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As #ableg conservatives flummox us all with a bizarrely coordinated effort to bring back "Dominion Day", I decided to look into what is causing this confusing hive mind behaviour.
I knew it was the historical name and was changed by Parliament in 1982, the same year as patriation of the constitution. And I had a vague sense that it probably related to a maturing country taking baby steps to shed its homogenous, British colonial identity.
And of course — as with the flag debates of two decades earlier — I vaguely knew there was some political dimension to the issue, as conservatives clung to the vestiges of monarchy in Canada.
Sidebar: this makes that rather awkward. https://www.westernstandardonline.com/2020/06/queen-elizabeth-looking-to-make-her-cash-more-green-pulling-out-of-oil-sands/
It turns out that this is something of a petty historical grievance in conservative circles, as they were bested at a game of parliamentary process 38 years ago. https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015/07/01/dominion-day-enthusiasts-pine-for-the-past.html
There was some mild tomfoolery about passing the bill quickly when few MPs were in the House in July.
It's a bit hard to understand the disdain. The existence of the bill should have been on the order paper for that day that is shared with all members. And the Liberals had a majority at the time.
But they just...
... can't seem ...
... to let it go.
And yes, the most recent standard-bearer for "Dominion Day", other than Alberta's UCP government, hailed from this particularly revolting, fringy edge of the conservatives: https://pressprogress.ca/conservative-mp-accepts-endorsement-from-far-right-anti-gay-preacher-at-rebel-media-event/
(Just in case you're confused whether this "Dominion Day" stuff might have an element of dog whistling to the resident racists of the right).
I'm not sure what relevance any of this has to our daily lives. But it is a precedent for weird, sore loser behaviour in how conservatives reject the gradual evolution of our national symbols toward greater inclusiveness.
Inexplicably, conservatives purposely flout our duly and legislatively amended customs for no apparent reason other than to whine about losing... losing in their efforts to continue to exclude some Canadians from our national symbols.
SO. This tells me that we have at least 35 more years of listening to elected right-wing ideologues belting out "in all our sons command".
People seem to find this interesting, so here's some Hansard from debate on @stephenharper's private members bill to change "Canada Day" back to "Dominion Day". (NB: he fails to make the only good argument available: alliteration). #ableg #cdnpoli
It's about choosing one general word in a name, instead of a specific word: "The country founded on July 1, 1867 was not Canada but the Federal State of the Dominion of Canada, still the country's official name." No explanation why he didn't choose "Federal Day" or "Of Day".
And it's about the Bible: "The word `dominion` ... was chosen as the name for this country by the Fathers of Confederation from the 72nd Psalm: `He shall have dominion from sea to sea and from the rivers unto the ends of the earth'."
From there, it seems that C-365 died on the order paper with the 1997 election.
