WARMINGTON: Pierre Poilievre wants Canadians to 'dream' big like Sir John A. Macdonald

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The resurrection of Sir John A. Macdonald represents the rise, once again, of the great country of Canada.

And it’s about to happen!

Don’t look now but while Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spent nine years trying to bury our country’s first prime minister for good, Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre is not only trying to bring Sir John A. Macdonald back into Canada’s narrative but he’s also saying Canadians need to be proud what he built for us.

Macdonald and all of the fathers of Confederation built such a great country that the next American president Donald Trump keeps saying he wants it for the United States.

Poilievre, who took to X on Saturday to post a “happy birthday” message to Sir John A. Macdonald, has already said, it’s never going to happen.

But he also says it’s starts by Canada ending the nasty rewriting of history and cancellation of our historical figures based on the standards or political agendas of the day.

“We’re going to take back control and put our country first,” Conservative Leader Poilievre declared Thursday.

It needed to be said – and it couldn’t have been said at a better time.

While the World Economic Forum tries to shine up Mark Carney after decades of swimming in the deep state’s posh high life to replace not-so sunny ways Trudeau to become Canada’s 24th prime minister, the man who has earned this job, and apprenticed for it, is reminding Canadians that to get back their prosperous country they’ll have to wrestle it away from the woke crowd that tore it all down.

People know it won’t be Liberals who will do that. They are the ones who led the erasing of anyone they thought did not fit their ideology.

Where to start? Look in any direction and there are fires burning and Canadians drowning.

Poilievre rightly said to take it back Canada to where it needs to be “means rebuilding our economy, bringing home production, rebuilding our military, supporting a strong border, reinstating controls on immigration, and most of all, being proud of our country and unapologetic for our history.”

Our colonial history. Our triumphs, our failures, our success and our warts.

There is way more to celebrate about Canada than there is to be embarrassed about. And in the years ahead, Canadians are going to have a chance to cheer again.

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This means when a new Canadian comes to Canada, they can believe in Canada first. Enough of putting down Canada. Enough of erasing our past heroes by torquing their words or actions from a different era to fit a political agenda.

“We need to honour our past and our shared values,” said Poilievre. “We need to live out the dream that started with John A. MacDonald. Yes, I said John A. MacDonald who believed in an independent and sovereign Canada.”

You heard it right.

Finally, for the first time in a long time, we we have a federal leader ready to fight for Canada and the people who founded it.

“We need to uphold our heroes. Stop tearing down our symbols,” said Poilievre, adding we need to “remind people who come here that when they’re given a Canadian flag and they land on Canadian soil, that it’s the greatest gift on earth and that they should be proud to be part of the Canadian family.”

Macdonald started it all. Queen Victoria is part of that, too. So are our troops who went to battle and our iconic prime ministers from Laurier to King to Diefenbaker to Pearson to Trudeau Sr. to Harper.

It means honouring our Indigenous people and all of our immigrants, and accepting mistakes of the past and learning from them, while not tearing each other down based on actions or words from a generation that didn’t have Human Rights Commissions.

As said by my colleague Bryan Passifiume, who covered this news conference, “The tide is turning and people are no longer interested in cancel culture.”

The woke era of making history vanish is dead. Or at least it will be when and if Poilivere gets to form the next government.

Those who squawk about it and try to smear Macdonald or others while overlooking our current prime minister’s many scandals – from black face to Chinagate – may find that most Canadians have moved on.

Poilievre not only senses that but has chosen to lead the country in this direction because he knows all different perspectives working together is “what it means to be a proud Canadian” and “that’s what it means to put Canada first.”

He believes it starts by not tearing everything down but by building it back up instead.

jwarmington@postmedia.com