O Canada.
Doing some travelin up this way. Have our small RV pretty well loaded down and equipped for the duration. Still in beautiful Alberta for a while, yet. Campground is next door to a big new ice rec. center complete with Curling and Hockey rinks for folks of all ages and skill levels. I’ll just watch, thank you.
Not far from a Nakoda indigenous community that lives several standards above the Crowfoot community south of the border in Montana. Hard to find while driving about (or aboat, if you prefer) much if any real poverty or great wealth here. Middle class housing abounds with new construction flourishing near cities. Urbanization is a common reality here, but rural poverty seems less evident. The US has lots of that, sorry to say.
Plenty of firearms here for use in killing animals. Not for killing people, however, unless one joins with a well-regulated militia here. What a concept!
Looking forward to being in Saskatchewan and then Manitoba before heading due south from Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario for our final leg homeward down I-75 later next week. We’ve seen all 50 States at least a time or two in the US, but at age 78 we’re looking at hitting all Canadian provinces before 80 rolls in with the tide.
Once upon a time I had hoped to study Journalism and tell stories of people near and far. I never rose to such prominence, but still love to hear other folks share what makes them “them” wherever they are. Of course, everyone is truly a “them” until someone else claims them as an “us.” And one thing I’m all-out-loving about the Canadians I’m encountering during this short two-week or so jaunt across four provinces is this: there’s a greater spirit of “us” here than I’m used to in the states. Noticeably.
Here's a for instance: Next Monday is Canada’a declared National Day of Truth & Reconciliation. Celebrates the ethnic diversity of today while lamenting the racist tendencies of yesterday, especially directed at the indigenous “First Nation” people. It’s an intentional way of making them us without taking away their “them.”
Probably could’ve worded that better, but you’ll get my drift.
Over my many decades of hanging out in my US homeland, I’ve come to see how easily those seeking an “us” can deny others their rights to still be “them.” It’s treated more as a zero sum game where one wins only when another loses. All or nothing. Black or white. You’re either with “them” or “us.” Take your choice. Not so much here in Canada, so far as I can tell from the stories I hear and read.
However, there is still bigotry here. Still stories of racial and ethnic prejudice. That’s part of every “them” to a degree, I suppose. We all have brains who’s “first responder” is the Limbic system that assumes whatever is different is also dangerous, or whatever is possible is also probable. When that anxious and faulty narrative is then confirmed by the public discourse of one’s own dominant “us” or tribe, our Frontal Lobe designed by God (I believe) for rational and critical thought gets cheated of a voice in such matters.
So it’s no surprise that the economics of our recent pandemic, per actual economists, meant guaranteed inflation due to pent-up demand and dropped-down supply; yet were and still are misunderstood as being the fault of Trudeau and Biden. While Pierre Poilievre and his Conservatives are not Donald Trump and his Republicans, they are quick to blame progressives for everything and draw their rigid boundaries between “them” and “us” for political expediency. Truth and Reconciliation takes a holiday where election season comes along, sadly. Hence, even O Canada has an election “season” and a T & R “day.” After all, the Limbic system gets first serve in deciding human priorities. Only “on second thought” does the rational brain get to pick. And the reality of global economic inflation understood as being inevitable after such international crises as WW II and the Covid Pandemic.
There was a time when I actually applied for a job in Vancouver, BC back in 1970. Had a good chance of getting it, but let it pass due to Nixon’s early 1971 moratorium on the draft and the Passover rule that exempted my #11 from being called. Closest I ever came to being a refugee in search of refuge. Not to worry, though, my fellow north Americans. We’re headed home to where I’m still an “us” in the USA. While here I'm still just a "them."
But if my own “them” is ever denied in my homeland in order to retain my stat”us” there, I may have to turn around and come north for some other job where Truth and Reconciliation retains at least a Day of actual celebration. Eh?
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