Viewpoint: Canada 150 left us tired and disillusioned

By Maggie Parkhill

It’s 4 a.m. and you’re still at the party. Things are getting a little sloppy and a lot irritating. You’re exhausted and you know you should probably just call it quits, but the hosts are begging you to stay and have another drink. We’ve all been there. We’ve all been to that party.

That party is our entire country.

Canada 150 (which, for the record, should never have been called “150” in the first place, given the 15,000 years of Indigenous history that preceded Confederation) has mostly come and gone. After years of planning, the party didn’t exactly go off without a hitch. Between the long lines on Parliament Hill, scarce bathrooms, and the inexplicable presence of Irish rock star Bono, the celebrations on July 1 were, to put it politely, underwhelming.

Tired of being known as “the city that fun forgot,” perhaps O-Town overcompensated pseudo-patriotic hoopla.

It’s been some months since Canada Day, and yet littering the city are reminders that we’re still in the middle of a big do that needs to be done. The traffic is maddening. The construction is deafening. The crowds are suffocating.

Somehow organizers didn’t anticipate the 150 exhaustion many Ottawa residents are now feeling. Maybe if they had listened to Indigenous leaders from the get-go, they would have foreseen the shifting national sentiment from celebratory to deprecatory. As the national party raged on, activists like the ones who reclaimed the land on Parliament Hill and erected a teepee for July 1 successfully cast a critical shadow over Canada 150.

And yet the NCC and the City of Ottawa are still pouring shots. Next up, the city will be illuminating Chaudière Falls under the guise of honouring the Algonquin sacred site. Instead, it feels more like a final bow, given the contentious plan to rezone land around the site and erect a condo village called Zibi.

That’s a shot that burns on the way down.

We’re limping towards the new year, our feet aching from the high heels worn, our hands sore from clapping, our heads fuzzy from too much booze.

As the last few stragglers shuffle home, let’s review what we’ve learned from this so-called milestone year, apply it to our future planning, and go get some rest.

You never want to be the last one at the party.