8 Possible Canadas Adam Kahane, Editor PERSPECTIVES ON OUR PASTS, PRESENTS, AND FUTURES 52 Possible Canadas PERSPECTIVES ON OUR PASTS, PRESENTS, AND FUTURES “ I love this one image that I gather is a traditional one in the First Nations worldview: We all make up a circle. In the center of that circle is a tree, and everybody’s view of the tree is different. One person says, ‘There’s fruit that’s ripening.’ Another person says, ‘There’s a blight on the tree.’ A third person says, ‘There’s where it got struck by lightning.’ And it’s all of those things! If I’m not seeing the blight, I need the person who is to tell me so. I can’t operate without that intelligence or I’ll be going - Michael Green 1957-2015 off half-cocked.” 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS Foreword: How to Build a Good Future 6 Introduction: A Plurality of Canadas 8 PART 1: EIGHT LENSES 10 Lens 1: What Energizes You About What Is Going On? 12 The determination of today’s young people The creativity in our cities The way we are making diversity work Lens 2: What Have We Inherited from Our Past? 14 A colonial history and mindset Strong public institutions A capacity to collaborate Lens 3: How Is Our Situation Changing? 16 We are recklessly altering our ecosystems Our international competitiveness is slipping Our culture is morphing Economic and political inequality among us is increasing Our society is fragmenting Our political discourse in becoming increasingly polarized Lens 4: What Risks Are We Facing? 20 Complacency: Not realizing that we are at risk Dependence of our economy on natural resources Failure to develop and retain talent Deterioration of our democracy Weakening of our capacity for collective action Lens 5: If Things Turned Out Badly, What Would Have Happened? 24 We would have failed to recognize and adapt to a changing world Our education and health systems would have failed We would not have invested where we needed to Our society would have fallen apart Lens 6: If Things Turned Out Well, What Would Have Happened? 28 We would have become more ambitious We would have transformed our economy We would have restored our connections to one another and to our land Lens 7: What Important Choices Do We Face? 32 How to use our natural resources wisely What role we need to play in the world How to step up our capacity to take risks and innovate Lens 8: What Would It Take for Us to Succeed in Creating a Good Future? 36 Have the courage to acknowledge our challenges Engage and act in partnership to address these challenges 2 PART 2: FIFTY-TWO CONVERSATIONS 38 Jeannette Armstrong on Moving beyond Colonialist Understandings: “Re-indigenizing means becoming responsible to the location that you’re in” 40 Scott Baker, Jonathan Glencross, Humera Jabir, Chris Penrose, and Amara Possian on Community: “The places I fnd most inspiring and energizing are those where there are young people.” 42 Jim Balsillie on Commercializing Our Ideas: “With all our creativity and smart, hard-working people, why aren’t we more successful?” 44 Tzeporah Berman on Resisting Climate Change: “Oil is corroding our pipelines and it’s corroding our democracy.” 46 John Borrows on Indigenous Legal Traditions: “We’ve unfortunately taken a perspective that treaties were merely real-estate transactions” 48 Simon Brault on Reinventing Ourselves: “Canada should renounce the idea of one interpretation or an ofcial story” 50 Pat Carney on the Challenges of Migration: “We have survived strains that have broken other countries’ hearts” 52 Jean Charest on Tolerance: “Demagogues thrive by cultivating insecurity and demonizing certain groups” 54 Michael Chong on Parliamentary Reform: “The checks and balances on power in Parliament and in our election system have weakened” 56 Zita Cobb on Valuing Our Small Communities: “Nature and culture are the two great garments of human life” 58 Brian Crowley on Our Institutional Legacy: “You can only think that Canada is a bad place if you have never left here” 60 Nadia Duguay on a Canada for All: “The level of citizen awareness about social challenges seems to be increasing” 62 Zahra Ebrahim on Designing a Better Future: “I worry that we’ll get stuck in a vortex of indecision” 64 David Emerson on Game-Changing Leadership: “We have allowed a gold-rush mentality to prevail” 66 Suzanne Fortier on a Smart and Caring Nation: “There’s a sense of solidness about Canada” 68 Roger Gibbins on Deciding Where We’re Going: “We created the kind of country we have through an act of will” 70 Anne Golden on Resilient Cities: “We’re fnding that the yachts are rising faster than the rowboats” 72 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS (CONT.) Danny Graham on Citizen Engagement: “I have tremendous faith in ‘Joe Public’” 74 Michael Green on Telling Our Story: “There never was any conciliation” 76 Steven Guilbeault on Green Innovation: “Our municipalities are beacons of hope” 78 Alex Himelfarb on Our Weakening Collective: “Extreme inequality is corrosive” 80 Don Iveson on Boom and Bust: “We seem to avoid some of the conversations we need to have” 82 Mark Jaccard on Responsible Growth: “We are living in the Anthropocene Era and we know we are infuencing the planet” 84 Gord Lambert on Collaborative Innovation: “Climate change is a critical challenge” 86 Kevin Lynch on Pivoting Internationally: “Canada thrives when it understands the world around it” 88 Preston Manning on Reconciling Economy and Environment: “Canadians need a dose of realism with respect to the economy” 90 Elizabeth May on Our Elected Dictatorship: “Our constitution is based on the premise that those with power will not abuse it” 92 L. Jacques Ménard on Fulflling Our Responsibilities: “We tend to defer too much, partly out of a sense of respect but also out of a kind of passivity” 94 Tanzeel Merchant on How We Live: “I see disruptions and anger” 96 Farah Mohamed on Our Competitive Advantage: “Humility is nice, but not when it holds you back” 98 Gordon Nixon on Our Strengths and Weaknesses: “It’s great to have commodities, but that sector is certainly not going to be an engine for growth” 100 Ratna Omidvar on Growth through Diversity: “Canada has the skeleton bones for how a future society should function” 102 Lili-Anna Pereša on Making Tough Choices: “We’re fed up with bad news and our scepticism is high” 104 Sherene Razack on Our Settler Legacy: “Almost everything we do came out of that colonial moment when we tried to fgure out how to steal the land” 106 Angus Reid on the State of Our Democracy: “We elect a Prime Minister who has almost dictatorial power” 108 4 Michelle Rempel on Pluralism and Innovation: “We’ve got a huge creative class in this country” 110 Jean-Paul Restoule on Building Relationships: “Canadians need to include Aboriginal people in Canadian institutions—but on Aboriginal terms” 112 Bill Robson on Human Capital: “Societies tend to stagnate when the forces that resist change become entrenched” 114 Janet Rossant on Creating a Hub of Creativity: “When people come here, they are always amazed by the culture of collaboration and ‘cooperativity’” 116 Gabrielle Scrimshaw on Learning from Our Past: “There’s a tremendous amount of empowerment” 118 Khalil Shariff on the Virtue of Pluralism: “Canada has developed a kind of civic intent to make diversity work” 120 Janice Gross Stein on Smugness: “Comfort is our biggest enemy” 122 Art Sterritt on Sustainable Economies: “It’s time for people to begin to control what we do in this country again” 124 Catherine Swift on What Business Needs: “Every special interest group now seems to have the ability to stop major economic development projects” 126 Peter Tertzakian on Our Great Energy Industry: “The people who spend the most time beating up Canadians are Canadians” 128 Michel Venne on Participation: “Decisions are made by a small group of privileged people who protect their own position and power” 130 Annette Verschuren on Economic Innovation: “Why can’t we be the country that most responsibly produces fossil fuels and minerals?” 132 Tamara Vrooman on Economic Democracy: “Debates are becoming polarized and institutional rather than engaged and personal” 134 Sheila Watt-Cloutier on the Right to be Cold: “The resource development companies are basically like the missionaries and fur traders were” 136 Joseph Wilson on Learning: “When we go to New York or Silicon Valley or London, people are envious of what we’re doing in education” 138 Yuen Pau Woo on Our Relationship with Asia: “We overlook the fact that China saved Canada from a more severe recession” 140 Armine Yalnizyan on Self-Defeating Policies: “We are becoming a corporatocracy, a state that serves the interests of corporations frst and foremost” 142 5 → By Stephen Huddart, President and CEO, How The J. W. McConnell Family Foundation FOREWORD to Build a Good FUTURE The past divides us, but the future is a place where we can think and dream together. Pos- What is Canada, and what sible Canadas has created a vehicle for those might Canada become? conversations, and Community Foundations of Canada is proud to be a part of it. — Ian Bird, President, Community Foundations As we prepare to celebrate our nation’s 150th anniver- of Canada sary in 2017, it is worth noting that this confederation Maytree believes in basing its work on is one of the world’s great political collaborations. At listening to the authentic voices of the com- the same time, to many Indigenous peoples, it has munity. Possible Canadas has opened up a conversation with Canadians from various not been so collaborative and thus not so worthy of communities, and holds the potential for celebration.