401-402 DOMINION DAY 'STOLEN' BY PIERRE TRUDEAU

http://jacquesclouseau.free-forums.org

by James H. Cotter Barrie, Ontario

LEST WE forget - Dominion Day, July 1 Our beloved Dominion Day was stolen from us in 1982 by Pierre Elliott Trudeau.

Writing in the Toronto Sun, Marcus Van Steen said, 'This was a bill that was never debated in the Commons. It was pushed through by trickery on Friday afternoon when there wasn't even a quorum in the house.'

'It was done with craft and ignobly,' wrote the highly respected columnist Douglas Fisher in the Sun, 30 June 1986.

The Globe and Mail, 27 October 1982, called it' a hasty ill-considered rush to alter an article of history which meant a lot to many Canadians' and revealed that the Senate had received more than 1,700 letters, 98% of them favouring the retention of Dominion Day.

It wrote, 'There were only 13 members present in the 282 seat house, seven short of a quorum - but since nobody demanded an official count, they had their will of the place.'

Of the new name, Canada Day, the Globe said, 'The name it has chosen for the national holiday will, regrettably, be scarred by the manner of its choosing.'

What's in a name you may say? The term 'Dominion' in no sense ever referred to the 'dominion' of the British Monarchy which, as a Constitutional Monarchy, has no power whatsoever anyway. The term 'dominion' comes from the Bible and was first thought of by Samuel Leonard Tilley of New Brunswick, Father of Confederation. Tilley quoted from the Book of Zachariah, Chapter IX, Verse 10, which says,'His (i.e. God's) Dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the river even to ends of the earth.'

It was a sort of invocation, a prayer almost, to God to manifest His mighty and benign power over our lovely land. And our great country flourished accordingly. But that wasn't good enough for the likes of Trudeau. So out went this proud title for our national day, in use from 1867 to 1982, and beloved by many generations of Canadians.

Douglas Fisher said it best when he wrote, 'There's an odd line: Where there's no past there's no future. Surely it was first uttered with Canada in mind.'

The above was published as a letter to the Toronto Sun (30 June 1992).