You can call him Captain Canada if you want. He wouldn’t be insulted even if your sarcasm was blatantly obvious.
Suggest to him that he wears Maple Leaf underwear – not blue and white honouring a certain second-rate hockey team, because that would offend him – but red and white honouring the country, and he’d laugh it off good naturedly.
While he doesn’t likely sport his patriotism under his pants – and I don’t plan to investigate this issue any further – perhaps more than any other national politician, Guy Lauzon, Conservative MP for Stormont, Dundas, South Glengarry (SDSG), wears it proudly on his sleeve.
At times almost a voice in the wilderness, Lauzon has been on a concerted mission to drum up US-style patriotism in this country.
While agrees that we’re not as “showy” as our American cousins, he feels we should be waving the flag quite a bit more ardently than we do.
Golly-gee enthusiasm, a community booster extraordinaire, you don’t doubt for a second that Lauzon is sincere.
Four years ago, Guy launched his “Proud to be Canadian” campaign, hoping that his mixed bag of constituents would fly more Canada Day flags provided by his office than any other federal jurisdiction in the country.
That has been the case since the first year of his patriotism push. All along, he has called on other MPs through statements in the House of Commons to match or surpass his yearly attempts to have as many as 15,000 homes and businesses prominently display national flags.
The successful push has allowed Lauzon to routinely declare his constituents “truly the most patriotic in all of Canada.” So far, nobody has been able to give him much of an argument.
This year though, there are some serious challengers looming, 33 ridings to be exact, all with MPs chasing Lauzon’s bragging rights which he’s determined to hang on to.
Although I haven’t seen any promotion around Russell, participants according to Guy include Pierre Lemieux, Conservative MP for Glengarry-Prescott-Russell (GPR). And my colleague Richard Cléroux confirmed in his recent meanderings that Lemieux has sent out 57,000 flags to his constituents.
As national Conservative caucus chairman, Lauzon’s office will handle tallying the score and picking a winner, a duty which he doesn’t see as a conflict: “You know that I’m honourable and we’ll do this fairly,” the MP says, expressing delight that his movement is spreading across the land.
Guy’s battle plan is to reach all SDSG households and businesses with a kit containing introductory letter, poster-sized paper flag, history of the Maple Leaf, rules for flying it, along with the official French and English versions of O Canada.
Those who agree to show a flag in a prominent place will be recorded; so far, 3,000 participants are confirmed. While the campaign will peak on Canada Day, Guy hopes those who take part will continue to fly the flag year round.
“I’m fiercely proud of Canada and I believe the people in my riding are among the most patriotic anywhere,” he enthuses. “I’m asking them to show the rest of Canada and the world just how much we love our country.”
Right on, Guy! The sentiment is hokey as hell, yes, but kind of catchy, no!
Like most Canadians, I’m not one to be flamboyant about my patriotism except, of course, when it might be useful such as when I’m travelling abroad where it can do no harm to flash a Canadian pin.
In-your-face patriotism is just so un-Canadian, eh! It just isn’t the Canadian way.
But after Lauzon kicked off his first campaign, I went out and bought four small flags on sticks from the Embrun Giant Tiger and planted them in the front garden for all to see.
It won’t help Guy’s numbers because I’m not in his riding and I’m not sure if Pierre is counting; but I still have those flags and I’ll fly them proudly again this Canada Day… and maybe even leave them on view for awhile after that.
In case I don’t see you… Happy Canada Day! Bonne fête du Canada!
