Something I’ve noticed recently is that every time I post about an innovative Canadian company or explain why Canada is more resilient than it seems, there is often a deluge of comments from people making any positive change seem like an impossibility.
I’m not talking about people making reasonable objections here; I’m talking about comments that insinuate Canada is completely weak, helpless, and unable to ever gain in strength and power. Comments that would have Canada just give up and never try anything.
Those comments are also made by people who believe Canada should submit to Donald Trump (including some who think we should give up our sovereignty entirely and submit to annexation). And of course, there are the usual pro-Russia & anti-Ukraine fools. In both cases, the underlying attitude is that authoritarian leaders should get their way and that submission is preferable to struggle.
That kind of attitude is not only antithetical to freedom, it’s antithetical to Canadian values. Canada was built by people who tamed a brutal wilderness, who braved frigid winters to build settlements, towns, and ultimately cities, and who fought to defeat a previous annexation attempt from the south. This country was built by those who left everything they knew behind to come to a new land, as well as those who have been here for millennia, showing immense strength and resilience in a battle to preserve their culture, history, and traditions.
This country is defined by its strength and the willingness to endure hardship to build a brighter future.
Thus, no matter how much those who advocate surrender and submission try to cloak themselves in the guise of ‘patriotism,’ the reality is that they spit upon what Canada stands for.
And that’s why those voices must be overcome.
At some point, a country must decide that it wants to achieve its full potential, and it can never do so if it listens to those who say ‘no’ to everything rather than uttering a life-affirming ‘yes’.
This isn’t about being naive or unrealistic. This is about assessing Canada’s strengths and understanding that this country has massive latent potential.
Our abundance of natural resources, our highly educated population, our political stability, our strong network of alliances, and our proud military history all provide a foundation upon which a powerful nation can be built.
And before someone says Canada is ‘too small’ in population to become a powerful nation, consider what Israel acheives with a population of 10 million people, what Ukraine is acheiving with a population of 40 million people, and what world-shaping nations have acheived throughout history with fewer people and resources than Canada possesses today.
More than anything, Canada is held back by thought patterns that no longer serve us. And even as we shake off those thought patterns and embrace a new sense of resilience and ambition, some want to drag us back and would have us submit to others rather than maximizing our potential on our terms.
Those voices hold us back, and thus, those voices must be overcome. And if we overcome them, our potential as a nation is unlimited.
Spencer Fernando
While this article is free, most content at SpencerFernando.com is available only to subscribers. If you find value in my work, subscribe to SpencerFernando.com for C$6 per month or C$72 per year. Subscribe here.
If this piece left you clearer than it found you, that's the point. I write for readers who want to think past the week, to see the longer pattern beneath the daily story, and to come away steadier rather than more agitated.
That longer view gets built somewhere. On Patreon, essay by essay, I'm constructing The Long Work, a body of analysis meant to outlast the news cycle that prompted it. The readers there make it possible. No subsidies, no strings. The work answers to them.
$8/month to read it as it's built, and to have a hand in building it.