The Vimy Trap by Ian McKay

Author:Ian McKay
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Between the Lines

8

VIMY: THE EMERGING MYTH

Yeah, yeah. Vimy-fucking-Ridge. I was there. “Birth of a Nation” they called it on TV, but I didn’t see nobody being born, just a lot of people dying so we could sit there on top of another shithole of mud with Captain Rutherford pushing for that DSO or the MC or the YMCA with Triangles … just give him a fucking medal, will ya?

— DAVID FENNARIO, Bolsheviki: A Dead Serious Comedy

By the second decade of the twenty-first century, Vimy had become Canada’s national fable. Particularly under the reign of the Harper Conservatives, through carefully selected words and images, the Canadian state worked overtime to re-enchant Canadians about the war—to encourage us to remember it as a time of gallant mounted cavalrymen, determined macho generals, submissive women, and undivided national purpose: the “Canada” that “shared in the triumph and tragedy of the Western Front” is not so much a complicated modern country as a heroic person in her (or his?) own right, as solid and real and alive as a newborn babe. And not just the state: a glance through what is known as “civil society” will turn up many of the same themes, in part orchestrated by the state and in part an element of a much broader resurgence of conservative values and ideals.

The federal government’s citizenship guide’s now-inevitable quotation from Brig.-Gen. Ross about “Canada from the Atlantic to the Pacific on parade” figures on the web pages advertising “1914 Honour” and “1914 Valour,” both wines from the Diamond Estates Winery. Meanwhile, the Canadian Legion markets a full line of “Vimy 1917—Birth of a Nation” merchandise. The Vimy Commemorative T-Shirt, “made from 100% pre-shrunk 10 ounce cotton and durably printed,” can be had for $17.95 ($21.95 if you happen to be a somewhat larger Vimyist). A commemorative lapel pin can be yours for $6.95. The Vimy Ball Cap, “aussi disponible en français,” is available for just $13.95. The Vimy Car Magnet can be attained for $4.95. The online Legion catalogue also includes an interpretation of both the battle and the monument. The battle, the “impossible victory at Vimy Ridge,” was an “overwhelming success,” while the monument—with its allegorical figures now imagined to stand for Canadian soldiers—stands in tribute to their martial valour and the “principles they gave up their lives for.”1

Strangely enough, the most authoritative words come from Don Cherry, the “Prime Minister of Saturday Night,” the flamboyant clown who once finished first in a National Post poll that asked Canadians “to name the country’s leading public intellectual.”2 Cherry gives voice, it seems, to a down-to-earth nationalism that appeals to many. “Truck drivers give me the thumbs up. The professors and the guys who drink Perrier water and white wine don’t like me. I don’t care about them.” For Cherry’s vast following, here stands a man unafraid to affirm the values of a “moral Canadian nation.” Along with the war in Afghanistan, which he unequivocally supported, Cherry has repeatedly emphasized Vimy Ridge—the “birth of a nation”—and on

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