Today the Harper government announced plans to officially celebrate the upcoming diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. 

The Canadian government has unveiled a $7.5-million plan to celebrate next year’s 60th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth’s time on the throne, a moment hailed Tuesday by Heritage Minister James Moore as a “rare” chance to honour the 85-year-old monarch’s “dedicated service to our country,” and to give her subjects in Canada a refresher course on “the important role of the Canadian Crown.”

The conservative party is definitely putting historical and cultural institutions on the agenda in Ottawa.

published in The Prince Arthur Herald

When famously asked what he was rebelling against, Brando’s character coolly answered: “Whatever you got.”
As the cold hard facts of court rulings and winter weather bring the Occupy protests to a screeching halt, it’s worth reflecting on the lofty ambitions that marked the movement’s origins. A movement that was supposed to be the “millennial” generation’s moment of social protest.

A generation ago, the rebellion of the “boomers” was artistically summarized in films like “The Wild One,” where Marlon Brando (the picture of leather jacket cool) personified a healthy disregard for the establishment. When famously asked what he was rebelling against, Brando’s character coolly answered: “Whatever you got.”

Every generation has protesters and moments of social discontent. However, the sporadic uprisings of students in Occupy camps and protests earlier this month at the University of McGill (ostensibly over demands for lower tuition) are, in one sense, less sincere. Rather than being a rebellion against their culture, these protesters are a product of their environment more than anything else. In 60 years we have come from the “wild ones” to the “entitled ones.” And as the millennial generation expresses an ever-growing sense of entitlement, they would be wise to reflect on the legacy of their forbearers: the ever-diminishing capacity of the decaying welfare state to support their demands.

Appearances suggest that the millennial generation will be defined by its superb use of social media and ability to adapt to emerging technology – ushering in the burgeoning era of the “Twitthnocrat,” where social media savvy passes as a marketable skill. However, an unintended by-product of this new job skill is that too many come to believe that they possess a right (rather than a privilege) to have social media access at work.

An exaggeration? Consider a current study conducted by Cisco Systems that found over 56% of the new generation would pass over on taking a new job, if it would substantially restrict their social media access.

Another telling insight into the millennials’ entitlement mindset was uncovered by a recent report from University of Guelph Professor Sean T. Lyons, which found that most university graduates expect to have a starting salary at their first job of around $48,000.

Finally, compound this with a recent study that found the current generation has a very poor or nonexistent grasp of financially literacy. A lack of financial knowledge and skills sets that could explain why young people today are still successfully peddling the idea of free tuition.

Where did we go wrong? Is it really the fault of all those indulgent boomers who over-inflated their children’s self-esteem to epic proportions? Can we blame a world where parents constantly bombard their kids with praise for being exceptional (“You might be the next Rembrandt or even Shakespeare”)? No wonder we have a whole era of children who believe they should succeed in their talent alone. Alas, the current state of parenting makes it more challenging to determine the truly talented from the average and mediocre. The middle and below-average float up unencumbered to the lofty heights of our unrealistic and unsustainable technocratic culture.

These issues come down to the naive expectations of the current millennial generation. And here is the rub: today’s protesters and struggling millennials are tomorrow’s taxpayers. At the same time as McGill students were protesting for a further subsidy to their education from government coffers, a report was released by the Institute Of Marriage and Family Canada, stating that Québec’s welfare state was on the fast track to collapse.

One interesting nugget is outlined by the Institute of Marriage and Family Canada: “A Quebec Family Portrait.” The report found that demography is a great challenge for Quebec, as replacement rates drop to drastically low levels.  As a result, there will not be enough able-bodied Quebecers in the workforce to support the significant social safety net required for the province’s rapidly aging population. In this regard, Québec is the canary in the coal mine for the rest of the country.

Such a dire warning is important not only for the rest of Canada but also for the millennial generation. They are the ones who must face tough choices when it comes to rethinking certain aspects of Canada’s approach to the welfare state. It falls to us, my generation, to treat this as a challenge to overcome, and not an impediment that could weigh us down. If we tackle this challenge using our strengths and refuse to give in to our weaknesses, it could usher in a new age of Canadian ingenuity. However, for that to happen, Canada has to become a nation of makers,
rather than takers.

Here is my article from The Prince Arthur Herald

This week, a cloud will hang over the CBC’s official celebration of what was supposed to be a landmark occasion, the 75th anniversary of the crown corporation’s founding. Instead, jokes surrounding journalistic integrity, as well as the relevance of public broadcasting in Canada, will represent the watchword among the chattering classes in Canada. From a princess warrior gone awry, to access to information hearings, last week was certainly interesting for the CBC, as two seemingly disconnected events helped to highlight the hubris inside the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

Originally, the raison d’être of the CBC was to provide a Canadian voice in broadcasting from coast to coast. In fact, one of the call signs for the CBC in the 1970s was: “When you watch, watch the best”.  This statement brings us to the present, and the events that transpired over the course of the past week, as the CBC engaged in practices that wouldn’t muster a passing grade in a first-year journalism ethics course.

First, the comedy sketch show This Hour Has 22 Minutes attempted an ambush-style interview early Monday morning at the home of Toronto mayor Rob Ford. Shortly after, the comedy stunt backfired on the broadcaster; in response, they spread misinformation about Ford’s statements to the 911 operator during the event. “Watch the best”, I don’t think so.

In addition, the Ford incident proved yet again the double standard apparent when it comes to the treatment of Conservatives in Canada’s media. Although we have a Conservative federal government, this does not make the party and its supporters immune to immature and baseless attacks by Canada’s own publicly-funded broadcaster.

More to the point, there is a growing chasm between the small cadre of CBC true believers, and the growing chorus of Canadians calling for some sort of accountability from our government broadcaster. When the public pays a subsidy of over $1.1 billion yearly, as part shareholders and more importantly as taxpayers, we deserve transparency. This week, the crown corporation has proved yet again that it is less than forthcoming in terms of transparency. In fact, the integrity commissioner Suzanne Legault, who at one time gave the corporation an “F” when it come to replying to access to information requests, said that she is still “extremely concerned” about the CBC’s level of openness.

Canadians deserve better from their public broadcaster. There do remain certain defenders of the CBC, ones who vigorously argue that the broadcaster has made key contributions to Canadian culture and the Canadian sense of self, as well as manufacturing icons galore. But friends of the CBC rely heavily on nostalgia to make their arguments while, at the same time, conveniently ignoring or obfuscating the facts right in front of their face.

 Although things may look bleak for fundamental reform to Canada’s public broadcaster, there are rays of hope on the horizon. In Ottawa there is the annual Free Thinking Film Festival that promotes ideas of liberty and freedom. This year, the festival is showing their first self-produced documentary about the anti-Conservative and anti-Israel bias within the CBC. Additionally, the Conservative-leaning National Citizen’s Coalition continues its powerful crusade towards the privatization of the CBC.

These campaigns and events are slowly moving the barometer of public opinion in Canada towards reform. Their net effect has been to put the brass at the CBC on notice, that they can no longer be mere nabobs that are responsible to no one. Paraphrasing Milton Friedman, you cannot wait to elect the right people to do the right things. We must create an environment in which the most slippery of public policy wonks are faced with the fact that the CBC needs to drastically reform the way it does business, or get off the public payroll.