How many remember the late Bobby Gimby’s bestselling song “Ca-na-da” created for the 100th Anniversary of Canada in 1967? Gimby was known as the Pied Piper of Canada, wearing a cape as he led countless Canadian parades.
Living in Montreal at the time, my sister and I had the privilege of singing Gimby’s song on TV in both English and French at Expo ’67.
I went to Expo ’67 10 times on the brand-new Montreal subway. Never will I forget seeing both the U.S. and Russian spacecrafts.
I naively picked up and started wearing a red Russian hammer and sickle pin from ’67. Until my public school teacher pulled me aside and clued me in, I had no idea of this pin’s political implications.
Fifty years later, we are now celebrating our 150th Anniversary of this amazing land of Canada.
Who would forget those amazing fireworks displays at English Bay and all across our nation? On July 1, thousands of us gathered in a Voices Together celebration on Canada’s 150th birthday at the Pacific Coliseum.
Many Canadians are unaware that July 1 was originally called Dominion Day because of our being the Dominion of Canada. Sir Samuel Leonard Tilley, a Father of Canadian Confederation and twice the lieutenant-governor of New Brunswick, rose each morning to start his day with prayer and scripture reading.
As the 33 founding Fathers gathered in 1864 at Charlottetown, P.E.I., there were many suggestions on what to call this new nation.
That July 1 morning, as Tilley read from Psalm 72:8, he became so convinced that Canada should be a nation under God, that when he came down to the conference session, he presented the inspired name “Dominion of Canada.” Our national motto on our coat of arms, A Mari Usque Ad Mare, (from sea to sea) was drawn once again straight from Psalm 72:8. “He shall have dominion from sea to sea.”
Tilley came to a personal knowledge of Jesus Christ in 1839 through his Anglican rector, Rev. William Harrison. His life was so dramatically transformed that he even became an Anglican Sunday school teacher and a church warden (elder). Tilley’s son Harrison became a well-known Anglican priest.
One day, an 11-year-old girl ran to Tilley for help, after her drunken father brutally stabbed her mother to death. Because of this tragedy, Tilley went from being a quiet pharmacist to becoming the premier of New Brunswick in his campaign for alcohol reform. When Tilley brought in actual alcohol legislation, he was burned in effigy, his house was attacked, and his family’s lives were threatened.
The 1864 Charlottetown meeting was originally intended to bring a Maritime Union of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, to defend against the threat of American invasion. But Tilley dreamed bigger, inviting Ontario and Quebec to join them in a new Confederation.
On our 150th anniversary, Sir Leonard Tilley reminds us that Canada is founded upon principles that recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of law. ■
Rev. Ed Hird has been the rector at St. Simon’s Church since 1987. stsimonschurch.ca
