Claypool: It Was Never About The Fireworks

It’s nice to see Calgary’s city council quickly got its act together and scrapped city hall’s plan to end the yearly firework display on Canada Day. A victory for good sense and patriotism.

Apparently, according to the brain trusts who work down at city hall, fireworks are not inclusive or racist or whatever and shouldn’t be used to celebrate Canada Day anymore.

You could smell the absolute desperation from woke Calgary councilor Kourtney Penner who tried to preemptively head off attempts from the council to restrict the actions of the bureaucrats at city hall. Penner claimed that if Calgary city council voted to reverse the decision of city hall bureaucrats it would be “colonialism and racism.”

Good on Calgary Councilor Dan McLean who ignored the unhinged logic of Councilor Penner and organized to get nine other councilors on board to pass a motion reversing ending the fireworks, forcing the city to find a new location for the fireworks display on Canada Day this year. 

Some may try and claim “they’re just fireworks” and dismiss those of us for taking issue with a municipal government trying to restrict their use, but obviously, the real issue was not surrounding fireworks themselves.

It was noticeable that Mayor Jyoti Gondek did not vote in favour of the motion to bring back fireworks. No doubt her woke influence on City Hall is what encouraged the firework displays to end.

The actions of the mayor’s office and city hall managers had nothing to do with fireworks themselves and everything to do with the progressive’s aversion to patriotism.

This is why the justifications for ending the fireworks were littered with buzzwords like “anti-racism” “truth and reconciliation” and “colonialism.” Fireworks are obviously not disrespectful to Chinese or Indigenous Canadians like Councilor Penner tried to claim. If anything Penner was being racist for effectively trying to falsely use Chinese and indigenous Canadians as a scapegoat for ending the firework displays. 

Progressives like Penner’s true motivation is a belief Canada Day itself is a negative cultural force and that stopping the fireworks was a nice way to reduce the relevance of the day in the City of Calgary. They are basically like the anti-Canada Day version of the Grinch, hating the open and enthusiastic displaying of patriotic pride on Canada’s birthday.

It’s straight out of the Cultural Marxist/Critical Theory playbook. Criticize and dismantle every aspect of Canada’s Western culture in order to bring about an anti-western cultural revolution. Every one of Canada’s cultural traditions is intolerant and colonialist, and whoever disagrees is a racist and a bigot!

The woke left would like Canada Day transformed into a dour struggle session against the real or imagines sins of the country.

Well, Canadians are getting wise to the actions of the radical progressives games. We know this move to stop the fireworks was all about attacking Canadian patriotism and we reject the ridiculous scapegoating of minority groups to justify this Marxist attack on Canada Day. 

As someone who didn’t really pay much attention to fireworks on Canada Day, I will be enjoying myself capitally watching them get fired off this year. 

The woke members of Calgary’s city council can pack sand.