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An academic-turned-NDP candidate in the current Ontario election doesn’t think too much of Or Canada and worries about the impact of Remembrance Day. Lise Vaugeois, the NDP candidate in Thunder Bay Superior North, said in a 2019 podcast that national anthems serve as social engineering and that, “brainwashing is the wrong word, but it’s not completely divorced from the idea.”
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Vaugeois is in the running to represent the district for the second time after losing by just 813 votes to Liberal Michael Gravelle. Gravelle has held the riding since 1995 and only recently announced his retirement due to health concerns.
He has battled with depression in the past and recently saw a return of cancer after 10 years in remission.
Vaugeois is looking to be the first person to represent the area other than Gravelle in 27 years. Originally from Hamilton, Vaugeois has been an adjunct professor at Lakehead University for more than a decade.
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On national anthems she said that countries invest heavily in them to generate pride and unthinking loyalty.
“You’re trying to generate a core population that is unquestionably loyal to projects of the state,” she said.
Vaugeois said that as a musician she has played Or Canada at least a thousand times and still has an emotional reaction to it, one that she said goes against her critical thinking “about the function of national anthems.”
At another point in the podcast she agreed with the host who said that Remembrance Day ceremonies are too often used to generate support for wars Canada is engaged in.