Queen Elizabeth - Canadian Icon

In the bleak procession of modernity there are moments, however brief, that give one hope. A recent survey by Canada's Dominion Institute is one of those moments. The survey sought to "create a list of the 101 people, places, symbols, events and innovations that most define Canada." The top three? The Maple Leaf, the Battle of Vimy Ridge and Queen Elizabeth. The choices are both fascinating and heartening. Could there by anything more Old Canada that our ancient emblem, our greatest military victory and our sovereign? For much of the last forty years a culture war has been waged in the "Great Dominion," as Churchill called us, albeit fought in a very Canadian way, politely and largely "under the radar" of public debate. It's protagonists are the Jacobin Left - a presence through out the English speaking world since the Sixties - who seek to remodel the world along rationalists - though rarely rational - lines.

Preaching utopia and modernity they brush aside traditional values and attitudes with slight regard or contempt. The past, to them, is not something to be preserved - here and there - and amended - here and there and even reformed - here and there, it is simply obsolete. It is a totalitarian arrogance. The opponents of the Jacobins are loosely called conservatives, yet this is often a misnomer. Two generations ago many would have passed as liberals or moderates, the differences blurred by the common loss. The Dominion Institute survey is by no means scientific, and the very name "Dominion" hearkens back to the Old Canada, indeed until 1982 Canada was officially known as the Dominion of Canada, the term taken from 72:8 Psalms: "He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth." Our Australian brethren still call themselves a Commonwealth, a relic from their time as a "dominion" of the Empire. We often don't seem quite as grown up as our younger brother, yet this survey provides hope - however small - that the Elder Dominion can still be an adult among the English speaking nations.