Maybe it’s because I’m well over 50 years old and getting sentimentally for the good, old days.
But it does seem to me that that Canada’s 150 birthday celebrations pale when it comes to sense of national of our 100th birthday in1967.
Admittedly as a Grade One student 50 years, it was exciting just to be cutting out the triangles for the stylized maple leaf or listening to Bobby Gimby’s Canada Song or seeing the images of Expo ’67.
Nevertheless, it seemed that our 100th birthday wasn’t all about our history as the 150th birthday seems to be all about today.
At least in the eyes of this then seven year old, 1967 seemed all about Canada’s future.
History — even an unfathomable 100 years — meant little to a kid in Grade One.
Sure, even as little kids we knew about the National Dream of the building of coast-to-coast railway. And we knew all about the Great Wars.
But the railway was just a practicality thing that ran trough each community with an elevator (then, usually only nine miles apart) where farm families like line took our grain to sold.
And the soldiers who served in the Great War might very well have been our dads or granddads. While they didn’t much talk the wars, those wars didn’t seem quite as far away when you could knew someone who went through them.
But now that all of the First World War and most of the Second World War vets are gone, they are do see to be so very long ago — our history rather something we knew that people lived through.
This by no means that looking back on all that Canada has gone through in the past 150 years is something that we shouldn’t do.
It is a good thing for a country with a proud, proud history that has been tainted by acts of aggression that started wars or atrocities like slavery.
Sure, it is an imperfect history.
But for however bad our relations have been with First Nations people, we have at least tried to make amends by wisely spending much of the past 50 years coming to terms with the wrongs of residential schools, treaty land entitlement and the Indian Act.
Certainly, there is much to celebrate.
But momentous anniversaries for a nation should also be about looking forward, as well.
Our 100th anniversary was all about looking forward to another years — how Canada and its communities could be even greater in the next century.
And we put our money where our mouth were, with fantastic centennial projects we still enjoy – largely, created through the support of federal money.
In my hometown of Grandview, Man., it was a regulation-sized ball diamond with wooden grandstands — one of the most spectacular in the province at time.
In nearby Gilbert Plains, it was a brilliant little nine-hole golf course along the river, now expanded to 18 holes.
Both became centres of the community and Gilbert’s course is still a great draw for retirees for a community struggling to remain viable.
Perhaps it’s partly where we live that’s impacting our celebratory outlook.
Back in 1967, Saskatchewan had 85,686 farms and a rural population of 486,017 — more than half the 955,344 provincial population at the time.
Saskatchewan’s population may have vaulted to 1.16 million but there are only an estimated 33,000 farms and rural population generously considered to be around 300,000 when you factor the smaller cities.
That means less small-town anniversary projects now.
Nevertheless, our focus should still be our future. At 150, we remain a great, proud nation with much reason for hope.
Correction: In my column three weeks ago I incorrectly referred to Erling Brakefield as Mayor of Wynyard. My apologies for the error.
Murray Mandryk has been covering provincial politics for over 22 years.
