Personally, I won't give it fifty months:
While Canadians are a patriotic lot, one in four are not overly confident in the country’s long-term future, according to a new Postmedia-Leger poll.
Fifteen per cent of Canadians said they do not think Canada, “with its current borders and provinces will still exist 50 years from now.”
Another 11 per cent aren’t sure what to think.
“It’s an interesting time to ask the question, because it’s not just internally that there are questions around our territorial integrity,” said Andrew Enns, executive vice-president of Leger’s Central Canada operations.
In addition to Alberta’s looming referendum on separation, United States President Donald Trump continues to taunt Canadians with his “51st state” rhetoric.
That American aggression “hasn’t disappeared from our national conscience,” Enns said. “It still kind of preoccupies our psyche a bit” and may be fuelling Canadian pride. In 2024, 76 per cent of Canadians called themselves proud. After a year of Trump’s “51st state nonsense” that number is now into the 80s, Enns said.
(Sidebar: aaahhh, yes - the American bogey-man. Where would Canadian jingoism be without it?)
However, while most Canadians are “quite bullish” about the country’s national unity, a not insignificant number aren’t so optimistic.
The Leger poll found 84 per cent of Canadians say they are “very” (51 per cent) or “somewhat” (33 per cent) proud to be a Canadian, compared to 13 per cent who responded that they are “not very” or not at all proud to be Canadian. One per cent of poll respondents were not Canadian citizens; two per cent didn’t know how they felt, or preferred not to answer.
“Total proud” (“very” plus “somewhat”) numbers were highest among residents of British Columbia (89 per cent) and Manitoba and Saskatchewan (87 per cent), but also high among Albertans (82 per cent).
Enns thought he’d see a dip in Canadian pride in Alberta, given the separatist movement in the province. “But we don’t really see it,” he said.
The October referendum will ask Albertans whether they wish to stay in Canada or begin the process of holding a binding vote on separating.
While Quebecers show similar levels of Canadian pride overall, they are “a little less enthusiastic,” Enns said, with only 38 per cent saying they are very proud, compared to the other provinces at 51 per cent or higher.
(Sidebar: because they've resented being in a once-functioning nation.)
“Total pride” is stable, up one per cent since last June, but the share of the “very proud” increased by six points in Canada.
The Leger poll was conducted “the day after Canada won a pretty big soccer game,” Enns said, referring to Canada’s 6-0 win over Qatar. It’s possible there was some extra pro-Canada enthusiasm and sentiment over the men’s national soccer team’s first-ever FIFA World Cup win.
Canadians aged 55 and older (90 per cent), women (87 per cent versus 80 per cent of men) and Liberal voters (96 per cent versus 76 per cent of Conservatives) are the most likely to report being proud.
(Sidebar: read - public servants and bots. Ask them how they feel about Sir John A. Macdonald or the idea of Canadian exceptionalism.)
The youngest Canadians polled (18- to 34-year-olds) are the least proud age cohort, with only 75 per cent very (31 per cent) or somewhat (44 per cent) proud to be Canadian.
It's probably because Carney et al saddled them with so much debt and hopelessness that they can't see a way around it.
It can also be that Canadians simply don't emphasise any actual exceptionalism we might have, instead preferring to let grifting groups brow-beat (read: extort) us into paying more taxes for them:
This Canada Day, let’s celebrate our great nation unequivocally without the obligatory nod to guilt and grievance. We have just one day a year dedicated to the celebration of the free, democratic, tolerant country our predecessors built for us, and plenty of other days each year to focus on the endless social justice causes favoured by politicians on the left.
We live in a beautiful country forged by generations who tamed a vast and unforgiving land, gave their lives in defence of freedom, built prosperous communities and established the stable democratic institutions we take for granted today. Millions of prospective newcomers seek to come here every year for refuge, for opportunity, for the promise of a better life.
Yet, our political leaders seem incapable of saying “Happy Canada Day” without an accompanying diatribe condemning our past.
B.C. Premier David Eby’s most recent Canada Day statement in 2025 couldn’t help but refer to our “troubled and complicated history” and referenced Canada Day as “ an opportunity for reflection on the impact of colonialism on generations of Indigenous Peoples.” His 2024 statement bemoaned that “Canada’s historical wrongs against Indigenous Peoples make today difficult for many.” And in 2023, he lectured that Canada Day is “an opportunity to acknowledge the impact Canada’s colonial history has had on generations of Indigenous people.”
(Sidebar: a nation of running water.)
While this doesn’t come as a surprise from a Premier who has lamented B.C. as a “colonial mistake,” whose government describes the phrase “British Columbians” as exclusionary, and whose MLAs refer to non-Indigenous Canadians as “uninvited guests,” he is hardly alone in tying our one day of national celebration to guilt-laden reprimands.
Our museums, the bodies responsible for quite literally telling our story as a country, have long contemplated scrapping Canada Day celebrations altogether.
The B.C. Museums Association explains: “Questioning colonial narratives and seeking to respond to the needs of Indigenous, racialized, and marginalized communities applies not only to Canada Day but to the majority of statutory holidays in Canada as well.”
(Sidebar: what's a "racialized".)
They helpfully provide a multi-step explainer on “How Museums Can Support Reflection, Reconciliation and Redress on July 1st.” Step 1: “Take action on reconciliation and decolonize your space;” Step 2: “Acknowledge your role as a settler;” and so on.
(Sidebar: as a citizen, and a tax-paying one at that, might I assume some temerity and suggest that I don't owe anyone a g-d- thing?)
The Association even warns against flying the maple leaf itself: “The Canadian flag is a symbol that holds different meanings for different people. What can represent freedom for some can represent oppression for others.” Thus, “If you are going to use symbols like the Canadian flag to decorate your site, reflect on the different — and often conflicting — meanings this symbol can have and how its use might exclude participation from certain groups and individuals.”
Like Americans?
When will there be Aboriginal Guilt Day for all the times they subjugated other tribes and murdered Christian missionaries?
Isn't guilt what it's all about?
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