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In a way I am not surprised that young Canadians view Canada with some suspicion. Talk to many of them and you may be dismayed by how little they know about our country. Equally, much of what they have been taught is that our past is nothing but a repository for all that is retrograde and shameful. It is filled with racism, sexism, homophobia, colonialism, militarism, genocide and environmental destruction.

It is easy to criticize the past and the decisions made there. But it is a conceit of all generations that they alone are free from poor judgements and intellectual shortcomings.

Looking solely at our past errors is not the right standard by which to measure Canada and its great achievements. Remember that poverty, squalor, filth, disease and intolerance have been humanity’s lot since the beginning. Only a handful of societies have figured out, slowly and painfully, the institutions and behaviours that allow people to escape these ills.

Canada is at the forefront of those nations and it is thanks to our history of struggle against the worst human afflictions that we now enjoy the conditions where our young people can look back in horror at how things used to be. It is the progress made possible by the economic, social and, yes, moral advances of our forebears that have allowed us to enjoy peace, order and good government in generous measure.

Confederation itself was no exercise in crude majoritarian triumphalism, but an exquisitely wrought compromise between contending cultures, languages and religions that has made us one of the longest enduring political orders on the planet. We have constantly expanded our notion of rights in response to genuine grievances. Canadian blood and treasure were expended in righteous struggles like the Second World War and Korea because when the world called, we were not found wanting. As we have become wealthier we have worked to improve our environment, education and social services.