...and they will probably refer to the smilie face people put on messages. But that aside I question how many people would know Bethume and Douglas and who and what they were but in the USA you would be hard pressed to find someone who can't name their historical icons. As far a trudeau people won't forget him...he was the one who initiated the cradle to grave society.
Today’s letters: For icons, can we trade a Trudeau for a Washington, a Bethune for a Crockett?
Paul Russell September 9, 2010 – 7:00 am
John Major / postmedia news
Pierre Elliott Trudeau: A Canadian icon.
I was amused by the side-by-side photos of “Canadian political icon Tommy Douglas” and his grandson, Keefer Sutherland, who, as Jack Bauer on the TV show 24, was an “icon” of another kind, though not a Canadian one. In fact, I’m amused by the disparity in the type of individual whom Canadians and Americans choose to venerate.
Americans tend to reach further back into their history for icons: George Washington, father of the country, who cut down that proverbial cherry tree; Betsy Ross, who sewed the American flag; Davey Crockett, frontiersman, symbol of rugged individualism; “Honest” Abe Lincoln; born in a humble log cabin, fought the scourge of slavery so all Americans could be free. Of course, we here in Canada have our own “heroes,” but compared to the American ones they’re a rather bloodless, uninspiring bunch. Off the top of my head, I can think of three: Tommy Douglas, rugged, er, collectivist father of socialized medicine; Dr. Norman Bethune, an early champion of socialized medicine and army surgeon to Mao Tse Tung, the leader who starved millions of his people and is perhaps the biggest mass-murderer in history; and Pierre E. Trudeau, father of the fatuous social doctrine of multiculturalism which manages the neat feat of viewing immigrants in both a self-loathing and a condescending manner (traits which, not co-incidentally, could also describe Trudeau himself). Sheesh. Where can a country go to buy a new set of icons?
Mindy G. Alter, Toronto. Read More »
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