Happy Canada Day!

St. Norbert-Seine River

It’s a strange time to be a Winnipegger.

For most of my life, the U.S. border — just an hour south of the city — felt like a friendly gateway. We crossed it for cheap gas, weekend shopping, or a Twins game in Minneapolis. The Red River Trails, those old ox cart routes from the 1820s, once connected us to St. Paul for trade and survival. That cross-border history runs deep. But lately, that relationship has felt less like neighbourly exchange and more like a threat.

Since early 2025, the rhetoric from the south has been impossible to ignore. The notion that Canada could be absorbed as a “51st state” isn’t a political hyperbole anymore — it’s a direct challenge to our sovereignty. And in Winnipeg, we feel that pressure viscerally. We’re a prairie city, tied historically and economically to the continent, but we’re also stubbornly, proudly Canadians.

You can see it in the streets. Over the past year, that pride has burst into plain view. At a community centre on Corydon Avenue, people lined up for a Canadian flag giveaway, flags flying off the table within minutes . Everything that’s happening south of the border, it’s very, very concerning … so as Canadians, we have to come together and push back.

In St. Boniface, residents turned their apartment balconies into a patriotic statement — over 60 flags fluttering from one building alone. Their message was unambiguous: “We are Canadian. This is Canada. This is not the 51st State, and it never will be.” It’s a stunning display of unity in a city that often minds its own business. But when your sovereignty is questioned, you find your voice.

This surge in patriotism isn’t just about waving a flag. It’s about economic resistance. You see it in the boycotts, the sudden reluctance to travel south, the conscious choice to buy local and support Canadian businesses. It’s a quiet, determined act of defiance.

So, what does patriotism look like in Winnipeg right now? It’s not chest-thumping. It’s a quiet, steel-eyed resolve. It’s displaying the Maple Leaf, supporting our neighbours, and remembering that our sovereignty is not for sale. As Coun. John Orlikow (River Heights-Fort Garry) put it during that flag giveaway, “Don’t find ways to divide each other, find ways we get together. That is the Canadian way.”

It feels like we’re all realizing that being Canadian is a choice we have to keep making — and in the face of these threats, we’re making it louder than ever. Happy July 1 – its our day!