Lögberg-Heimskringla - 25.08.1960, Side 5

LÖGBERG-HEIMSKRINGLA, FIMMTUDAGINN 25. ÁGÚST 1960
5
A Toast 1
Given by Gunnar Örn Eggeri-
son B.A., LL.B. at the Ice-
landic Celebration at Gimli
on August lst 1960.
We are all proud to be Cana-
dian, proud of our land.
Its open skies, its scarlet sun-
sets with clouds flecked
with gold,
Its mountains corrugating íts
surface, and feeding us
with their rugged beauty,
Its oceans sparkling on a sum-
mer’s evenings or drown-
ing all other sounds with
its crashing surf,
Its northland, silent, mysteri-
ous, dotted with innumer-
able lakes,
Its prairies, now green with
the growth to feed mil-
lions.
We have a wondrous land,
Our Canada is a good land,
One that does not yield
her treasure lightly,
One that wisely makes us
labour to extract her
trove.
Weather that keeps us alert
and keen, that braces and
stimulates and puts tem-
per in our soul,
A land of which we can be
proud,
And a people of whom we can
be proud.
For despite the problems of
great distances, of muskeg and
rock, lake and mountains, de-
spite the clash of the French-
speaking and English-speak-
Ing cultures, despite the pull
of an easier life in the United
States of America — we have
created a nation.
We owe much to those who
have gone before, those who
have kept alive the light of
learning, who have. kindled
the fire of liberty, those pio-
neers who have prepared a
way in the wilderness.
All of us here feel a deep
love for our country. Do we
care enough for Canada? Are
We working to make Canada
a better country in which to
hve, are we helping our peo-
Ple? Are we helping the
World, or are we lost in com-
placency?
Are we as Canadians doing
our part to fulfill the promise
of our pioneers? Are we, as
Canadians of Icelandic de-
scent, doing our part to make
Canada a better place in
'Vhich to live, a more effec-
tive force for good in the
councils of the world and for
the people of the world?
There is a fallacy which is
holding us back. This is that
Canadians should not try to
develop their identity as a
country either economically
0r culturally because we must
hold ourselves for the great-
est goal of internationalism.
This attitude is wrong. We
arc deceiving ourselves and
being unfaithful to our chil-
o Canada
/
dren to continue to think, as
many do, that there is some-
thing bad, something immor-
al, in trying to develop our
country for the benefit of
Canadians. We need not fear
the variety of nationalism
which was shown at its worst
in Nazi Germany. The kind of
nationalism which we as Ca-
nadians should try to devel-
op is a feeling of identity with
and comradeship for the other
peoples of our country. There
are no revolutions to fight, no
ruling class to overthrow, we
are all rulers and determine
freely and openly who shall
govern.
In to-day’s world, only a
united state can pull together
to help others and be an in-
fluence in the world. Unless
Canada can exist as a strong
nation, strong in purpose, in
moral fibre and able to sup-
ply the economic needs of its
own people as well as that of
others, Canada will count for
little in the councils of the
world.
It is being dishonest to our
own seventeen million people
to not make our own decisions
but to be tied to the foreign
policy of other nations. We
can best help internationalism
and help other countries by
setting our own house in
order. -
We count for nothing as a
country if we merely echo
the sentiments of the United
States of America or Great
Britain. The Canadian people,
and the future generations of
Canadians, have a right to be
represented; to exert a force
in world affairs determined
by Canadians.
To do otherwise is to deny
the maturity of our people. It
is to say that we are unfit
to make our own decisions.
To fail to be strong and
united means that we sur-
render to others the right to
decide. To' deny Canadian na-
tionalism is to surrender to
forces beyond our control and
beyond our understanding the
fate of our country. f
Canada’s history has been
a struggle to escape from
forces economic, political and
cultural which sought to ex-
ercise too strong a force on
her affairs. To-day our main
threat to survival as a truly
independent country lies in
our economic and cultural de-
pendence on the United States
of America. Great segments
of our industry and commerce
are controlled from the United
States. Two thirds of our in-
dustry and close to one hun-
dred per cent of our oil and
natural gas companies are
owned or controlled from the
United States.
This is not good for any
country. This is not good for
Canada. Since we are only
part of their operations, the
main concern of the owners
will be with their home mar-
ket and with their home
workers. The nature of Amer-
ican investment in this coun-
try since 1945 has been largely
devoted to extracting and re-
moving mineral wealth and
power to the United States.
We have become their treas-
ure chest. We are the hewers
of wood and the drawers of
water.
In a recent speech Mr.
W. F. Holding, President of
General Steel Wares of Can-
ada, stated that one man
in Ungava, using modern
equipment, could dig forty
tons of iron ore out of the
ground in one day. This
quantity of ore would provide
a day’s work for one hundred
men in a steel mill and the
result in steel would provide
a day’s work for two thousand
Gunnar Örn Eggertson,
B.A., LL.B.
men in factories turning thel
steel into finished goods. Hel
points out that this general
pattern holds good for other
industries such as aluminum
and lumber. ,
We have the one man in
Ungava, Kitimat and in Flin
Flon. Do we have the one
hundred men working in our
steel mills and the two thou-
sand Canadians working in
our factories processing this
raw material?
Must we remain hewers of
wood and drawers of water?
Canada is blessed by nature
with resources, mineral
wealth and cheap fuel. Are
we living up to our obliga-
tion to our children and our
children’s children by ship-
ping these raw materials and
power resources out of our
country?
Are we actually benefitting
our country, or are we not
giving away incalculable fu-
ture benefit tá our people for
a few dollars to-day for more
cigarettes and whiskey?
There are several dangers
in exporting raw materials
and power sources. If you
move the materials and power
to the United States where
the markets and labour
sources are already present
then there is no reason for
factories using this raw ma-
terial and labour to set up in
Canada. The United States
is rapidly exhausting their
sources of cheap raw materi-
als and cheap power. If we
were not shipping these raw
materials and power to them
they would no doubt be set-
ting up plants in Canada to
process these raw materials.
A further danger is that if in-
dustry is set up in the United
States based on our cheap ma-
terials and power, we may
find it difficult, if not impos-
sible, politically to stop this
flow southward. This has hap-
pened in the past.
The danger here is that we
are exporting jobs and not
ore. Since 1945 we have been
paying for the excess of im-
ports over exports by selling
our ownership and control
over our natural resources.
Only by keeping control of
our industry and our re-
sources in Canada can we
develop a solid base for pros-
perity and provide strength
from which to be able to lend
aid to other nations. Economic
independence would give us
the political flexibility to ex-
press the unique desires of
the Canadian people.
An economic solution to
this problem would be the
orderly development of our
natural resources to serve
Canada first by a gradually
imposed tax on the export of
raw materials and power.
This tax would lessen in pro-
portion as the material had
been processed or manufac-
tured in Canada. This would
mean that as new plants were
required abroad it would be
cheaper to escape the tax and
build here in Canada. By im-
posing the gradual tax it
would give time for adjust-
ment. This would make eco-
nomic laws work for our ad-
vantage. The result would be
more jobs, more people and
prosperity. A possible price
would be the tightening of
our belts for a few years, but
think of the advantages.
There is also a danger to
our culture by our dependence
on the United States of Amer-
ica. We cannot compete due
to our small market with
American publications and
movies and to a lesser extent
in television and radio, with
the result that our image of
the world and even of our-
selves is viewed through
American eyes. We are look-
ing at the world through
their tinted glasses. We have
different attitudes which are
worth-while keeping alive.
We have a more wholesome
respect for the law. We do
not place so much emphasis
on show and glitter. We do
not have the witch-hunting
which takes place in the
United States, as witness the
McCarthy hearings.
To be a truly independent
people we must have the op-
portunity to keep our atti-
tudes alive and develop them.
This is only possible through
more Canadian-produced mag-
azines, through Canadian at-
titudes and through Canadian
reporting on world affairs.
There is a need for more em-
phasis on Canadian problems,
on the understanding of our
French-Canadian fellow citi-
zens, and our other national
problems instead of a pre-
occupation with what is going
on to our south. We need
knowledge of our country’s
problems, its passions and its
prejudices. Anything we as a
people can do to increase our
understanding of ourselves is
worth-while.
The solution to this cultural
dependence would be some
form of tax relief for Cana-
dian - produced publications
either as a subsidy or by a
tariff on the classes of publi-
cations made abroad which
are exerting too great an in-
fluence on our cultural life.
These measures directed
against the economic and cul-
tural dangers would mean
more strength in Canada both
economically and as a united
nation, but this would only
be a means to an end. We
must develop our lands and
our people. We are not selling
prosperity but a fighting faith.
We can do more for the world
and for our people as a truly
independent nation. A full
belly is not the measure of a
man.
In the battle for men’s
minds that is going on in the
world to-day we are in the
front line. We are nof selling
to the world our economic
system. We are not trying to
sell to the billions with empty
stomachs our Cadillacs and
fancy - packed goodies. We
must proclaim and live a
fighting faith. If our past
means anything to us, we
should only seek strength as
a nation so as to be able to
stand forcibly for the princi-
ples on which all democratic
nations are founded.
The Western world is based
on the principle of supremacy
of the individual; that man is
made in the image of God and
that each man’s life is preci-
ous. The state exists for man
and not he for the state. These
principles are what we should
keep as touchstones in our
life.
We Canadians of Icelandic
descent can contribute much
to this land of ours. There are
traditions which have been
hande^l down from our fore-
fathers which need reaffirm-
ing. Firstlyxthere is the great
love of freedom. Iceland has
the oldest parliament in the
world. Icelanders have always
been willing to stand up for
what they consider right no
matter what the odds, as wit-
Frh. bls. 7.