2003 July 2

Canadiana

In honour of Canada Day (though personally, I think the old name "Dominion Day" has rather more character -- and okay, I'm a day late), the Globe and Mail has just run an excellent 12-article survey of modern Canada. The better pieces include Part 3, "The fusion generation", about the multiculturalism of Toronto of the 135 languages:

"One of the beautiful things about living in Toronto or Canada is that we're so accustomed to racial diversity that it's so normal," Mr. Fatah said with conviction. "I met these two gentlemen from Manchester last weekend at my party and they're like, 'What is amazing is look around here, you have Asian, black, Indian, Italian, Greek, Jewish, Canadian, you have all these ethnicities, everyone is partying, no one is segregated to their corners. In England you'd never see that, people are so segregated and split up, and it's by their own choice that they keep to their own. Here everyone talks to everyone and that's a beautiful thing.'"

and Part 6, "Not very Canadian", an almost suspiciously counter-stereotype look at the differences between Canadian and American attitudes, though I can't help feeling it rings true:

This, too, produced striking differences. One after another, the young Americans said they are not loyal to their country -- of the 10, only four said they are, and one of them, 28-year-old Jake Altimus, made it very clear that his national loyalty is trumped by his loyalty to his state: "In my heart," he said, "I live in Virginia."

The Canadians all said, without reservation, that they are loyal to Canada. In individual interviews, this came out dramatically: The Canadians, regardless of their political beliefs, are flag-waving patriots. The Americans are much more reserved about their national identity -- family, church, corporation and pastimes are far more likely to draw their loyalty.

(My suspicion is the reporter found this reservation by choosing a sample that skewed upper-middle-class, who tend to be anti-war and more disgruntled than usual these days. Still, the point is, the same sample in Canada is rabidly patriotic, and there are other interesting contrasts in the article.)

But by far the most striking piece, to me anyway (because I had no idea), was Part 5, "Changing native history". Saskatchewan, it turns out, is in the middle of a massive demographic shift that may actually give it an Aboriginal-majority population by mid-century. The thought is mindblowing:

In fact, many of the wise elders of Saskatchewan -- both native and not -- take the view that the very prosperity of this beleaguered Prairie province rests in the hands of this new generation of aboriginals.

There will be implications for all of Canada in this. There will be a joyous stretching of definitions; a painful sharing of wealth; a gradual chipping away of stereotypes, hatred and bigotry. Once one of the provinces is run by aboriginals, what is to stop an aboriginal man or woman from holding the highest offices in the land?

I think it's an incredibly inspiring thought, a Good Thing both for the dignity and prosperity of the Cree and other First Nations, to have control over what no one can doubt is a real government, and for Saskatchewan, to have a rising, energetic population with something to prove, one not tempted to flee for the prosperity of Toronto or Vancouver.

Thanks to AccordionGuy for the link.

A mention of Sanford Fleming in the twelfth article, "The great lone land", prompted a bit of googling, on account of there's a Sir Sanford Fleming Park, a.k.a. the Dingle, off Purcell's Cove Rd on the way into town from where I grew up. I'd always kind of wondered who he was, but never quite enough to really figure it out; now I have. He's more impressive than I thought, being both the initial surveyor for the route of the Canadian Pacific Railroad, and the Father of Standard Time. That's a hell of a legacy -- in fact, it's not easy to think of much more permanent marks on the globe one man can make, than to have defined the lines of the time zones. I find myself feeling guilty -- even traitorous -- for not having known this about a fellow Nova Scotian.

(And furthermore, Fleming designed Canada's first postage stamp, the three-penny beaver. One has to love the three-penny beaver.)

This commemoration might have been better saved to mark Halifax's Natal Day, but I'll just use it while I've got it handy.

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