One of my mantras in life goes as follows:
Any group or person who waves "pride" or "proud" of where they live (such as "NB Proud" or "Ontario Proud" or "Alberta Proud", just to name a few) are not to be trusted. There's always an underbelly of sometimes sinister intent and belief behind these groups. Indeed, looking further into these groups and the networks behind them have revealed some shady shit, which you can find for yourself in the links provided below.
I believe in reserving pride for things you've actually accomplished, not for things that were afforded to you by accident of birth (being born Caucasian, born in Canada, born in British Columbia, born with brown hair, born into a wealthy family, etc., are just some things that I think people don't need to feel proud of). Feel glad about these things if you like, but proud? That's a bit much.
One example of acceptable pride: immigrants who go through the process of achieving Canadian citizenship can, however, feel proud because they accomplished citizenship through effort.
What about movements like gay pride and the like? Well, on that specific movement, it's not so much about feeling "proud" of being homosexual but more about standing up to the hate and exclusion that homosexuals have come up against, and continue to face, when dealing with unfair and undeserved opposition from bigoted politicians, as well as religious/social leaders who oppose them. In this case, "proud" could be a stand-in for "strong" and it wouldn't, unlike "Canada Proud", infer a superiority complex and an attitude that is defined by bigotry. After all, gay pride celebrations do not exclude heterosexual participation under any circumstances as far as I am aware. Unless there is harmful intent to any heterosexual participation, then reasonable action is taken to minimize/neutralize the threat they may pose to the activities of the gay pride movement.
Anyway...
The aforementioned groups, not all connected (there are two somewhat distinct groups; Canada Proud & Canada Strong and Proud, headed by Jeff Ballingall & Chris Russell, respectively), are boosters for the Conservatives (they're not affiliated, though) and are very far-right, pro-business, anti-union, and, in-spite of some of their advertising, bigoted. They get a lot of money from corporations AND they like to canvas on behalf of the Conservative party. Since corporations cannot donate to political parties, this whole scheme of Tory-boosting skirts the line between legality and illegality, especially during election cycles.
Primary targets include the current Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau; current leader of the NDP-Ontario party, Andrea Horwath; Jagmeet Singh, leader of the Federal NDP; and former leaders Rachel Notley of the Alberta NDP & Kathleen Wynne of the Ontario Liberals. That's not all of their targets, but they're among the most prominent, with Trudeau so heavily targeted (he's their enemy #1, pretty much) it borders on the murderous & psychotic.
Some links for further reading:
Some links for further reading:
- A general look at these far-right "proud" groups and their rise to prominence: https://www.nationalobserver.com/.../explainer-rise...
- Jeff Ballingall, the founder of Ontario Proud (and sister groups for other provinces): https://nowtoronto.com/.../2a95fc72-abbc-11e9-a02a.../
- A look at who funds "Ontario Proud", with most of them coming from the GTA: https://medium.com/.../who-funds-ontario-proud-76a56ca92de1
- The Manning Centre, started by the Reform Party of Canada's first and only leader (thank goodness), provides funding for groups like "Canada Proud" and "Canada Strong and Proud": https://www.cbc.ca/.../pol.../manning-centre-proud-1.5307111
- A Twitter thread about some of the more questionable donors to Jeff Ballingall's "Canada Proud" network, and the seedier, sinister implications behind them (the Manning Centre is mentioned): https://twitter.com/TheJasonPugh/status/1086013022273822720
It's okay to be happy about where you're from, but being proud is something reserved for achievements, in my opinion. And it's often a veil for hate, exclusion, criminality and deceit of its followers and virtually everyone else. These groups know the power and reach of Social Media and that's how they've grown to be incredible threats to our political process as we know it, by appealing to the "folks" and trying their hardest to appear as astroturf-y as possible. They've crossed the line by getting directly involved in electing members of a certain political affiliation: the Conservative/United Conservative Party. This "Proud" movement must be challenged.
