A small group of women initially gathered in the early spring to consider how they might praise and celebrate Canada in a non-political, yet public and positive way. It’s been four months since they first made their presence known in and to the Kamloops community through an article in the Chronicle.
They call themselves ‘Women 4 Canada”, “linking elbows” in a cooperative and community-oriented way, not holding “elbows up” in a defensive and resistant posture. With elbows linked, they want to lift up Canadian values. What do people value about Canada, and what values do Canadians generally hold?
Women 4 Canada is grateful to the Farmers’ Market for enabling them to have a booth on the grounds of the Stuart Wood school for three Saturdays in the summer. Thanks too to the fellows who helped put up the canopy and banner.
They were also were present one afternoon at the Pop-Up Community Event held in the downtown library during July.
As well as a table covered with a cloth showing women linking elbows, they had a display board with the tagline, “Our Voices. Our Values. Our Canada.”
All those who stopped to chat were invited to write on a yellow sticky note naming a Canadian value each particularly appreciates, or what each values about Canada. In total, 140 individuals named their values and placed a sticky note on the display board.
The results of the yellow sticky canvas? The most popular values (ones associated with Canadian “niceness” like tolerance, empathy, compassion, kindness, welcoming, respect, honesty, courtesy, etc) garnered 30 stickies, followed by diversity with 16, outdoors and nature (camping, hiking, fishing, beautiful country, trees, waterfalls, lakes, wide open spaces, etc.) with 16, inclusivity with six, freedom with six, women’s rights and freedom of choice with five, First Nations and reconciliation with five, universal health care with four, peace with four, and human rights with three.
There were a number of values that garnered two votes, such as unity, biodiversity, democracy, food security, multiculturalism, opportunities. Many values were named once, like CBC, Toronto Maple Leafs, family, food, our flag, true north, friends, Air Canada, mosaic.
Though it is now hard to be outside and publicly visible during the coming winter months, Women 4 Canada is actively pursuing the possibility of a multi-media art show early in 2026, but details remain to be finalized.
Submitted by Dawne Taylor.