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Not in the law or even in riches, of course. But in status and acclaim, certainly. Oh, sure, you can put a few more of the people’s favourites into the Order. Maybe finally put a pin on Don Cherry. But what’s the point, really? If someone is beloved by the people, they’re already acclaimed by Canadians. The rest is just a pin.

“What’s the point?” is a fair question about the Order of Canada in general, actually. My friend Jonathan Kay, former editor of this section, wrote a column for us a year and a half ago, calling for the Order of Canada to be abolished. Calling it a vestige of feudalism, he wrote then, “Democratic governments — even through the offices of high-minded, independent bodies — should not be in the business of ranking citizens by merit, of elevating Joe above Harry, or Harry above Joe.”

He and I had a laugh at the time, as he was about to have a family dinner with his aunt … a member of the Order. But there were plenty who agreed with him, in the broader public, if not at his dinner table, that the Order was stupid, or pointless, or even undemocratic.

I wasn’t one of them. I don’t see anything wrong with festooning a few citizens of notable accomplishment with trinkets. The fact that we have our order loaded with a bunch of lawyers and former civil servants and artists rather than military heroes is testament to our peaceful history. And the absence of business leaders, something noted by a Postmedia analysis in 2011, probably doesn’t much trouble the business leaders — they’re too busy making money to care if someone’s pinning an award on them. Besides, we have military medals for our Armed Forces heroes, and the material rewards of success in business are surely their own reward.

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So the Order recognizes accomplished Canadians whose achievements in their own field may not be recognized by the broader society. If nothing else, it’s a pat on the back for accomplished fellow citizens. It’s okay for things like that to be apart from the broader public. Indeed, it’s the point.

National Post

mgurney@nationalpost.com

Twitter.com/mattgurney

Matt Gurney is deputy editor of the National Post Comment section and a member of the paper’s editorial board.