Like it or not, we live in Trudeau’s Canada now 

Whether it’s his socks, his propensity for taking selfies or his willingness to apologize for historical wrongdoing, there are a lot of things about Justin Trudeau that annoy Canadian conservatives. But the one that makes them genuinely angry is his faith in Canada’s “post-national” identity that exchanges things like historical monuments and reverence for long-dead prime ministers with a commitment to diversity and a set of shared values. And now, with an increasingly heated debate over Canada’s immigration policy and a spike in anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim acts serving as cover, those conservative pundits and politicians are going to take their best shot at it.

“Under Trudeau’s post-national vision of Canada,” a recent National Post editorial said, “the common ground shared between Canadians is just that: the land we all live on, enclosed within the same border.” This is a deliberate (and disingenuous) misrepresentation of the prime minister’s approach to our national identity, but they were just getting warmed up. “An immigration policy guided by blind faith in “diversity” and “shared values” — two phrases used extensively by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — hasn’t helped maintain a peaceful, pluralistic society,” they conclude.

As evidence, they point to the outbreak of anti-Semitic protests and violence since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas gunmen on Israel that deserves our universal and unqualified condemnation. Alas, the attacks are hardly unique to Canada. In the United States, a country that prides itself on its full-throated patriotism and unapologetic worship of its own historical greatness, there has been a similar spike in anti-Semitic acts. According to the U.S.-based Anti-Defamation League (ADL), there were 2,031 anti-Semitic incidents between Oct. 7 and Dec. 7, 2023 — the highest number in any two-month period since the ADL started tracking such incidents in 1979. France, another country whose culture is defined by its muscular and unapologetic patriotism, has seen a huge spike in anti-Semitism, resulting in 486 arrests.

That context is ignored by the National Post editorial board. Instead, like a lot of conservatives, the National Post seems determined to exact revenge on Trudeau for his willingness to let people like Sir John A. Macdonald and his contemporaries meet with a more honest historical reckoning. “The message sent to our one-million newcomers per year is that Canada is an unimportant, historically unremarkable country driven by a vicious desire to abuse, discriminate against and extinguish Indigenous and other non-European cultures,” they write. “If some aren’t interested in embracing traditional Canadian values, who can blame them? There’s little to be proud of, according to Trudeau’s historical revisionism.”

Other columnists have also bemoaned what they see as a lack of patriotism in Canada today. “Where do you think patriotism has gone in Canadian politics?” the Globe and Mail’s John Ibbitson asked rhetorically during an interview with David Herle on The Herle Burly podcast. “I don’t hear it anymore.”

He should listen a little more closely. It might not sound the same as it used to, but it’s still there — and being expressed in a growing multitude of languages. And for all the talk about the decline of national pride and attempts to correlate it with Trudeau’s post-national vision for the country, the numbers don’t bear it out. A Leger poll from last summer found 81 per cent of people were very or somewhat proud to be Canadian, a figure that rose to 97 per cent among those who identified as Liberal supporters.

According to an Ipsos poll on the same subject, 35 per cent of respondents said they were more likely to speak positively about Canada than they were five years ago, with just 14 per cent saying they were less likely. And a 2023 Angus Reid Institute poll showed Canadians have more national pride than Americans, especially when it comes to areas like feeling safe and living in a caring country.

Canada’s refusal to enforce the sort of rigid national identity more common in places like France and the United States is a major part of its demonstrable appeal to immigrants. It’s also a key driver of Canada’s comparatively successful track record of integrating new Canadians into the broader culture and society. As Pierre Trudeau famously said in a 1971 speech, “What could be more absurd than the concept of an ‘all-Canadian’ boy or girl? A society which emphasizes uniformity is one which creates intolerance and hate. A society which eulogizes the average citizen is one which breeds mediocrity.”

This quote is, I’m sure, particularly irksome for Pierre Poilievre, who has made eulogizing the average citizen one of his political trademarks. So, too, is Trudeau’s willingness to acknowledge — and, yes, even apologize for — the uglier aspects of Canada’s history. But what I suspect is really driving the ongoing conservative hand-wringing about our supposedly waning sense of national pride is the influence the Trudeaus — Pierre and Justin — have had on it.

What Canadians today value most about our country has little to do with the founding fathers, the monarchy or other ancient historical totems. They take pride in more contemporary legacies like the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, multiculturalism, official bilingualism, and Indigenous culture, along with the values that underpin them.

We would do well to remember this, especially as the United States appears poised to embrace some much darker human values. What separates Canada from its peers and what makes it more attractive to people looking to move here and build a new life is its openness to change, progress and inclusivity. Justin Trudeau may well lose the next federal election, but he’s already won the fight for our shared sense of who we are — and why we’re proud to be Canadians.