept. Our international legacy of peacekeeping, military partnerships, trade, diplomacy, key roles in the United Nations and other international alliances are real and something to be proud of. Add to these our leadership in science, research, arts and culture, and global citizenship, and we’ve built quite a resume. Perhaps our greatest accomplishment of maintaining a cutting-edge multicultural working democracy remains the envy of the world.These are hardly the things we wish to place within our memorabilia as we ride off into the sunset. True, a relatively small population occupying such a vast land has some significant hurdles to overcome to gain influence in a world of globalization and economic prowess. Yet the talent of our people in all dimensions should help us to match other nations pound for pound.The Greek city-states of history averaged some 10,000 residents and yet, precisely because of the determination of their small populations they left an influence that remains. The outpouring of ideas and innovations in fields like drama, science, poetry, sculpture, painting, mathematics, and philosophy from such a small group has rarely been achieved since. Michelangelo’s Rome only housed 55,000 people. Botticelli’s and da Vinci’s Florence had even less, at 40,000. The sheer energy and enlightenment these small populations unleashed on their world was staggering and enduring. They turned the concept of “size matters” on its head.The political world experienced something similar. A decade after the American Revolution, New York had 33,131 residents and Boston had 18,320. Yet such small communities produced Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abigail Adams, all at roughly the same time.Britain’s population appeared doomed as the German war machine encamped itself across the English Channel in 1939-1940. Churchill’s brilliant observation that “Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few,” applied to more than just Spitfire and Hurricane pilots. The indefatigable population of one island held on until victory was achieved..Ypres, Vimy Ridge, Passchendaele, Normandy, Sicily and Italy - Canada not only left its sons there but an endurable legacy of courage. The tiny Canadian contingent of diplomats at the founding of the United Nations, and the effective component of human rights champions worldwide remind us of a past time when the only size that mattered was that of the brain and the spirit.While the comfortable sleep, Canada has slipped and this is bound to have important global consequences. Few countries have our level of expertise in federalism and jurisprudence, yet we have largely placed them in the curio cabinet of Canadiana that is more sentimental than it is actual. We are presently 52nd on the list of troops donated to peacekeeping. We are too timid to commit ourselves to human rights causes such a Sudan or the Democratic Republic of Congo, the way we once did to East Timor or Cyprus. Our reputation on the global effort for climate change has been likened to that of small developing lands. Our scientific and research potential internationally has been undermined incrementally in the last few years by a lack of federal funding.This list is extensive and tells a cautionary tale. It’s not just that this country needs to recapture at least some of its past influence. The ultimate tragedy is that the vacuum created by Canadian absence leaves this world a poorer place. We have all the potential of a Florence, London, or New York, but we have a government that won’t use it. The lackluster drift is now endemic, leaving many, especially overseas, to believe Canada has left the field. They simply can’t square that reality with what they see in the Canadian people and institutions whenever they visit. Canadian citizens and their numerous organizations are among the best educated and most experienced globally. Sadly, their government is not in that world.Few would contest that it was Canada’s version of liberalism that propelled this nation out into that world and built a narrative of Canadian ingenuity. That kind of liberalism will never regain its utility until it concentrates on that great collective internationalism and not just on the importance of the individual. Einstein spoke in pure moral and philosophical liberal tradition when claiming: “The world is not dangerous because of those who do harm but because of those who look at it without doing anything.”