By François Laporte, President of Teamsters Canada
Canada is a remarkable country — a strong country. A country built to weather every kind of storm, and it has weathered many.
These are not easy times for workers. The world around us is uncertain, and our economy is being tested. But just look at everything this country has been through, from the Depression to a global pandemic. More importantly, look at everything we have built together.
We have some of the best labour laws in the world including strong health and safety legislation, paid parental leave, pensions and programs to help workers retire with dignity, and let’s not forget about free healthcare. None of it was handed to us on a silver platter, and none of it should be taken for granted. Keeping these gains depends on us sticking together.
I have spent my life watching workers prove the importance of unity. People from different provinces and regions, speaking different languages, coming from every walk of life, living and working together. On paper, they would have every reason to remain in their own corner.
Yet, when it matters, they find they have far more in common than anything that could pull them apart. A truck driver in Alberta and a dairy worker in Quebec may never meet, but they are in the same fight. That is the heart of solidarity, and the heart of this country.
That solidarity we show one another as workers is the same solidarity we owe one another as Canadians.
Canada is far from perfect. No country is. But it is a country worth believing in, worth working for, and worth holding together.
So this Canada Day, let’s celebrate with pride. Let’s not take for granted what the generations before us built. And let’s remember that whatever storms lie ahead, we will meet them the way we always have: together.
Happy Canada Day!
