The Garden of American Heroes - and the Garden of Canadian Heroes

The text of President Trump’s order to create a National Garden of American Heroes is now available online.

These are clearly to be new statues, not just a place to move statues that are now being pulled down. Some figures to be memorialized are actually named:

John Adams,
Susan B. Anthony,
Clara Barton,
Daniel Boone,
Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain,
Henry Clay,
Davy Crockett,
Frederick Douglass,
Amelia Earhart,
Benjamin Franklin,
Billy Graham,
Alexander Hamilton,
Thomas Jefferson,
Martin Luther King, Jr.,
Abraham Lincoln,
Douglas MacArthur,
Dolley Madison,
James Madison,
Christa McAuliffe,
Audie Murphy,
George S. Patton, Jr.,
Ronald Reagan,
Jackie Robinson,
Betsy Ross,
Antonin Scalia,
Harriet Beecher Stowe,
Harriet Tubman,
Booker T. Washington,
George Washington,
Orville and Wilbur Wright.

“The statue or work of art shall be a lifelike or realistic representation of that person, not an abstract or modernist representation.”

“The National Garden should be located on a site of natural beauty that enables visitors to enjoy nature, walk among the statues, and be inspired to learn about great figures of America’s history. The site should be proximate to at least one major population center.”

And the idea is to have it ready for opening for the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Brilliant stuff. It is tempting to suggest other figures for the park, but I have a better and more pressing idea.

Canada, far more than the United States, needs something like this. We need a sculpture park of Canadian heroes to fight not just the current hysteria of statue-tipping, but the longer-term corrosive effects of multiculturalism. We need it to establish a sense of our national identity.

I know the prefect location, too: Gananoque, Ontario. That puts it equidistant from Montreal, Toronto, and Ottawa, the capital and Canada’s two largest cities. It would be easily accessible by ebike paths from each. Gananoque is already a tourist destination, the “Canadian Gateway to the Thousand Islands,” so it has the infrastructure. And the natural scenery is both magnificent and characteristically Canadian, a spur of the Canadian Shield.

Now the best part: coming up with a lots of figures to be commemorated.

Here are the ones that immediately come to mind:

Leif Erikson
Jacques Cartier
Samuel de Champlain
John Cabot
Dollard des Ormeaux
Madeleine de Vercheres
Tecumseh
Joseph Brant
Molly Brant
Jean de Brebeuf
Frontenac
Radisson and Groseilleirs
Joseph Montferrand
Wolfe and Montcalm
Guy Carleton
Isaac Brock

Pierre d'Iberville
Laura Secord
Baldwin and Lafontaine
Joseph Howe
Georges Cartier
Sir John A. Macdonald
Thomas D'Arcy McGee
Sam Steele
Arthur Currie
Billy Bishop
Bill Barker
Raymond Collishaw
Tommy Douglas
Joey Smallwood
Leonard Cohen
Alexander Graham Bell
Stephen Leacock
Lucy Maud Montgomery
Robert W. Service
Wilfrid Laurier
Jeanne Mance 

Thomas Chandler Haliburton
Alexander Mackenzie (the explorer)
Louis Hebert
David Thompson
George Vancouver
Pierre Trudeau
Maurice Richard
Sir Charles Tupper
Margeuerite de Bourgeoys
Etienne Brule
Membertou
La Salle
Andre Bessette
Kateri Tekakwitha
Pauline Johnson
Donnacona
Timothy Eaton
Laval
Louis Jolliet
Simon Fraser
Tom Thompson
Isaac Jogues
Gabrielle Roy 

Shanawdithit

Tom Longboat
Henry Hudson
Lord Franklin
Terry Fox
De Salaberry
Roberval
Pierre Berton
Marshall McLuhan
Oscar Peterson
Banting and Best
Gord Downie 

Stan Rogers

Lionel Conacher

Gordie Howe
La Bolduc
J.A. Bombardier
Samuel Cunard
Punch Dickens
Albert Lacombe
Wop May

Howie Morenz
Francis Pegahmagabow
Wilder Penfield
Hans Selye
Ernest Thompson Seton
Georges Vanier

Come to think of it, Canada just has many heroes. We ought to honour them.

Some names not on the list: Louis Riel, William Lyon Mackenzie, Louis-Joseph Papineau. I’m excluding figures who did not help to build Canada, but tried to tear it down. Those still living are also excluded.