Little Big Things

Peace, order, and good government. This may not be a slogan you've heard before, but it's one that is, surprisingly, quite significant to Canadian history. Versions of it have appeared in Acts of Parliament affecting Canada's administration as a British colony since the mid-18th century and its current iteration was included in the British North America Act of 1867 (a.k.a. the Constitution Act, 1867 ) that established Canada as an independent nation - the very point in history that we now celebrate, understandably, as Canada Day. Now, in its original context, "Peace, order and good government" was an expression of political authority. It was initially a formal concession from the British government allowing colonial governments to enact their own laws, then became an authorization for the federal government to do so for the newly-independent nation as a whole. However, when I hear that statement, federal parliamentary politics...really isn't what comes to mind...

To be honest, I've always had a complex relationship with Remembrance Day. In my head, in a purely intellectual sense, I know that it falls every year on November 11, the anniversary of the official end of WWI, and is meant to be a time of reflection and thankfulness for the servicemen and -women who have fought and died for our country. I also know it to be a time when we pause to reflect on the continued physical, emotional, social and financial needs of our veterans, the oldest of whom have been hit particularly hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, if you were to ask me if that knowledge in my head ever made it down to my heart...hard to say. I suppose there were moments when it must have: like when I finally discovered, as a Grade 8 student, that Canadian forces were deployed in an attempt to defend Hong Kong from the Imperial Japanese during WWII ; or when the brother of a close friend I had in university was a soldier who could potentially be deployed to Afghanistan. But w...