Trudeau looks to remake Canada's symbols in his Liberal image
The Trudeau Liberals want to paint your passport Liberal red and remake our national symbols in their image

Author of the article:Brian Lilley
Published May 04, 2023 • Last updated 2 days ago • 3 minute read

Is Justin Trudeau about to paint your Canadian passport Liberal red?

It’s one of the changes the Trudeau government is considering including dropping images such as Canada’s National Vimy Memorial in France or the portrait of the Fathers of Confederation from the pages of your passport.

Over the past few days, my Postmedia colleague John Ivison has been detailing the push to drop some symbols in favour of others. In addition to looking at changing the passport, the Trudeau Liberals are also using the coronation of King Charles III to unilaterally change Canada’s coat of arms.

The new design of the national coat of arms, which adorns the front of your passport, hasn’t been revealed yet. Ivison, though, has spoken to people who have seen the design and they tell him that it “replaces all Christian and religious symbols (crosses and fleur-de-lis) with maple leafs, snowflakes and stars.”

Have you heard that the government was looking to change so many national symbols at once? Have you been contacted by the government as part of a public consultation?

The current coat of arms has been in use since 1957 and was updated in the 1990s by the Chretien government to include the motto of the Order of Canada — Desiderantes Meliorem Patriam, ‘desiring a better country.’ The current coat of arms also includes the national motto, A Mari Usque Ad Mare, which is a biblical passage from Psalm 72:8 meaning ‘from sea to sea.’

If all religious symbols are being dropped, will that now be done away with? Will it be changed to the clumsier from sea, to sea, to sea, as some have called for?

What about the two crowns currently on the coat of arms? Both crowns have crosses on the top of them, does that mean they are removed as well?

Part of the impetus for changing the coat of arms was the decision by King Charles to use the Tudor cross atop his crown instead of the St. Edward cross that his late mother favoured. Will the Trudeau government simply eliminate the crowns all together to ensure there are no religious symbols?

It would seem these are questions Canadians should have answers to and should have some input on. It shouldn’t be up to the government of the day to change our national symbols to suit their needs or desires.

There are still a great many Canadians who feel that way about the national flag. Love it as I might, it shouldn’t be lost on anyone that Lester Pearson’s Liberal government adopted a flag that matched his party’s colours. After generations of Canada being represented with red, white and blue, the Liberals ensured their new flag in 1965 only featured red and white, just their party logo.

And now, the Liberals are at it again with changes to the coat of arms and passport. By the way, one of the proposed changes is switching the passport from the dark blue, almost black colour that it has been for decades to, you guessed it, Liberal red.

It’s utterly shameless that they would even consider this.

Critics will say the Conservatives did the same when they were in power, I’d argue they didn’t. While the passport changes they brought in did feature images of the military and Canada’s history, they also included images of Terry Fox, Nellie McClung, Pier 21, Niagara Falls, Quebec City, a Prairies wheat field, and the Bluenose.

The symbols of Canada belong to all Canadians, not to the Liberal Party who view themselves as Canada’s natural governing party.

If major symbols are going to be changed, the people should be consulted, not just the people who vote for, support and donate to Justin Trudeau and his Liberal Party.

blilley@postmedia.com