Ontario Landscape: Sweat Sacrifice and Canada War

ontario landscape: A century later, when it is not all that clear that Canadians have much appetite for remembering the finer details of the so-called Great War, a name-change on an Ontario map may seem like little more than a colonial-era fait accompli, according to Globe and Mail. Internecine hatred on the home front just doesn't fit the well-meaning version of Canada war that history image-builders have manufactured – all those belated feel-good stories of a courageous young nation coming of age and forging its independence through the sweat and sacrifice of Vimy. It was a contrived and calculated switch that served the propaganda needs of Canada imperialist leaders: A subversive reference to the capital of the hated Hun could be annihilated from the pristine Ontario landscape and replaced with a tribute to Britain recently deceased Secretary of State for War, Lord Kitchener. But in a country of immigrants and refugees where arguments about loyalty are noisier and more venomous than ever, it worth remembering that these fights over national identity have been fought before – and lost by those who wrongly believed their Canada to be an open and tolerant and welcoming place. Long before this country came into official existence, the Berlin area was a haven for immigrants escaping the ancient enmities and disruptive compulsions of narrow-minded nationalism. That certainly what Canada Berlin was meant to be in the beginning. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.