The Bible on which Barack Obama will swear the oath of office belonged to Abraham Lincoln. The hand Obama will lay on that Bible is black. For a nation founded on the ideal of liberty and the reality of slavery, the inauguration of this president will be the joyous culmination of a struggle that lasted centuries.
And the CBC is marking this landmark in the history of human freedom by asking Canadians whether it is the gritty blue-collar realism of Sudbury Saturday Night or the boyish enthusiasm of The Hockey Song that best captures the complex and subtle character of the Canadian identity that so fascinates us, and will — surely — intrigue the new American president.
Cynics will have unkind words for this little initiative. Not I. The CBC’s mandate is to reflect Canada. And here, with one simple contest, the CBC has given us a stark and unmistakable demonstration of the narcissism, parochialism, insecurity, pettiness, and self-delusion that are essential components of Canadian identity.
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