Justin Trudeau's Canada Day debut and the patriotic debate

When Canadians gather next yearto celebrate the sesquicentennialof this country's founding, we might be able to partake not only of patriotically branded beer, but also of legal marijuana(if that's what you're into).Orat leastto celebrate the impending legalization thereof.

This year, we must make do with the collective and collectivist buzz of having filled out our long-form censuses. Or congratulate ourselves on the latest spread in the New York Times, this one on our hospitable treatment of Syrian refugees.

Such is life in Justin Trudeau's Canada.

Trudeau will mark his first Canada Day as prime minister on Friday, addressing the assembled crowd on Parliament Hill. Otherwise a perfunctory and apolitical moment, it might still be watched for hints of change in tone and emphasisand adjective, and colour scheme.

Canada is back, circa 2007

It was around Canada Day in2007, Stephen Harper's second as prime minister, that the last of those things became a point of intrigue. It was that year that someone noticed the stage decoration seemed a little bluer than might typically be expected.

It was also in 2007 that Harper declared Canada to be "back."

"Canada's back as a vital player on the global stage," he said, eight years before his successor declared basically the same thing.

Such is the debate over Canada's place, part of the larger argument about what this country is and has been. Harper engaged with that argument over his eight years,to the consternation of those who believed he was fundamentally remaking the place into something it wasn't previously.

He was, in specific small ways, at least trying to establish a different idea of Canada.

Canada Day on the Hill

Peter Mansbridge hosts special coverage of Canada Day celebrations on Parliament Hillfrom 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.ET. He'll be joined by Power & Politics'Rosemary Barton and arts reporterTashaunaReid. Performances include Metric, Alex Cuba, Coleman Hell,Coeurde Pirate and more.

Watch live on CBC News Network, CBC Televisionor here onCBCNews.ca.

Read more details

"What we're seeing is the emergence of a new patriotism, or at the very least, a small-c conservative alternative to the established Liberal narrative about Canada," Patrick Muttart, one of the minds behind Harper's ascent, told the Globe and Mail in 2011.

The Conservative dilemma, as recounted by Paul Wells in his book The Longer I'm Prime Minister,was that so many of the accepted national icons are linked to the Liberals, the governing party for most of the 20th century, the party of the charter and multiculturalism and the flag (indeed, the party of the nation's red-and-white colour scheme).

The Queen and the War of 1812

So the Conservatives embraced different icons: the military, hockey, the Arctic, the War of 1812, the Fathers of Confederation, John A. Macdonald, the Queen. The 30th anniversary of the charter was not particularly acknowledged.The citizenship guide was rewritten.

In 2013 and2014, Harper used his Canada Day address to describe the country as a "courageous warrior." In 2015, he described Canada as "an island of stability" ("in times of never-ending economic and political turmoil in the world") and made reference tothe Franklin expedition.

A month later he launched the election campaign that would end his time in power.

In Harper's time, Canada was an international symbol of fiscal prudence. In Trudeau, Canada has a symbol of flashy and huggable progressivism.

But the Liberal return to power might have had something to do with a desire, from some,for a different idea.

Trudeau nostalgia

"Canadians clearly told us they hadgrown tired of nowdefeated PrimeMinister Stephen Harper and wereyearning to return to the values thatthey believe traditionally definedCanada and Canadian society," Ensight reported last year.

"Trudeau was campaigning ona return to the values that many feel havetraditionally defined Canadian society civility, kindness, inclusion, consultation,collaboration and community."

His last name, for that matter, "harkens back to a time that many peoplefeel was the Golden Age of Canadaand its values, with the patriation ofthe Constitution, the development ofthe Charter of Rights and Freedoms,bilingualism, multiculturalism andcompassion."

For all of the fretting by his detractors that Harper would change Canada, his most meaningful change was the establishment of a decidedly conservative party that so far seems capable of outlasting him. Various other changes have been or will be undone though there seems no great desire to reverse the most significant tax cuts but there is the foundation of a distinct alternative to the Liberal Party, in themes and ideas and priorities.

That alternative did not reject all of the established ideas Harper still touted diversity and compassion but it found new things to emphasize (strength and freedom, for instance).

But in winning power, Trudeau now has the platform. And whatever the nostalgia, he also promised real change.

The history war

So the long-form census has returned and 25,000 Syrians have arrived, the Senate is less partisan,the federal cabinet is equally male and female and there is agreement to enhance the Canada Pension Plan. On Sunday, Trudeau will become the first prime minister to march in Toronto's Pride parade.

The words to the national anthem will likely soon be changed.A desire to re-engage in international peacekeeping, that old Canadian idea, has been expressed.

And a year from now, regardless of marijuana's availability, Trudeau willpreside over thesesquicentennial, a celebration that will apparently be based around themes of as listed by the department ofCanadian heritage "diversity and inclusion, reconciliation from nation to nation with Indigenous people, the environment and youth."

The "history war" between Liberals and Conservatives has been called "pointless"and surely at its worst it can seem petty. We might all agree to at least not deny the existence of either the charter or the Queen. Both, on their best days, seem nice to have around.

But even if we might agree about certain principles or events, there would still surely be a debate about emphasis and significance and the lasting meaning of any particular development.

Patriotism might indeed be the last refuge of the scoundrel, but how best to define and express one's patriotism who we are and how we should be is the eternal debate of all nations.