The Martlet

We Canadians have always been a little too cautious and polite to lunge headlong into the heady fray of social upheaval.

Back in the ‘60s you had to be American or French to have been radical in the marches, sit-ins and demonstrations that defined a generation’s opposition to all things lame in the world.

As Canucks, we weren’t hating on our country for going to war in ‘Nam or discriminating against classes, races or ideologies. That’s not to say Canada’s record was clean — we were just more interested in celebrating our rights with love-ins and taking pride in our country after about 100 years of nationhood.

Like in other countries, the Canadian kids were confident, counterculture and cool. After all, we were rockin’ out with a new flag, a new swinging Prime Minister and a new sense of optimism. Expo ’67, Trudeaumania and separatism were only some of the more visible touchstones of a generation of Canadians finding their voice and their identity.

Then those baby boomers grew up and created a world for their kids that no one could have imagined back in the haze and turbulence of the late ‘60s.

Fast forward 40 years. It’s been a bit of a trip lately, much as it was back then. Technology is bombarding us with more stimuli than we know what to do with, giving us the means to innovate and shape a future so uncertain that the Cold War looks like a childish skirmish. Okay, not really, but North Korean long-range missiles, the Iranian nuclear program, Israeli bombing raids, Pakistani militants, Iraq, Afghanistan, Darfur, climate change, global recession, peak oil, AIDS, anthrax — you get the picture.

That glut of those babies the boomers made sometime around those sad Reagan/Mulroney years are about to inherit a world that needs a whole lot of creative tender love and care. And there’ll be far fewer of us echo-boom kids to take on the task of cleaning it up than there were boomers to create the mess. Good thing they gave us many of the tools to get started.

Some things they didn’t have back in the ‘60s? Smart phones, nanotech, stem cell research, advanced quantum physics, particle accelerators, Twitter and Skype — now these are the keys to solving the world’s troubles.

So here we are, confident, counterculture and cool — or whatever the equivalents are these day. Evidently, lame is the new cool and cool is the new lame. The point is, this is the launching pad.

There were marches in American streets in 2007 for the Jena Six. There were rallies on Parliament Hill for a change of government in 2008. There were mass demonstrations by French students, unions and student unions in 2009.

Everything is up in the air. The next generation of active citizens has already helped elect a liberal northerner of mixed racial heritage to the presidency of the U.S. Those same citizens are watching as the form of capitalism their parents hailed as communism’s slayer shudders into a new system. Those very citizens will be the ones who use the tools and information they’ve inherited to cast off the shackles of a dirty economy for a sustainable existence free of quarterly growth’s tyranny.

All the fussing and fighting of today will give rise to fresh voices and bold identities in the increasingly interconnected global society of tomorrow. Canadians, with our polite values and diverse sensibilities, can help ease those tensions with the tolerance and understanding we’ve nurtured since multiculturalism took root here decades ago.

While we don’t have the political leadership to inspire us to dream lofty dreams, our determination to carry on the work our parents started years ago need not come from above. The spark, motivation and will to see our dreams as possibilities within our grasp comes from the vibes we so readily get off each other. And nothing draws a generation together and inspires action like a collective awareness that the future we desire is in peril.

And get together we will. After all, the world could use another summer of love while we’re at it.