A National Dream?

     I've been wondering. Pondering. Questioning. Reading. I just don't see it.

     A main theme of mine continues to be vision. Leaders with vision, even a narrow, partial vision, either don't exist or are totally unable to articulate a vision that could appeal to Canadians from coast to coast.

     I long for someone with an idea or ideas on a grand scale. Ideas that improve the lives of Canadians from every corner of the country. Early on, it was coast to coast rail, then the Trans Canada Highway, medicare, public pensions, repatriation of the constitution, the charter of rights and freedoms and since...well...nothing. I mean, free trade was not an inspiration and did nothing for our national identity. I haven't even heard anyything from anyone I'd think of as an up and comer in any party express any kind of new ideas.

     I'm not sure what other Canadians are looking for. I think many would agree it wouldn't hurt for someone to come out with some kind of idea that unifies us, that mends some of the horrific devisevness heaped upon us in the last couple of decades.

     I have my own ideas of important things we might be able to do on a national scale, and I'd be tremendously interested to hear from others what they think might be a tonic for the region versus region, province versus province, provinces versus feds, feds versus provinces, urban versus rural crap that's been used for partisan political gain for far too long in Canada.

     If it were me, I'd advance an agenda of making Canada the greenest country on the planet. A comprehensive strategy that utilizes the resources of each and every Canadian, from the householder to the heads of the largest corporations.

     This is not one of those, cap and trade, carbon tax advocacy papers, rather it is the idea of an entire country making the committment to become the world's environmental leader in every way. For business, it's incentives to get greener and about paying your way for the harm you do. It's about programs to encourage the development of greener technologies, about new support businesses that will become reality to service new technologies which can be exportedall over the world. It's about more money for research for our Universities for programs that develop and enhance methods and new technologies to benefit Canadian industries, it's about finding new markets for recyclable materials and better methods of recycling. It's about public education, what can be done at home and at work and money for programs that encourage citizen science groups who have become increasingly successful in providing a wealth of reliable data that couldn't ever be compiled without the dedication of people who care about various aspects of the world around them. For the provinces, incentives to close old, inefficient power generating plants and replace them with greener energy sources.

     Canadians are concerned about the environment and rightly so. More than anything I can think of in this day and age, I believe our concern for the environment could be a unifying factor and a source of pride for a Canada which has been wandering in the wilderness, unable to see the forest for the trees.

     I'd love to hear your thoughts on national dreams. As always, I'm searching for the bigger picture.