This column first appeared in the Victoria Daily Times on July 20, 1940.
To our forefathers, it meant freedom, a place to work, to own land and be independent, where one man was as good as another. For this they left home and kindred, braving the storms of the Atlantic in sailing vessels.
In my own family, the failure of the potato crop in Ireland was the immediate cause for the great adventure, which drove three brothers from Cashel to seek this rich land of promise. The journey took six weeks.
sa国际传媒 had been peopled by adventurers from many lands, the 鈥渃hancey鈥� ones who felt the stir of adventure in their blood, and so it comes about that Canadians are still ready to accept changes. We are naturally experimenters. The province of Alberta is the great example of that. But we all have it. Even Vancouver Island is not immune from it, though that would have to be explained to other parts of the Dominion, I know.
Because we have people from every country in the world, Canadians have a liberal type of mind. Their British allegiance is sound, but rests on a broad foundation. Intermarriage, travel, study clubs, the international affiliations of their clubs have kept them from sectionalism 鈥� having our own two races contributes to this, too. I believe the standard of intelligence in sa国际传媒 will bear comparison with any other country.
Since the war began last September, and particularly since May of this year, the mind of the Canadian people has suffered many shocks. We are not the same satisfied, complacent, easygoing people we once were. We are alive now to the issues of this conflict, and painfully conscious of the freedom we have always enjoyed and always accepted as our right, just as we accepted fresh air, good drinking water, good roads, good postal service, safety in travel, honesty in business.
With eyes made keener, and hearts more sensitive now, we look at sa国际传媒 in a new light. It is more than a country; it is an inheritance; every page of its history, every mile of its roads, every acre of its soil has become infinitely precious. Every little cabin, with smoke coming from it, a flower in the window and a child playing in the door-yard becomes a sacred trust for the safety of which we would give up our lives.
We think of its beauty, its friendliness, its freedom, and into these thoughts comes a sense of remorse, such as comes when we hear of the passing of a friend whom we have neglected for years 鈥� the one we thought of at Christmas and Easter but did not write the letter or send the gift.
With us, and our country, there is still time for action. A shadow has fallen on it, but it is still ours to protect, to quicken, to mould and fashion, nearer to the pattern of our vision. That鈥檚 what we have lacked in sa国际传媒 鈥� a vision of what it might become.
The Germans have a vision, a terrible one to us, in its cruelty and horror, but let us pay them this compliment 鈥� it is a real vision, and they have denied themselves for it. They are taxed and starved for it; they have sold their souls into slavery for it. We hate it, despise it and are frightened by it. But the answer to it cannot be found in hating, despising and fear! Nor in rhetoric of any kind.
If we, for love and goodwill to men 鈥� all men everywhere 鈥� would sacrifice as the German people have been doing for the past seven years, we would have developed a system that would draw all people into its fold.
鈥淚, if I be lifted up,鈥� Christ said, 鈥渨ill draw all men unto me.鈥� And we knew this all the time. We sang about it, talked about it. But few of us have consecrated our lives to it.
When Hitler talks of the weakness of democracy, we spring to its defence 鈥� and rightly so. Democracy at its lowest ebb is better than his system of terror and force, lies and deception, but democracy at its lowest ebb will never kindle a young heart or strengthen an old one.
Let us look at some of our weak spots.
Our whole attitude toward manual labour is wrong, and will have to be changed. We belie the very foundation of democracy, which is that all men are equal. Our idea of success is not service but comfort, and that craven thing will never fire any young heart to great and noble deeds.
In some way we have failed to inspire people with a love of their country, a sacrificial love. The war is helping. Now threatened as we are, people are loosing their hold on their possessions. But a dark fear grips us. We should have done all this in time of peace!
However, we are here, alive and well. Our hearts are stirred, our eyes have been opened. Yesterday is gone, but tomorrow is ours. Democracy which exalts the individual and allows him the privilege of choice must win. The dream of a free people, enjoying the work of their own hands and uniting with all other free people in cultural pursuits which 鈥渕ake rich, and add no sorrow鈥� will not go down before the mechanized forces of evil.
But we have no right to blame God, in our present distress. If we lose, we lose by our own weakness, complacency and love of ease. Let us get that clear!
If we had been willing to take fewer luxuries so that others might have necessities, if we had followed the Golden Rule in our daily walk and conversation, making it the charter of our liberties, we would have drawn all men and women into a glad fellowship. We would have built up a citizenry which no suave enemy could seduce.
Fascism, Nazism, Communism thrive only on discontent, hunger and frustration. Busy people, working in harmony with their neighbours, do not listen to subversive voices.
But the die is cast! The power of evil, about which we were disposed to joke a bit and flirt with, when it came dressed up in pleasure鈥檚 robes, now stands revealed before us. It stands before us in tanks that belch fire, in planes that drop bombs on hospitals and schools, in grasping bloodstained hands, ready to strangle the innocent and throttle our liberties.
It stands before us too, in hired agents, ready to offer safety, and high place to those who can be bribed. We believe we will conquer. We know we will eventually. We believe in the promise of a new heaven and a new Earth, and we know it begins in hearts made tender.
One immediate service we can render our country is a simple one. German propaganda has been directed toward our tourist traffic. People in the United States have been told that sa国际传媒 is no longer a pleasant place to visit, that our people are full of jitters and resentment, harshly critical of our neighbours to the south.
Let us write letters to our American friends, assuring them that sa国际传媒 stands ready to welcome them. The roads are better that ever before, the skies are blue, the grass is green, the flowers are in bloom, the cherries are ripe, the glacier at Lake Louise has had a fresh fall of snow and all the eating places and hotels are in readiness. Never were these two countries more closely united than at this time.
We do not deny that the money the tourists spend in sa国际传媒 is doubly welcome this year, but there is something more. We want their friendly conversations and pleasant contact. We have always been good friends.
This year we are something more! We are comrades in a new crusade and our fellowship is something to cherish. Tell them to come, and give us what the Princess Juliana asked for 鈥� 鈥渟trengthening love.鈥�
