The Icelandic Canadian - 01.06.1967, Síða 16

14
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Summer 1967
Of vital importance is the fact that
Canada as a nation has achieved what
ten separate provinces could never
have done. Besides the accomplish-
ments mentioned above, Canada has
promoted imaginative and ambitious
regional developments, supported a
National Research Council, launched
Expo 67, a magnificent world fair,
established an all-Canada basic stand-
ard of social welfare, and made im-
portant contributions to the Common-
wealth and the United Nations.
We Canadians may well count our
blessings: a land of peace and law and
liberty; a free and democratic govern-
ment; magnificent natural resources;
a reputed second highest standard of
living in the world; and a good
measure of achievement in agriculture
and industry, science, engineering,
medicine, art and literature, and hu-
man relations.
In the face of all this some people
express doubts that there is a Canadian
identity and say that Canadians lack
a national purpose. We Canadians may
not wax lyrical about nationality but
that is all to the good. There is a high-
er form of patriotism than flag-waving.
Actions speak louder than words. The
men who broke the sod loved their
land. Fifty years ago, halfway back
to Confederation, the Canadian forces
possessed an esprit de corps to a high
degree; the Canadian forces took pride
in their Canadian identity. A million
Canadian men and women served in
the Second World War and a hundred
thousand gave their lives in the two
tragic world wars. The men and wo-
men who have helped to build up their
country and have sacrificed for it have
demonstrated love of country.
This sense of Canadian identity does
not as yet extend to nearly all the cit-
izens of Canada. People are coming
to us from many lands and it will take
time for a generally accepted Canadian
identity, or personality, to develop.
When it does evolve it will have added
tone and color because of the varied
elements of our population, the variety
of national heritages, and it will be a
stronger personality because ©f an un-
forced, natural development.
Imperative to the future of the
human race, a world order is evolving,
haltingly and agonizingly, it is true,
but it is evolving. All the countries of
the globe have become next-door-
neighbors. A hundred countries or
more form the United Nations. Japan
is groping for a new kind of co-
existence, this time based on economic
cooperation for the benefit of the
poorer countries in Asia. World trade
is on a multi-billion dollar basis, and
the Kennedy Round points to further
development in this sphere. The Ecu-
menical Movement is an inter-faith
development. The United Nations has
many heartening achievements to its
credit.
Canada, as a miniature world of
some twenty racial elements living in
peace, may be looked on as a model
for the One World.
Canada is an advocate of one world,
and has played an active part in the