Context: The Confederation Report
Host: Steven R. Martins
Language: English
This is The Confederation Report, a weekly analysis of Canadian news and culture from a Biblical worldview.
Part I: The Confederation of Canada (00:05-05:25)
The true vision of Confederation was the forging of a Christian nation—deliberately united under God, grounded in biblical truth, ordered liberty, and the providential calling of its people.
Part II: The Peace Tower (05:25-10:02)
The Peace Tower stands as a stone witness to a forgotten truth: Canada was founded under the sovereign rule of God, with Scripture etched into its very walls—declaring Christ’s dominion from sea to sea—yet that vision has been traded for the false gospel of self-rule; and unless we repent and return to the Lord, no political effort will restore what only the gospel can renew.
Part III: The Biblical Foundation of the West (10:02-14:05)
The moral foundation of Western civilization—and of Canada—is not the product of secular humanism, but of Scripture, whose vision of law, justice, and human dignity shaped our freedoms, institutions, and sense of right and wrong; to forget this heritage is not progress, but cultural amnesia, and our only hope lies in recovering the truth that made us free.
Did You Know? (14:05-15:33)
Though officially adopted in 1965, Canada’s maple leaf flag reflects a much older patriotic symbol—one that long stirred national pride on battlefields, coins, and hockey jerseys—uniting Canadians under a shared identity well before it flew atop Parliament.
Recommended Reading (15:33-16:15)
The Mission of God by Dr. Joe Boot is a bold and timely call for Christians to recover a comprehensive biblical worldview—one that confronts cultural decline with the truth of Christ’s Lordship and the power of covenantal living in every sphere of life.
Transcript:
It’s Week 27 of 2025, and this is The Confederation Report, a weekly analysis of Canadian news and culture from a biblical worldview. My name is Steven R. Martins, Director of the Cántaro Institute, and each week we provide a Christian perspective on the headlines, critically engage secular narratives, and apply biblical truth to the cultural and societal issues of our time. Because Christ is Lord—over Canada, over culture, over all of life.
Part I: The Confederation of Canada
We recently celebrated Canada Day on July 1st. It’s a day of patriotic remembrance and celebration of our country. But if we’re honest, what are we celebrating? Are we not just a post-nation state according to Justin Trudeau? The original vision of Canada is not what we have today. Canada is a divided country—run by woke progressives, shaped by secular humanists, and, according to our so-called philosopher kings, built upon a shameful legacy. But I, for one, refuse to play along with the new invented narrative and the historical revisionists. I choose to look back—to think back—to what the original vision for our country was: the vision of the Fathers of our nation, the Fathers of Confederation, which, though it was an exercise in nation-building, was also inescapably religious in nature.
Let me explain, first, how Confederation came about:
The idea of uniting the British North American colonies was not something that was conceived overnight. Early conversations about political union had been circulating since the 1830s, inspired in part by Lord Durham’s report calling for the union of Upper and Lower Canada. That vision gradually matured over the years, and by the 1860s, political deadlock, economic uncertainty, and concerns over American aggression gave it new urgency. The colonies of Canada West (now Ontario) and Canada East (now Quebec) were governed together under one legislature, but religious and cultural tensions—particularly between English Protestants and French Catholics—created endless gridlock. Confederation was seen as a way to resolve that by granting each region its own legislature, while still creating a unified country.
At the same time, external threats pushed the colonies closer together. The American Civil War had left the United States with a massive army and expansionist ambitions. Fears of annexation were growing, especially after the U.S. purchased Alaska in 1867 and cancelled its trade treaty with the colonies. Britain, weary of defending its North American holdings, saw Confederation as a dignified way to offload its responsibilities. For the colonies, union meant not just mutual defense and economic opportunity, but the chance to forge a nation that would secure their future. This was not a revolution as seen in the formation of the United States, but a deliberate, carefully negotiated act—built on shared values, biblical convictions, and a belief in the providential unfolding of history.
That act culminated in the Charlottetown and Quebec Conferences, where delegates laid out the foundation for Canada in the form of 72 Resolutions. These included a federal structure that divided powers between the provinces and the central government, an elected House of Commons based on population, and a Senate with equal representation from each region. While Sir John A. Macdonald championed a strong central government, George-Étienne Cartier ensured protections for provincial identity, especially for French Catholics. Even financial commitments, like building the Intercolonial Railway, were part of the grand vision to bind the country together in communication, defense, and commerce. Despite initial resistance from some Atlantic colonies, Confederation was secured through a mix of conviction, compromise, and necessity.
Now, how was this great achievement religious in nature? Well, for starters, the Fathers of Confederation did not envision a secular, fragmented, or morally “neutral” Canada. Religious neutrality is a myth, it always has been. No, their worldview was steeped in Christian thought, and the very motto they chose—A Mari Usque Ad Mare (from sea to sea)—was drawn directly from Psalm 72. This was to be a dominion under God. Though our history certainly has its flaws, the intent behind Confederation was the creation of a unified, self-governing Christian nation. Today, we are told to be ashamed of that foundation. But the real shame would be to forget it, the vision of the Fathers of our nation.
Part II: The Peace Tower
Little do Canadians know that the Peace Tower, rising from the centre of Canada’s Parliament buildings, stands not merely as a symbol of national unity, but as a declaration of the vision of our founding fathers of God’s sovereignty over our nation. Inscribed on its walls is Psalm 72:8—“He shall have dominion from sea to sea”—the very verse that gave rise to the name The Dominion of Canada. This biblical passage, though imminently (historically) referring to the first temple era of Jerusalem, points transcendently (prophetically) to the promised Messiah whose reign and rule would extend to all the nations. Psalm 72:8 is a vision of a global kingdom marked by peace, righteousness, and the Lord’s dominion, from the River to the ends of the earth.
This conviction—of God’s rule over Canada—was once publicly acknowledged in our national life. July 1st was originally known as Dominion Day, a day set aside to recognize God’s sovereignty over the land and its people. That changed in 1983, when Parliament quietly passed a private member’s bill to rename it Canada Day, with only a handful of members present. It was a symbolic act in a larger movement of de-Christianization: a conscious effort to replace the sovereignty of God with the sovereignty of man. The Charter, and the laws that would follow—permitting abortion, redefining marriage—reflected this shift: not toward neutrality, but toward radical autonomy. Dr. Michael Wagner documents this shift, particularly in relation to the Charter, which replaced the Christian character of the previous Bill of Rights, in his book Leaving God Behind.
Alongside the passage of Psalm 72:8, the Peace Tower bears two other passages: Psalm 72:1 and Proverbs 29:18. “Give the king your justice, O God” is a cry for righteous rule—fulfilled not in any human monarch, but in the Messiah. And “Where there is no vision, the people perish” stands as a warning to any nation that forsakes God’s law. The Fathers of Confederation had a vision for Canada—one shaped by Scripture, rooted in God’s instruction, and oriented toward national flourishing under His rule. They saw in God’s Word not just private counsel, but public wisdom for the ordering of society. Consider that there was once a Lord’s Day Act in our national history. And that Members of Parliament and Senators once cited Scripture. The Canada of today is not even a faint shadow of what it was before.
That biblical vision has been cast off. In its place stands a new creed—secular humanism—whether dressed in political language or cloaked in religious garb. Its gospel is self-determination, its morality is self-made, and its end is self-destruction. It is a worldview that denies the very foundation upon which Canada was built. And in denying God, it denies the possibility of true justice, true freedom, and true peace.
Yet the Peace Tower still stands this day. It stands as a testament of a time when our nation acknowledged a higher throne than Parliament’s. Even higher than the King of Canada. It calls Canadians—pastors, politicians, and people alike—to remember that Christ is King. And for all those who desire to see a Christian Canada again, greater than it was before, we must remember that the path to national renewal is not through nostalgia, nor through political maneuvering, but through repentance and a return to the Lord. For blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. In other words, the means of Christianizing our country is by no other means but by the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Part III: The Biblical Foundation of the West
To those who deny the Christian heritage of Western culture, and of Canada in particular, history speaks otherwise. The influence of Scripture on the development of law, government, morality, and culture is not a matter of mere speculation, but of historical record. Contrary to the claims of historical revisionists, it is not secular humanism that birthed the moral architecture of the West, but the Bible—its truth, its justice, and its vision of mankind made in the image of God. In denying this, Western societies have effectively cut off the very root that gave rise to their freedoms, rights, and sense of human dignity.
The examples are manifold. The rule of law in the West—constitutionalism, the concept of a binding and written legal standard above rulers and subjects alike—traces back not to Roman custom, but to the Mosaic covenant. As Vishal Mangalwadi noted, from Alfred the Great to the Magna Carta, biblical law informed the development of British common law and, by extension, Canadian jurisprudence. Likewise, human rights as we understand them today did not emerge from evolutionary progress or Enlightenment rationalism, but from a Christian understanding of the dignity and worth of the human person, created in God’s image. Even Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms begins with an acknowledgment of “the supremacy of God and the rule of law”—a vestige of the biblical worldview.
This heritage also animated figures like William Wilberforce, who, in confronting the evils of the slave trade, did so not on the basis of abstract philosophy, but on the clear light of Holy Scripture. He understood slavery to be a national sin and called on his nation to repent—not because of public opinion or party politics, but because of divine justice. Likewise, Michael Nazir-Ali rightly observed that even agnostic philosophers have admitted that inherent human dignity is unintelligible apart from the Judeo-Christian vision. It was Scripture, not sentiment, that established the moral grounds for abolition, human rights, and the intrinsic value of every life.
The same can be said of healthcare and compassion for the weak. Long before public hospitals or international NGOs, it was the early Christians—armed with nothing but faith in Christ and the promise of resurrection—who cared for the sick during plagues, clothed the poor, and served the outcast. They did so not because it was efficient or advantageous, but because they believed that in serving the least of these, they were serving Christ Himself. This ethic, born from the Gospels, eventually shaped the medical institutions and charitable models now taken for granted in the West.
To acknowledge these things is not to ignore the failures of the church through history. Indeed, Christians must be the first to confess that sin, including the lust for power and dominance, has tainted the legacy of Christendom. But the solution is not to sever ourselves from Scripture, but to reform ourselves according to it. Where the Word has been obeyed, freedom has flourished; where it has been rejected, tyranny and confusion have followed. The decline of Christian faith in public life has not led to moral neutrality but to moral disorder. Our hope, if there is to be one, is not in erasing the Bible from our national memory, but in recovering it—humbly, faithfully, and unashamedly.
Did You Know?
Canada’s iconic red-and-white flag, emblazoned with a single maple leaf, wasn’t always our national symbol. In fact, it wasn’t adopted until February 15, 1965, following months of heated parliamentary debate. Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson had long advocated for a uniquely Canadian flag, proposing one with three red maple leaves and blue bars—dubbed the “Pearson Pennant.” But the design that ultimately won unanimous approval came from historian George Stanley, who based it on the Royal Military College’s flag: a solitary red maple leaf flanked by red bars on a white field.
The maple leaf, however, had already been a beloved symbol of Canadian identity for over a century. It appeared on military badges during both World Wars, graced Olympic uniforms as early as 1908, and even featured on hockey jerseys and Canadian coinage. Though our veterans didn’t fight under the modern maple leaf flag, the symbol itself has long stirred patriotic pride. By the time of Expo 67, the International and Universal Exposition held in Montreal, Quebec as part of Canada’s centennial celebrations, which was about two years since the flag’s official adoption, the maple leaf had already become inseparable from the Canadian identity.
Recommended Resource
This week’s recommended resource is The Mission of God by Dr. Joe Boot. Now in its expanded tenth-anniversary edition, this landmark work in theological apologetics and cultural philosophy offers a compelling and comprehensive vision of the Christian’s calling in every sphere of life. Dr. Boot tackles the pressing questions of our age—concerning the kingdom of God, church and state, public morality, and cultural transformation—arguing persuasively for a robust, biblical worldview rooted in the Lordship of Christ. As the West confronts a civilizational crisis, The Mission of God is an urgent call for Christians to engage culture with clarity, courage, and covenantal conviction. Available through major online retailers.
Closing Words
Thanks for listening to The Confederation Report, this podcast is brought to you by the Cántaro Institute. Visit our website at cantaroinstitute.org for more information. For books to read on worldview, philosophy, and theology, visit our store at cantaroinstitute.store
We’ll meet again next week.
Documentation & Additional Reading
The Canadian Encyclopedia (P. B. Waite)
Confederation
The Epoch Times (Chandra Philip)
How the Maple Leaf Became the Symbol of Canada