Canada trots toward national horse

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Published: March 7, 2002

In principle at least, Canada’s Parliament has decided to recognize a

new national symbol – the Canadien horse.

In British Columbia and other points outside of Quebec, that would be

the Canadian horse.

“As a national symbol, it is important that it be known in the two

official languages,” said Roxanne Salinas, a Canadian horse enthusiast

from Mission, B.C.

Salinas and husband Martin Godfrey have owned two Canadians since 2000,

one bought in Quebec and the other in British Columbia.

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“The breed really did play an important role in the history of Canada,”

she said. “A lot of Canadians don’t know their history.”

On Feb. 18, MPs voted to approve in principle a bill already approved

in the Senate and sponsored in the House of Commons by Ontario Liberal

MP Murray Calder. The issue now goes to the Commons heritage committee

for hearings.

The Bloc Québecois and a smattering of MPs from other parties opposed

the motion, which was approved 150 Ð 36.

The Bloc complained that Quebec already has named the Canadien its

official horse.

BQ MP Marcel Gagnon said in debate that the horse, introduced to New

France in 1647 from France’s royal stables, is Quebec’s symbol. Like

the Québecois, he added, it has always had to fight for recognition and

survival.

“We are not about to share this horse, which is part of our proud

heritage.”

Other critics had different complaints.

Saskatchewan Canadian Alliance MP Roy Bailey said he opposed the bill

because the Canadian horse had little to do with Western Canada and

therefore was not a national horse.

Prairie native people created their own breeds, usually from horses

brought in the 16th century by the Spanish, long before the Canadian

horse’s ancestors came from France.

“To enshrine this horse as an animal symbol of Canada is nothing short

of an insult, not to this breed of horse but to the natives of Western

Canada,” Bailey said.

Saskatchewan New Democrat Lorne Nystrom and several of his caucus

colleagues voted against the bill because it was first passed by the

Senate.

“It goes against the grain of a modern democracy to have legislation

originated in an unelected Senate brought before the Commons,” he said

in an interview.

But most MPs supported the motion.

And to answer Salinas’ point about Canadians not knowing their history,

anyone who read the account of the House debate or the earlier Senate

debates and Senate committee hearings will have had a crash course in

the role of the “the little iron horse” in Canada’s development. It was

a workhorse in Quebec and then across Canada. It carried settlers onto

the Prairies.

It was a favoured horse in the American civil war and suffered a heavy

toll. It carried troops in the War of 1812 and in the Boer War 90 years

later. Numbers peaked at 150,000 in the mid-1800s, but the breed almost

disappeared by the end of the century. Numbers rebounded in the early

20th century, but had dropped to fewer than 400 registered Canadian

horses by the late 1970s.

During the past two decades, the herd has grown into the thousands.

“Twice the Canadian horse almost came close to extinction,” Calder said.

“Twice it has rebounded, thanks to the dedication of breeders in all

parts of the country. I like to think it shows the resilience we have

as Canadians and as a country ….”

In Mission, Salinas was applauding. She said she has raised horses for

30 years and first heard about the breed in the 1970s, but did not take

an interest in its history until a few years ago.

“What really got me is that I’ve had horses all these years and I

didn’t even know about our own,” she said.

“Hopefully with this recognition, we will never come close again to

losing them.”

Meanwhile, her two Canadian horses, Julie and Kal, will continue to be

shown and used in charity and trail rides.

“They are great horses.”

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