This morning I went running through the icy streets of Montreal. An SUV slowly drove past me pasted with bumper stickers--colleges, politics, candidates, faith, country. The car was a kind of Identity Calling-Card: THIS is who I am. I looked at the license plate; the SUV was up from the States. Somehow I already knew.
You don't see much of that up here. Cars aren't used that often as personal billboards. What's that about? As I ran, I got to thinking--when I wasn't focused on avoiding icy patches that had me cursing the lousy road maintenance--about how Canadians tend to be less forward about their markers of identity. They have them but they're more subdued about it, less fervent. When someone wears a Georgia Bulldogs t-shirt in the States, it means a whole lot more than someone wearing a U of T t-shirt up here. The Bulldogs are a brand; U of T is a University. Learning goes on at the University of Georgia too, but that's not the big sell. The big sell is you're now part of a community, a club, a cult. And that belonging defines you...
And so does that Obama/Biden sticker on the bumper, and the Support Our Troops sticker and the Sierra Club decal. Despite the tarnish of the last eight years on the U.S. image, Americans are essentially proud of who they are, and they proclaim it. An accrual of affilations & associations and beliefs brand me as this, and not that, especially those affiliations that brand me as a winner. I remember how proud I was to be from Massachusetts when Nixon was impeached--the bumper stick everyone stuck on their cars then was a picture of Massachusetts with the words "We Told You So" across it; after all, we were the only State in the Union that hadn't voted for Nixon and we sure as hell wanted the rest of the country to know.
In Canada, something quite different goes on. I confess I don't think I've figured this one out yet. It's not new to say Canadians are not nearly as patriotic as Americans, or should I say not nearly as in your face about their national pride (or their University pride, for that matter). Canadian flags are around, but they don't appear around every street corner, and Canadians rarely inquire about where you went to University as a way to get a handle on who you are. Perhaps in the emerging multi-culturalism of contemporary Canada, having multiple facets to one's identity is a given, so there's no need to state them. There's not a lot of bluster because it's just not a big deal.
A couple of quick hypotheses about the difference:
1) Branding/marketing is more a part of the American fabric than it is in Canada. Branding oneself is a recent phenomenon, created in the States, and Canadians lag behind.
2) University sports are a minor presence in Canada and that opportunity for identity is much less compelling here...might that carry over into other realms of identity as well?
2) The quickie elections of the parliamentary system don't leave much time for the kind of rich creative ads of the political horse races that happen in the States. Canadians seem amateurish in their political marketing skills (and I'm not sure that's a bad thing), so getting caught up in one's political identity isn't nearly as strong...and perhaps, like university identity, that carries over into other realms of identity.
4) Finally, perhaps Canadians wear their identities with less flamboyance because they're conflict-averse. Identity is, as much as anything, about difference. And though Canada has worked admirably hard to celebrate/appreciate difference, there is always a current of danger lying just below the surface of significant difference. (The one place that significance difference is most provocative is, of course, around Quebec identity. It has always struck me that whenever I see the Fleur des Lis being waved at a seperatist/sovereigntist--choose your terminology--event, the energy feels familiar, like good ole American flag-waving.)
Friday, December 26, 2008
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Culture & Climate
Snow. Lots of it. This afternoon, during the storm, we shovelled our roof than jumped off into the piles below. My brother-in-law visiting from France and his kids joined in. Except for the children's shouts as they jumped, the neighbourhood was quiet (and even the shouts were muffled by the snow). No cars were out and about. It was a Canadian day.
If no work has been done to look at the relationship of culture and climate, it ought to happen and Canada would be a great field site. Snow and winter are as much metaphor as meteorological phenomenon. What do snowstorms do to us? We get clobbered, slammed, buried. The cold creeps in and stays, uninvited. The tires spin, cars slide into ditches, the woodsmoke rises to make the house a home. Canadians share this--Whistler to Winterpeg to the waters off Newfoundland. It is a kind of community only the cold can build. A car in the ditch is everybody's car. The home without power has invitations to come over. When it's twenty below and the snow's gathering, everyone's potential family...
When I had work to do in Phoenix this past August, the temperature was 113 F when I stepped off the plane. Of all the world's cities with a population greater than a million, Phoenix is the hottest, hotter than Cairo, than Mexico City, than Calcutta. I asked the people I was working with what's crazier, spending winter in Canada or summer in Phoenix? They replied, winter in Canada--after all, you don't have to shovel sunshine. Exactly, you don't and you can't. There's nothing that needs doing when its 113 F other than finding an air conditioned space perhaps. Winter though? Winter requires a mess of doing.
And all that doing is most easily accomplished if you work together. What do we do in the cold? We huddle together...(both literally in the hundred miles closest to the U.S. border and symbolically whenever the evening weather report shows another arctic air mass blanketing the country.) Perhaps it's no wonder many of the northern countries are socialist in their political leanings--we know individualism is nothing more than fool's gold when the mercury drops.
If no work has been done to look at the relationship of culture and climate, it ought to happen and Canada would be a great field site. Snow and winter are as much metaphor as meteorological phenomenon. What do snowstorms do to us? We get clobbered, slammed, buried. The cold creeps in and stays, uninvited. The tires spin, cars slide into ditches, the woodsmoke rises to make the house a home. Canadians share this--Whistler to Winterpeg to the waters off Newfoundland. It is a kind of community only the cold can build. A car in the ditch is everybody's car. The home without power has invitations to come over. When it's twenty below and the snow's gathering, everyone's potential family...
When I had work to do in Phoenix this past August, the temperature was 113 F when I stepped off the plane. Of all the world's cities with a population greater than a million, Phoenix is the hottest, hotter than Cairo, than Mexico City, than Calcutta. I asked the people I was working with what's crazier, spending winter in Canada or summer in Phoenix? They replied, winter in Canada--after all, you don't have to shovel sunshine. Exactly, you don't and you can't. There's nothing that needs doing when its 113 F other than finding an air conditioned space perhaps. Winter though? Winter requires a mess of doing.
And all that doing is most easily accomplished if you work together. What do we do in the cold? We huddle together...(both literally in the hundred miles closest to the U.S. border and symbolically whenever the evening weather report shows another arctic air mass blanketing the country.) Perhaps it's no wonder many of the northern countries are socialist in their political leanings--we know individualism is nothing more than fool's gold when the mercury drops.
Friday, December 19, 2008
Canada's Surprising Obsession
When George W. Bush was first elected, a race began that only Canadians were participating in. I was shocked to learn of the race's existence. I didn't know when, or how, it had begun, only that Canadians seemed to be taking it very seriously.
The race was to become the first foreign head of state to meet the new President in his official capacity. Apparently, Canadians considered it their birthright--the Canadian P.M. should always be first to shake hands with the new Prez. Vincente Fox, President of Mexico, seemed to have the inside track however, and Canada was thrown into a panic.
What was all this about? Canada seemed, to me, to have the emotional maturity, as a nation, of a pre-teenager who wants to be assured that daddy loves you best. Call it insecurity, sycophancy, or low self-esteem, it was unbecoming, if not downright embarrassing.
In that moment though, I caught a glimpse into the whole strange relationship between the two nations. Canada, a country I consider deeply worth emulating and that is more than a fine model for others, does not sufficiently value itself in its relationship with the States. It doesn't see itself as an equal. Apparently, from years of hearing the standard American chest-thumping--we're the greatest country in the world, we're number one, etc.--Canada had come to believe it true. And, since so much of the Canadian economy depends on the U.S., who are Canadians to disagree with America's claim to greatness?
Of course, Canada doesn't so much need to disagree, as to be able to see, name and proclaim its own greatness. I can already hear the voices saying but it's not Canadian to proclaim. Okay, so forget the proclaiming. How about if Canada were simply to practice naming its greatness for itself? No need to chest-thump so the rest of the world can hear, just have a conversation up here, quietly among yourselves. It needs to be a permanent conversation, so quick are you to find excuses to put yourself down (more on that in a later post).
Finally, it would be nice if, after Obama's election, you all just mellowed out. So what if your PM is first, or isn't first? It's not the end of the world, or Canada. Obama has a lot on his plate, gang. He might not get to see your PM as fast as you'd like. I can't say whether Obama loves your or not, but rather than focusing there, why don't you focus on just plain old loving yourself, at least for a few weeks.
The race was to become the first foreign head of state to meet the new President in his official capacity. Apparently, Canadians considered it their birthright--the Canadian P.M. should always be first to shake hands with the new Prez. Vincente Fox, President of Mexico, seemed to have the inside track however, and Canada was thrown into a panic.
What was all this about? Canada seemed, to me, to have the emotional maturity, as a nation, of a pre-teenager who wants to be assured that daddy loves you best. Call it insecurity, sycophancy, or low self-esteem, it was unbecoming, if not downright embarrassing.
In that moment though, I caught a glimpse into the whole strange relationship between the two nations. Canada, a country I consider deeply worth emulating and that is more than a fine model for others, does not sufficiently value itself in its relationship with the States. It doesn't see itself as an equal. Apparently, from years of hearing the standard American chest-thumping--we're the greatest country in the world, we're number one, etc.--Canada had come to believe it true. And, since so much of the Canadian economy depends on the U.S., who are Canadians to disagree with America's claim to greatness?
Of course, Canada doesn't so much need to disagree, as to be able to see, name and proclaim its own greatness. I can already hear the voices saying but it's not Canadian to proclaim. Okay, so forget the proclaiming. How about if Canada were simply to practice naming its greatness for itself? No need to chest-thump so the rest of the world can hear, just have a conversation up here, quietly among yourselves. It needs to be a permanent conversation, so quick are you to find excuses to put yourself down (more on that in a later post).
Finally, it would be nice if, after Obama's election, you all just mellowed out. So what if your PM is first, or isn't first? It's not the end of the world, or Canada. Obama has a lot on his plate, gang. He might not get to see your PM as fast as you'd like. I can't say whether Obama loves your or not, but rather than focusing there, why don't you focus on just plain old loving yourself, at least for a few weeks.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Undoing Rove's Canadian Legacy
This History News Network featured an exchange between two history professors wondering if Obama should govern from the Centre or The Left (http://hnn.us/articles/58194.html). Listen to this passage about the beginning of George W. presidency:
When President Bush struck early, thinking big and broadly, one Democratic senator proposed minor changes to Bush’s controversial tax cuts. The senator promised that with those compromises, “I guarantee you’ll get seventy votes out of the Senate.” Rove replied, “We don’t want seventy votes. We want fifty-one.” This polarizing take-no-prisoners attitude alienated many and derailed Bush’s presidency.
The Rovian world view that everything is political and every chance to press one's political advantage must be acted on seems to resonate with the current Prime Minsiter. How might he move away from such a political orientation? Read this from the same exchange, only pop in the Canadian equivalent where necessary:
It starts with repudiating the George W. Bush-Karl Rove 50-percent-plus-one strategy of simply mobilizing enough partisans to ensure re-election. But it entails picking moderate, non-ideological advisers – as Obama has done so far. It entails reaching out symbolically and substantively to Republicans and more conservative Democrats – as Obama has done so far. And it entails singing a song of centrism while advancing constructive, bridge-building policies that are rooted in the ideas of one camp but acknowledge the concerns of the opposition.
Does Steven Harper have this within him? Prediction: sure, but it will be short-lived. If the coalition gets significant cracks in it or his poll numbers go through the roof, he'll soon return to his lesser nature.
When President Bush struck early, thinking big and broadly, one Democratic senator proposed minor changes to Bush’s controversial tax cuts. The senator promised that with those compromises, “I guarantee you’ll get seventy votes out of the Senate.” Rove replied, “We don’t want seventy votes. We want fifty-one.” This polarizing take-no-prisoners attitude alienated many and derailed Bush’s presidency.
The Rovian world view that everything is political and every chance to press one's political advantage must be acted on seems to resonate with the current Prime Minsiter. How might he move away from such a political orientation? Read this from the same exchange, only pop in the Canadian equivalent where necessary:
It starts with repudiating the George W. Bush-Karl Rove 50-percent-plus-one strategy of simply mobilizing enough partisans to ensure re-election. But it entails picking moderate, non-ideological advisers – as Obama has done so far. It entails reaching out symbolically and substantively to Republicans and more conservative Democrats – as Obama has done so far. And it entails singing a song of centrism while advancing constructive, bridge-building policies that are rooted in the ideas of one camp but acknowledge the concerns of the opposition.
Does Steven Harper have this within him? Prediction: sure, but it will be short-lived. If the coalition gets significant cracks in it or his poll numbers go through the roof, he'll soon return to his lesser nature.
Monday, December 15, 2008
The Shadow of Obama's Rhetoric
In that historic moment in Grant Park when Barack Obama was giving his first speech as the President–elect, the ugly shadow of American politics was being sustained. Who was sustaining it? Barack Obama. I doubt he did it knowingly. He is, we all sense, a man of deeply honorable intentions and considerable intellect. Sustaining that ugly shadow, while not his intention, has been an unavoidable consequence of his rhetoric. The shadow is rooted in America’s belief in its own greatness, in its sense of having a special destiny and purpose. And in playing to that, he is no different than those who have gone before.
Barack Obama’s soaring rhetoric, uplifting as it may be, is of the same stuff as Ronald Reagan’s Shining City on a Hill, which is the same stuff as Bush positioning his Iraq fiasco as a means for America to bring the winds of democracy throughout the mid-east. All are calling forth America’s greatness. Whether you are on the progressive left or the free market, socially conservative right, calling forth America’s greatness is de rigueur. And I hate to say it, but we Americans are suckers for such stuff. We are raised on it, along with our Wheaties and apple pie.
When you get past the core values of each man as an individual, Bush and Obama both invoke the core values and tropes provided by the American narrative. And those buttons can be pushed by politicians of any stripe. Yes, Obama will bring his own values and character to the office and that will indeed be very different from what went before, but he is not free from invoking what America most responds to; it is the politician’s bread and butter, and Obama invokes these themes with what I can only call gorgeous mastery. The U.S. can have an Obama for the exact same reason it can have a Bush. They are, in fact, flip sides of the same coin.
I almost regret saying all this, so enamored am I with Obama and what he means for the U.S. and the world. And yet, while my eyes welled with tears from his election, I am also saddened, I’ll even say scared, by what I perceive to be America’s deep and unending need to believe in its own special destiny. American politicians ignore that need at their peril. The unique status of America is so much a part of its self-understanding as a nation that all candidates, Obama included, must speak to it. Yet Obama, unlike any previous president, conveys, simply as a result of who he is, that by the fact of having elected me, you have confirmed your special uniqueness as a nation. As President-elect, he massages the deepest need of America to believe in itself as a nation above nations.
Unfortunately it is a need that can be harnessed for good or for ill. We know America can be a colossal force in either direction. Its arrogant overreaching in Iraq is only its most recent act for ill, sold as an enlightened America creating a beachhead for democracy in the Arab world. While there is no doubt that Barack Obama, who often invokes the language of America living up to its promise, will seek to institute policies and practices which will be both deeply humane and restorative, they will rest on the same troubling foundation as his predecessor. We are a nation with a unique destiny, therefore let us…
Who can say what will arise from invoking that belief? To get an Obama, you must be willing to get a George W. Bush. Feeding the addiction America has to its own self-image may provide some political advantage, but it is not a habit worth sustaining. When America has a President who can free it from its own narrative and write a new one that does not draw on its unique destiny, then the dangers from the America that the world has been living with these past eight years will not rise again. May Obama become that President.
Barack Obama’s soaring rhetoric, uplifting as it may be, is of the same stuff as Ronald Reagan’s Shining City on a Hill, which is the same stuff as Bush positioning his Iraq fiasco as a means for America to bring the winds of democracy throughout the mid-east. All are calling forth America’s greatness. Whether you are on the progressive left or the free market, socially conservative right, calling forth America’s greatness is de rigueur. And I hate to say it, but we Americans are suckers for such stuff. We are raised on it, along with our Wheaties and apple pie.
When you get past the core values of each man as an individual, Bush and Obama both invoke the core values and tropes provided by the American narrative. And those buttons can be pushed by politicians of any stripe. Yes, Obama will bring his own values and character to the office and that will indeed be very different from what went before, but he is not free from invoking what America most responds to; it is the politician’s bread and butter, and Obama invokes these themes with what I can only call gorgeous mastery. The U.S. can have an Obama for the exact same reason it can have a Bush. They are, in fact, flip sides of the same coin.
I almost regret saying all this, so enamored am I with Obama and what he means for the U.S. and the world. And yet, while my eyes welled with tears from his election, I am also saddened, I’ll even say scared, by what I perceive to be America’s deep and unending need to believe in its own special destiny. American politicians ignore that need at their peril. The unique status of America is so much a part of its self-understanding as a nation that all candidates, Obama included, must speak to it. Yet Obama, unlike any previous president, conveys, simply as a result of who he is, that by the fact of having elected me, you have confirmed your special uniqueness as a nation. As President-elect, he massages the deepest need of America to believe in itself as a nation above nations.
Unfortunately it is a need that can be harnessed for good or for ill. We know America can be a colossal force in either direction. Its arrogant overreaching in Iraq is only its most recent act for ill, sold as an enlightened America creating a beachhead for democracy in the Arab world. While there is no doubt that Barack Obama, who often invokes the language of America living up to its promise, will seek to institute policies and practices which will be both deeply humane and restorative, they will rest on the same troubling foundation as his predecessor. We are a nation with a unique destiny, therefore let us…
Who can say what will arise from invoking that belief? To get an Obama, you must be willing to get a George W. Bush. Feeding the addiction America has to its own self-image may provide some political advantage, but it is not a habit worth sustaining. When America has a President who can free it from its own narrative and write a new one that does not draw on its unique destiny, then the dangers from the America that the world has been living with these past eight years will not rise again. May Obama become that President.
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Celebrating Canada
As this blog is just starting out, I thought I'd include an old piece that gets at some of the things I appreciate about my chosen home and native land. It made the rounds of Canadian newspapers a few years ago:
American Reasons for Celebrating Canada Day
When I first moved up here a little over ten years ago, I was surprised to learn that Canada Day happens just before July 4th. I thought you wanted simply to beat us Americans to the punch. Canada Day might be a few days earlier, I thought, but hey, we’ll always do a celebration bigger and better than you. (Thinking like a true American, I was.) Well, after ten years, I’ve decided it’s time to fess up—I love this place. And this year, I’m finally going to focus on Canada Day. July 4th I’ll call up the family in the States to say hello, but the party will be on Canada Day. Here are twelve reasons why.
1) Your Electoral Process—At this time last year, the campaign for the U.S. Presidency was already under way. We Americans might be efficient at some things but election campaigns isn’t one of them. Canada, your warp-speed campaigns are a thing of beauty. It’s so short that the candidates can practically make a new promise every day, pollsters can go hog-wild, newspapers can add special campaign sections and then—boom!—it’s all over. We can get back to our regular lives. You may or may not like tomorrow’s results, but you gotta love the speed. Just like a good hockey game.
2) Your Healthcare System—My third child was born prematurely weighing 1 lb. 4 oz. I was so scared and confused that I went on-line to find communities of parents experiencing the same thing. The only topic parents from the U.S. could focus on was what their insurance covered and didn’t cover. Not Canadians. They wanted to talk about what mattered: prognosis, treatments, risks. Canada, I don’t know how much those 3 months in the hospital and four years of follow-up cost, but believe me, I am forever grateful. You can tax me as much as you want. I’ll never complain. I know I’ll never pay off how selflessly your medical system was there for us when we needed it. And I have a healthy five-year-old daughter to prove it.
3) The Gun Registry, Decriminalizing Marijuana, Approving Gay Marriages—First, let me come clean here and state my biases: I think it’s idiocy to lock people up for toking on a joint, a greater idiocy for allowing everybody who doesn’t toke to arm themselves to the hilt, and more than a bit foolish to approve only those committed relationships that have certain approved combinations of genitalia. That said, I’m not celebrating these because I think they’re particularly wise, effective or moral. Nope, I name these because—to paraphrase Dorothy—they let me know I’m not living in Kansas anymore. Could you imagine any of these taking root in Kansas? Not on your life Bubba. So Canada, go for it. It make you you.
4) Your Lakes And Rivers—If you haven’t been in them or on them, can you be Canadian? Your water is what brought me up here in the first place. You’ve got big untamed rivers swimming with hungry fish and vast empty lakes waiting for the wind to turn them into a froth of waves. Canada, your fresh water has spoiled me—how many times I’ve been able to paddle alone on a sky-blue lake without a cottage in sight. And heck, I was on a river trip where we didn’t see another soul for twenty-three days. That is the big lonesome. It’s beautiful, it’s empty and it’s calling you.
5) Your Government Ads—Let me get this straight: federal departments actually run ads on TV about their services and benefits? You must be joking! The first time I saw one I was so baffled I had to ask friends what I’d just seen. Clearly, these departments believe they’re part of the solution. I’m for any country that believes government has a positive contribution to make.
6) Your Bureaucrats—Living in Ottawa, I’ve come to know some of these people. Not what I expected. Some of these folks work awfully hard. Too hard, in fact. If truth be known, they’re workaholics. They’re a dedicated and conscientious lot. And why? I guess they think they have to live up the billing in those ads. These folks put in the honest 9 to 5 and then some. Any country would be only too happy to replace their Public Servants with Canada’s. Ok, I’ll admit they’re not perfect; after all, money has disappeared. But hey, wasn’t it one of the bureaucrats who blew the whistle on the lack of perfection in the first place.
7) Your Political Parties—“What,” you might ask in shock. “Are you crazed?” Probably, but that’s beside the point. It is simply because you have them. I grew up in an either-or world. Either Republicans or Democrats. Here you’ve got Either-Or-Or-Or-Or-Or (if I can include the Green Party). Now and then a third candidate shows up on the American stage, but everyone knows they’re going to be yanked off before too long. The truth is following political parties in the States is like living with nothing but a 100 years of Bruins-Rangers games. Up here, you’ve simply got more teams to watch. Keeps it interesting.
8) The Rockies—Maybe the summer traffic slows down in some of the parks a bit too much, but when the cause is people craning their necks to look at what the word “grandeur” was invented for, who can complain? And having to stop because an elk with antlers as wide as your rivers (see reason #4 ) has ambled into the road is nothing less than a moment of grace. Notice I’m not even talking about what you can see if you get out of your car and head into that immensity! A gift of beauty for all of us to enjoy.
9) Curling—I don’t have a clue when it comes to curling. Never saw men with brooms, the movie or the reality. I figure that any country that buries NBA news inside the sports section so it can lead with a curling story has to be in on some important secret. What finally won me over was when you made a national hero out of a woman curler who won the gold medal. Something in the way you then mourned her too-early death was heartbreaking even for me. Hockey might be your national sport, but something tells me your relationship with curling is about your national soul.
10) Quebec—It’s a place apart, isn’t it, in the very best sense of that phrase. Is it a distinct culture? You bet. I’m glad I’ve been a bit around it, married one of its daughters and am having my kids educated in its language. Let’s face it: English Canada’s more button-down propriety is nicely balanced by Quebec’s joie de vivre—good wine, good humour, and you can even light up a cigarette without being banished to the nether regions of Pluto. But what has me most appreciative isn’t just Quebec, it’s the number of Canadians I’ve met in outposts far from “the French fact” who want their children to be bilingual, who want to have an immersion program of some sort in their school system. It’s a kind of cultural appreciation that’s particularly touching when one comes from a land where Texans and New Yorkers live in separate, parallel universes.
11) Your Introspection—Ah Canada, what would you be without the questions you constantly ask yourself? Questions like “what exactly does it mean to be Canadian?” and, of course, “what exactly does it mean to be Canadian?” You ask that a lot, and loudly. I think you even know you’re never going to come up with the answer, mainly because the truth of the matter is that the question is the answer. And I love you for it.
Canada, I hope you’ll join me in celebrating you. I could of course continue with more reasons, but instead I’m going to stop writing, mosey down to one of your rivers with my wife and kids, pop open one of your beers (reason #12) and give thanks I’m up here. Happy birthday!
American Reasons for Celebrating Canada Day
When I first moved up here a little over ten years ago, I was surprised to learn that Canada Day happens just before July 4th. I thought you wanted simply to beat us Americans to the punch. Canada Day might be a few days earlier, I thought, but hey, we’ll always do a celebration bigger and better than you. (Thinking like a true American, I was.) Well, after ten years, I’ve decided it’s time to fess up—I love this place. And this year, I’m finally going to focus on Canada Day. July 4th I’ll call up the family in the States to say hello, but the party will be on Canada Day. Here are twelve reasons why.
1) Your Electoral Process—At this time last year, the campaign for the U.S. Presidency was already under way. We Americans might be efficient at some things but election campaigns isn’t one of them. Canada, your warp-speed campaigns are a thing of beauty. It’s so short that the candidates can practically make a new promise every day, pollsters can go hog-wild, newspapers can add special campaign sections and then—boom!—it’s all over. We can get back to our regular lives. You may or may not like tomorrow’s results, but you gotta love the speed. Just like a good hockey game.
2) Your Healthcare System—My third child was born prematurely weighing 1 lb. 4 oz. I was so scared and confused that I went on-line to find communities of parents experiencing the same thing. The only topic parents from the U.S. could focus on was what their insurance covered and didn’t cover. Not Canadians. They wanted to talk about what mattered: prognosis, treatments, risks. Canada, I don’t know how much those 3 months in the hospital and four years of follow-up cost, but believe me, I am forever grateful. You can tax me as much as you want. I’ll never complain. I know I’ll never pay off how selflessly your medical system was there for us when we needed it. And I have a healthy five-year-old daughter to prove it.
3) The Gun Registry, Decriminalizing Marijuana, Approving Gay Marriages—First, let me come clean here and state my biases: I think it’s idiocy to lock people up for toking on a joint, a greater idiocy for allowing everybody who doesn’t toke to arm themselves to the hilt, and more than a bit foolish to approve only those committed relationships that have certain approved combinations of genitalia. That said, I’m not celebrating these because I think they’re particularly wise, effective or moral. Nope, I name these because—to paraphrase Dorothy—they let me know I’m not living in Kansas anymore. Could you imagine any of these taking root in Kansas? Not on your life Bubba. So Canada, go for it. It make you you.
4) Your Lakes And Rivers—If you haven’t been in them or on them, can you be Canadian? Your water is what brought me up here in the first place. You’ve got big untamed rivers swimming with hungry fish and vast empty lakes waiting for the wind to turn them into a froth of waves. Canada, your fresh water has spoiled me—how many times I’ve been able to paddle alone on a sky-blue lake without a cottage in sight. And heck, I was on a river trip where we didn’t see another soul for twenty-three days. That is the big lonesome. It’s beautiful, it’s empty and it’s calling you.
5) Your Government Ads—Let me get this straight: federal departments actually run ads on TV about their services and benefits? You must be joking! The first time I saw one I was so baffled I had to ask friends what I’d just seen. Clearly, these departments believe they’re part of the solution. I’m for any country that believes government has a positive contribution to make.
6) Your Bureaucrats—Living in Ottawa, I’ve come to know some of these people. Not what I expected. Some of these folks work awfully hard. Too hard, in fact. If truth be known, they’re workaholics. They’re a dedicated and conscientious lot. And why? I guess they think they have to live up the billing in those ads. These folks put in the honest 9 to 5 and then some. Any country would be only too happy to replace their Public Servants with Canada’s. Ok, I’ll admit they’re not perfect; after all, money has disappeared. But hey, wasn’t it one of the bureaucrats who blew the whistle on the lack of perfection in the first place.
7) Your Political Parties—“What,” you might ask in shock. “Are you crazed?” Probably, but that’s beside the point. It is simply because you have them. I grew up in an either-or world. Either Republicans or Democrats. Here you’ve got Either-Or-Or-Or-Or-Or (if I can include the Green Party). Now and then a third candidate shows up on the American stage, but everyone knows they’re going to be yanked off before too long. The truth is following political parties in the States is like living with nothing but a 100 years of Bruins-Rangers games. Up here, you’ve simply got more teams to watch. Keeps it interesting.
8) The Rockies—Maybe the summer traffic slows down in some of the parks a bit too much, but when the cause is people craning their necks to look at what the word “grandeur” was invented for, who can complain? And having to stop because an elk with antlers as wide as your rivers (see reason #4 ) has ambled into the road is nothing less than a moment of grace. Notice I’m not even talking about what you can see if you get out of your car and head into that immensity! A gift of beauty for all of us to enjoy.
9) Curling—I don’t have a clue when it comes to curling. Never saw men with brooms, the movie or the reality. I figure that any country that buries NBA news inside the sports section so it can lead with a curling story has to be in on some important secret. What finally won me over was when you made a national hero out of a woman curler who won the gold medal. Something in the way you then mourned her too-early death was heartbreaking even for me. Hockey might be your national sport, but something tells me your relationship with curling is about your national soul.
10) Quebec—It’s a place apart, isn’t it, in the very best sense of that phrase. Is it a distinct culture? You bet. I’m glad I’ve been a bit around it, married one of its daughters and am having my kids educated in its language. Let’s face it: English Canada’s more button-down propriety is nicely balanced by Quebec’s joie de vivre—good wine, good humour, and you can even light up a cigarette without being banished to the nether regions of Pluto. But what has me most appreciative isn’t just Quebec, it’s the number of Canadians I’ve met in outposts far from “the French fact” who want their children to be bilingual, who want to have an immersion program of some sort in their school system. It’s a kind of cultural appreciation that’s particularly touching when one comes from a land where Texans and New Yorkers live in separate, parallel universes.
11) Your Introspection—Ah Canada, what would you be without the questions you constantly ask yourself? Questions like “what exactly does it mean to be Canadian?” and, of course, “what exactly does it mean to be Canadian?” You ask that a lot, and loudly. I think you even know you’re never going to come up with the answer, mainly because the truth of the matter is that the question is the answer. And I love you for it.
Canada, I hope you’ll join me in celebrating you. I could of course continue with more reasons, but instead I’m going to stop writing, mosey down to one of your rivers with my wife and kids, pop open one of your beers (reason #12) and give thanks I’m up here. Happy birthday!
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
The Liminal State
Some planetary alignment must be happening. How else can one explain this extraordinary coincidence in which both the U.S. and the Canadian governments are in a place of waiting. One can almost sense, in the U.S., a palpable sense of liminality--to use an anthropological term--a period of transition which holds out the possibility of crossing a threshhold into a new identity. And it is a new identity that Americans--and the world perhaps even more--hunger for.
How different it is up here. While Obama issues a great and compelling call to work across differences, to unite to face a common challenge, Harper issues (I paraphrase) a sort of weasely Well, I hope the opposition agrees to work together. I'm ready. Right, Stevie. Can anybody think of even one reason to believe his words? He has been all about advancing his political advantage no matter what. Because it served his purpose, Harper demonized the PQ and thus the Quebec electorate; Obama, on the other hand, acknowledges differences as an opening to invite people to move beyond them. How is it Canada has a Prime Minister of such smallness, whose reluctance to collaborate diminishes in direct proportion to the rise in the possibility of his government collapsing?
How different it is up here. While Obama issues a great and compelling call to work across differences, to unite to face a common challenge, Harper issues (I paraphrase) a sort of weasely Well, I hope the opposition agrees to work together. I'm ready. Right, Stevie. Can anybody think of even one reason to believe his words? He has been all about advancing his political advantage no matter what. Because it served his purpose, Harper demonized the PQ and thus the Quebec electorate; Obama, on the other hand, acknowledges differences as an opening to invite people to move beyond them. How is it Canada has a Prime Minister of such smallness, whose reluctance to collaborate diminishes in direct proportion to the rise in the possibility of his government collapsing?
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
How did Harper get everyone all worked up that the coalition was a coup d'etat? By convincing Canadians that their political system was American. And it was easy, just repeat it enough--"the coalition is not democratic!"--and soon it becomes the truth. "Yeah," say the citizens, "we just had an election and we voted in Harper." I confess I didn't know until the past few weeks how few Canadians understand their own political system. In the shadow of the American colossus (however tottering it is) and its recent riveting election, Canadians can't get clear of America's influence, particularly when it comes to differentiating a parliamentary democracy from a republic. I know Canadians don't know their history very well but I had assumed, from my 18 years of living up here, that they couldn't be fooled into thinking Ottawa is just a smaller Washington.
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