Pearson: Resilience best way forward for Canada

Article content

Our world has changed radically and it’s about to change again. Last year, 2024, was one of the biggest election years of the modern era. Sixty-four nations and the European Union, representing half the world’s people, went to the polls. Most turned out the incumbents. Change came, swift and sharp, capped by Donald Trump’s victory in November.

Now, Canada waits its turn, an election looming. Tariffs threaten from the south. The year ahead promises more storms. Last week in London, it seemed everyone was talking about the possibilities of Canada becoming the 51st state.

Article content

What is the average Canadian to do? Panic? Seek negotiations? Canadians have never shown much  affinity for political or economic extremes, and yet they feel that is what they are getting. The reason why citizens say politics isn’t really working anymore is because they’re right.

It’s as if the guardrails of modern co-existence have been removed.

People have read about or remember the London blitz during the Second World War. In 1940, Hitler tested Britain’s will with bombs, fire, and fury. Fifty thousand tons of high explosives rained down on London and other communities. A million incendiary devices burned the city. “The hour will come when one of us will break,” Hitler said at the time. “And it will not be Germany.”

The British government predicted between three million to four million people would flee London for the countryside.

But the exodus never happened. In the words of one admiring American correspondent, Quentin Reynolds: “London raises her head, shakes the dust and debris from her hair, and takes stock of the damage done. London has been hurt during the night. Despite the damage, she gets up every morning to live the life she treasures.”

Article content

Hitler had been devastatingly wrong. Some women and children were sent out to the country, but almost every other Londoner remained in place. British institutions held firm, and the people held to them in turn. London endured not just because of its structures but because of its soul, its history.

I remember the lingering effects of those days. I was a boy in Edinburgh directly after the war. The scars were everywhere including bombed-out buildings and rations on certain goods. Wherever I looked, the citizens of that great city weren’t demoralized by those ruins but affirmed by them. They didn’t just survive but prevailed. I’ll never forget it.

Perhaps this would be the best way for Canadians to face the challenges of a troubled world and divisive politics, to get on with the business of family and community life and stop being obsessed with the narcissists. Aware that we are consistently rated in the top five of the greatest countries in the world, we will come together to protect our institutions and work to save and build the best parts of our nation. We will not break, knowing that if we opt out, we lose. We will not play the zero-sum game of politics but will turn out in larger numbers to vote for something better, anything better than this. We will just get on with loving our neighbours, giving our children a better future, supporting our businesses, and demanding something better from our politicians and leaders.

We will stop becoming so mean-spirited and rebuild our cities with a cooperative and respectful bent. If we do these things, we will prevail. And our children and grandchildren will remember in thanks.

Glen Pearson is co-director of the London Food Bank and a former Liberal MP for London North Centre. glen@glenpearson.ca

Article content