Waving the flag is fine — but who are we, really?

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Following the truckers’ convoy, for three years most people in Ottawa shied away from flying the Canadian flag because it was abused during the occupation, flown alongside unsavoury banners like the Confederate flag, the F*** Trudeau thing or some other symbol. As the Citizen’s Joanne Laucius reported on Flag Day last week, we seem finally to have shaken off that curse. I guess that’s one good thing that came out of you-know-who’s threats of annexation.

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As I settled in to watch the second Ontario leaders’ debate on Family Day evening, I wondered whether Doug Ford’s self-appointed role as Trump Shield would make the difference between him finally being tossed from office for being self-serving or him staying in office as a thank-you from voters for having adopted just the right patriotic tone at the right fearful moment.

We’ll find out soon.

I confess that flags and patriotism make me uneasy. Maybe that’s a result of growing up in Quebec and being bullied in school by my friends’ parents because apparently mine were planning to vote No during the 1980 referendum. I was nine years old and scared because I’d been told I would lose my country if the Yes side won and that I was a fool for reasons I could not understand.

I am also not a fan of national anthems at sporting events, or booing of same. But I wouldn’t dream of chiding anyone for exercising their right to free speech. Isn’t that what the flag symbolizes?

At this juncture, we who make our home in Ottawa have a little soul-searching to do. The very light sentence convoy organizer Pat King received this week — three months’ house arrest — seems woefully inadequate. But at least it’s a form of closure that allows us to move on.

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To where? That is the question. Who are we, exactly? When we plant Canadian flags on top of massive snowbanks, or put a patch on a backpack or — in an adorable display of nose-thumbing— briefly festoon the “Trump Avenue” street sign in Centrepointe with little maple leafs, what do we mean? Who are we as a people, beyond “folks who remember to clear their air vents after a snowstorm so they don’t die of carbon monoxide poisoning”?

I don’t pretend to have the answer, but I have a few suggestions.

We are a happy community of incredibly patient people who put up with all manner of aggravation with a shrug and a smile — even for things, like the LRT, that really ought to be better by now. We are very slow to anger, and quick to forgive. We are excellent friends to have.

We are a thoughtful and highly cooperative bunch. There is no fundraiser or charity or even local buy-nothing Facebook group that won’t rally when someone is in need. We are a community of people who agonize over problems we can’t fix individually, as Bruce Deachman’s heart-wrenching column on homelessness this past week reminded us.

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The wonderful humans of Ottawa have good hearts, smart brains and creative minds. The fact that they don’t know how to drive when it snows or rains is mildly annoying, but really, that’s a skill that could be learned.

Those are my ideas about Ottawans, but it would be neat to hear what you have to say on this. I’d love for you to email me your thoughts about WHO WE ARE, at [email protected].

It’s all fine and good to rally around national symbols such as flags, and to mount a vigorous defence — economic or otherwise — whenever we’re attacked. But this unique moment presents us with a golden opportunity to reflect on, and redefine, what it means for us to be the people of this country’s capital city. We need a deeper and more thorough definition of who we are and why than just “against MAGA-washed Americans.”

I look forward to reading you on that.

Brigitte Pellerin (they/them) is an Ottawa writer. Reach her a [email protected] .

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