2680...Preston Manning On My Hometown

Preston Manning, Stephen Harper's father, on your national capital:

Preston Manning

From Monday's Globe and Mail

This summer, thousands of visitors, many of them from abroad, will visit Canada’s national capital. But will their visit give them an accurate impression of our country? Is there more that can and should be done to make Ottawa a truly “national” capital?

A number of years ago, when I spent time in Ottawa as an MP, a Nigerian colleague and I undertook a thought experiment. We envisioned inviting my colleague’s cousin, who lived in a village in Nigeria and knew nothing about Canada, to come with us on a trip – the one condition being that he allow us to blindfold him before leaving Nigeria so he would have no idea where we were taking him. We would then transport him to Ottawa, remove the blindfold, show him the city, and conclude our experiment by asking him to describe the country of which this city was the capital. His replies would tell us what someone might infer about Canada solely on the basis of exposure to its capital.

Presumably, our Nigerian friend would soon guess, from the languages spoken and Gatineau just across the river, that the country had a French-English heritage. But would he also get a clear picture, from simply visiting Ottawa, of Canada’s aboriginal heritage or its multicultural character – the kind of picture he would get if he were to visit a first nations reserve, an Inuit village or the ethnic neighbourhoods of Montreal, Vancouver or Toronto?

Presumably, our Nigerian friend would also conclude, from observing the Ottawa River, that Canada was a land of large waterways. But would he also conclude, from simply visiting Ottawa, that Canada is the world’s second-largest country by land mass; that it’s bounded by immense Atlantic, Arctic and Pacific seacoasts and is home to the diverse maritime cultures that such seacoasts support; that one-third of the country consists of a vast plain; that Canada stretches to the North Pole; or that Canada is home to mountain ranges that dwarf in size any structure or hill in the Ottawa Valley?

And presumably, our Nigerian friend would conclude something about the Canadian economy from observing Ottawa’s abundance of government offices supported by tax revenues, the high-tech companies of Kanata, and the historical references to Bytown as a lumber centre. But would he also conclude, from simply visiting Ottawa, that most Canadians don’t work for government and that Canada’s economy includes the extensive financial and manufacturing facilities of Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, and Calgary; the Atlantic and Pacific fisheries; the high-tech multinational companies of Waterloo Region; the vast hydro-generating capacity of Churchill Falls, Hydro-Québec, Manitoba Hydro, and B.C. Hydro; the grain and potash production of Saskatchewan; the oil and gas industries of Alberta, including the Athabasca oil sands; the forestry, mining and tourism industries of British Columbia; the diamond mines of the Northwest Territories; and the various public and private centres throughout the country committed to the development of science, technology and innovation?

The point is, that beautiful as Ottawa is and distinctive as it is politically as a seat of government, a lot more can and should be done to make it a truly “national” capital – as representative as possible of all the regions and dimensions of the country.

One suggestion that the federal government, the National Capital Commission and the City of Ottawa could work on in time for Canada’s 150th anniversary in 2017 is the establishment of a truly representative Canadian Confederation Theme Park somewhere in the National Capital Region. The idea would be to allocate several hectares of space to each province and territory and invite them to build a pavilion that would convey to any visitor the distinguishing characteristics – physical, demographic, economic, political, cultural, religious and scientific – of that province or territory.

The federal government might reserve a location at the centre of such a park on which to build its own pavilion, something that would link Canada’s past to its present and future. Perhaps “Canada, the Innovation Nation” would be an appropriate focus for such a pavilion since Confederation itself was one of the great political innovations of the 19th century, since Canada’s subsequent record of innovation has been largely unrecognized, and since innovation promises to be one of the great preoccupations of the 21st century.

More needs to be done to make Ottawa a genuine national capital where visitors get a more complete picture of Canada’s immensity, diversity and promise. A Canadian Confederation Theme Park would be a step in this direction.

Preston Manning is president and CEO of the Manning Centre for Building Democracy.

And not a word about hockey.

WFDS