Heaven

Is Canada heaven?

Not likely ... except some days I get a glimpse...

Take my recent visit to a medical laboratory for some blood-tests. The lab was clean; the staff was organized and polite; there was no traffic jam, inside or out.

And I didn't have to pay anything!

80 Million!

On the CBC's program "The House" a government official high up in border enforcement said that he expects that 80 million people will come to Canada in the upcoming year (most of them normal visitors). But 80 million!

That's twice the official population of the country! Doesn't that give you a different view of what "population" means?

And if there are really that many visitors, what are the chances that every other person you pass walking down the street is one?

Of course, if a Windsorite crosses the border to buy cheaper gas or attend a concert, how does this person count?

Image:Detroit and Windsor in one pic. Yes, it's busy but it's not exactly swarming ...

Wab Kinew

The present premier of the Province of Manitoba is named Wab Kinew. Significance?

Matt Galloway -- a national treasure & women with expertise and appropriate employment

Among the many excellent radio hosts at CBC Radio 1 is a guy call Elamin Abdulmahmoud who grew up in Sudan. He once dropped a fact about his own early life: the cinema closest to home NEVER showed any Hollywood products and usually showed movies in French.

I am sure a great many Canadians may think that this is one more indicator that the country is being flooded by immigrants and refugees. Me, I think that it is neat and useful for Canadians to be presented by fellow citizens who have such interesting backgrounds. Three points: I am an immigrant myself; Two when people like me (white) run across people who I think "look like immigrants," more often than not I find they were born in Canada.

So if you were worrying about that flood of immigrants, too late! It's happened -- and has been happening for decades and decades and decades. You can look it up.

Point Three: I may have got the identity of the radio host wrong.

. The story, however, is right.

These radio hosts at CBC who do the research etc. are a national treasure. Listen to Radio 1 during the morning hours and you will get such an education! To pick out just one host, Matt Galloway, currently host of The Current. He is so good at asking questions, asking follow-up questions, being witty without being aggressive, absrbing a great deal of background on any of the many subjects he covers --- he is just the BEST. The BEST.

Once upon a time men had all the heavy lifting in the sciences and technical subject going to hear an expert talk sbout something interesting and complicated, you could pretty safely bet that "some man" would be in the driver's seat.

Today I realized that more or less such authorities are women. And they are not in junior positions -- they are presidents, vice-presidents, deans of their universities, CEOs of tech companies... you name it.

Standing up for democracy

 The following excerpt comes from an address to the Canadian Parliament by the President of the European Union, Ursula van der Leyden.  There are several points of interest.  This speech comes from a German, which to me gives it added weight. It includes details of Canada's involvement in Ukraine which gives some idea of how things look from the other side of the Atlantic.  But most of all, it's a full-throated defense of democracy by a top policymaker.

Can anyone imagine such a speech being given two years ago?

Here's the beginning of the speech.

Thank you for welcoming me to the heart of Canada, the home of Canadian democracy. They say hard times reveal true friends. And this is what the European Union and Canada are: true friends. The history of our democracies is tied together. So many Canadians have their family roots in Europe. Many of your parents and grandparents fought in Europe during two World Wars. They were sent to faraway places on the other side of the Ocean. Tens of thousands of them lost their lives in the trenches of Belgium, in the heat of Sicily and on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day. I am a European of German nationality. It was German Nazism and Fascism that brought death and destruction upon Europe and the world. But Allied Forces brought liberty back to all of us. The united democracies freed us from dictatorship. Thus, we owe our democracy also to you, the people of Canada. And we will be forever grateful for the sacrifice your parents and grandparents made, and for the invaluable gift of freedom.

Not Brexit, not impeachment

I just love hearing on CBC Radio a Bloc Quebecois MP opining on whether Alberta is a nation.

An iconic Canadian image -- rural churches on a lakefront

I never saw this beautiful village -- Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia -- until the CBC ran a feature on small towns.  This combination of waterfront and an old, impressive church is pretty typical.  Bonfield, Ontario had one big church on the waterfront.

What I thought everybody knew -- Man has baby

Today on CBC Radio's comedy show "The Debaters" was in Calgary, and much of the debate was on the desirability of building a new arena.  Big issue in that city.

One question thrown out to one of the debaters was to finish a famous quote by Montreal mayor Jean
Drapeau in his promotion of the 1972 Olympics:

"The Olympics can no more lose money than a man can have a baby."

Of course the Montreal Olympics lost millions.  And just about everyone quoted Drapeau if they had any motivation to oppose a sports boondogle.

I was surprised, then, that the Calgary crowd didn't react at all.

Of course, these were Albertans being indifferent to Quebec; and I think the Debaters appeals to a younger crowd; and by no means do I count as young.

But it is another lesson in the dangers of assuming you know that "everybody" knows what you know, even recent historical events.

2009 -- Stephen Harper's self-congratulatory history of Canada

CBC quotes the PM at the G20 conference:

“We’re so self-effacing as Canadians that we sometimes forget the assets we do have that other people see,” he said, speaking with a rare passion.
“We are one of the most stable regimes in history. ... We are unique in that regard,” he added, noting Canada had enjoyed more than 150 years of untroubled Parliamentary democracy.
Just in case that was not enough to persuade doubters, Harper threw in some more facts about the geographically second-largest nation in the world.

“We also have no history of colonialism. So we have all of the things that many people admire about the great powers but none of the things that threaten or bother them,” he said.

So all that land just fell into the laps of British and French colonizers settlers?

Dutch Gratitude Day

I went out this morning to see what our neighbors had done in the way of Halloween decorations.


It didn't seem to me that they had done a lot, though there were a number of skeletons.  More noteworthy were the Japanese maples that seem to be at their  peak color.

I think today could be called "Japanese Red Maple Tree Day."

Actually there was just last week another celebration.  PM Justin Trudeau went to the Netherlands and to greet him the Dutch put on another of the numerous Dutch Gratitude Days (my name, not theirs) that have been put on since the Second World War.

The reason for it goes back to 1945 when, after years of Nazi occupation, the Netherlands were liberated by Canadian forces, just in time to keep the Dutch from starving to death.  The Dutch have never forgotten this merciful intervention.

Who does that kind of thing?  As far as I know, only the Dutch.

I believe that this story sheds more honor on the Dutch than on Canada, though certainly it is one of the best episodes in Canadian history.  Bravo to all who were actually there, and their worthy descendents.

Note:

Apparently, Mons in Belgium has not forgotten the Canadians.

Canada's surprising significance in the current world crisis

Sreeram Chaulia, an Indian academic, writes on the CBC site:  

The unusual fit of rage with which Saudi Arabia reacted to Canada's routine criticism of the kingdom's human rights situation is a reflection of not just the nature of the current regime in Riyadh, but also of the transitory world order in which we are now living.

The diplomatic row, wherein the petulant Saudis have recalled their ambassador from Ottawa and threatened to pull out thousands of their students and patients from Canadian universities and hospitals, is emblematic of a liberal international system that is wobbling, though it still has proponents.

By now, it is evident that the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is a hardliner who does not brook any dissent against the kingdom's monarchical absolutism. His loosening of social restrictions on Saudi women and imposition of restraints on the conservative Wahhabi clerical establishment impressed many, but political persecution of activists has simultaneously increased since the 32-year-old Salman became the de facto king in 2017. The liberalisation Salman is overseeing through measures like introducing cinema to an entertainment-starved Saudi society is a controlled experiment, with no room for political opening-up.

The assumption behind his diplomatic tussle against Canada seems to be that the liberal world order has already caved in, and authoritarian governments now have untrammelled freedom to crush dissent at home and browbeat opponents abroad. The Saudi reckoning appears to be that with Trump heading the anti-liberal camp and several right-wing populist European countries joining it, the time is ripe to vigorously counter and corner liberal holdouts like Canada. 

 Going by the detached American — and even British — attitude to the Saudi diplomatic offensive against Canada, Riyadh might reason that Trudeau is indeed marginalized in the emerging new international system. The fact that Canada's historic allies have not lined up solidly behind Trudeau as he locks horns with Salman does indicate Canada's relative isolation. It also speaks volumes about the liberal versus conservative/populist polarization sharply dividing Western democracies, which had hitherto formed a fairly coherent ideological bloc.  

By escalating the row with Canada, Salman has attracted adverse international publicity to Saudi Arabia's jailing and ill-treatment of young human rights activists like Samar and Raif Badawi. Ironically, the unwanted foreign attention from which Salman seeks to shield Saudi Arabia is likely to intensify as a result of his Canadian misadventure, not lessen.

It is far from a foregone conclusion that liberalism has completely lost its international ideological hold. No one can be sure of the final result of what is shaping up to be a zigzag tug-of-war between liberalism and populism. 

It is quite possible to exaggerate Canada's role in the world.  But in this case I think, "What would Canada, North America, the world be like if Stephen Harper had won the last election?" It   sends chills up and down the spine!

Image:  scary!

h

Election Day in Ontario

Today is the provincial election day in Ontario.
It's an odd day. In particular, people are taking it very seriously; as well they should, given that the Ontario equivalent of Trump (the small time equivalent) has a lead in the polls. He has the potential of doing a lot of damage.
But there have been dangerous elections before. In none that I can remember have there been so many SCA people talking about the elections on SCA forums, including whom they intend to vote for. Granted, I wasn't paying attention to the Bush vs Gore election before election day.
My wife and I walked to our poll, holding our registration certificates in our hands, and we were greeted with smiles and positive comments by people on the street, who recognized the cards we were holding. In side the polling place, things were equally cheerful. It was overall a very cheerful occasion.
Image: No! No! No!

My contribution; For Honor; Playing Hard

The radio was on in my bedroom and it was playing Q, a morning arts and music show on CBC 1.  The speaker said "...the SCA and re-enactors..." and very soon thereafter talked about his love for "German longsword."  Just like these words and phrases were normal parts of the English language  that many people would have no trouble understanding.


I said to my wife, "If this guy, a Canadian,  can use 'SCA' and 're-enactors' like this, it's largely because of you and me."

Other long-time participants in the SCA in Canada and especially in Ontario may think this unwarranted braggadocio, but I don't.

Fortunately the radio program had nothing to do with Nazis.  The person  being interviewed was Jason VandenBerghe, a Montrealer who designed the Ubisoft video game For Honor, which was released a couple of years ago. 

VandenBerge was on the air discussing "For Honor" because it is currently the subject of a documentary film,"Playing Hard." It sounds very good. The CBC interview is of interest to people who care about modern ideas of chivalry.

"Canada was founded over drinks"

So says a fan of Thomas D'Arcy McGee, one of Canada's "Fathers of Confederation" during  a feature on the CBC's Sunday Edition radio program.  McGee, born in Ireland and for a while an immigrant to the USA before moving on to Canada, evolved from violent revolutionary to proponent of peaceful unification.

He was assassinated soon after he -- and others -- had succeeded in founding the Canadian confederation.

Gobsmacked! The Chair in the Conjuring Arts at Carleton University

I really had to look twice.

Here's a news report:

OTTAWA — Carleton University students will soon be able to study magic.

The university announced today that it's establishing an academic chair for the study of conjuring arts with a $2-million donation from the Slaight Family Foundation.

The school says academic subjects that have been connected to the conjuring arts include psychology, political persuasion, literature, and the history of warfare.

Carleton interim president Alastair Summerlee says magicians have historically been influential figures, and it's important for societies to understand how they might be deceived.

The chair is named for philanthropist Allan Slaight, who has had a lifelong interest in magic.

He recently donated a collection of magic posters and Houdini paraphernalia to Montreal's McCord Museum.

Carleton says a search committee will soon begin recruitment for the new position.

The Canadian Press

Report a Typo or Error

Not only is the donor putting up $2 million, but the university is doubling that.

University of Guelph - an unknown gem

Yesterday I visited the University of Guelph in Guelph, Ontario. This is a medium-sized university in a medium-sized city which I believe is little known outside of Ontario, and even in the province it is mainly known for its agricultural program and its veterinary expertise. This obscurity is quite unfair. I know second hand of some excellent undergraduate programs that they have developed in recent years, and first-hand of the friendly atmosphere.
But what really impressed me was the beauty of the campus. Guelph was a tiny place not so long ago, and so most of the facilities are quite new. The designers of the modern campus did a fabulous job of laying it out, and designing buildings that are both very similar (most all of them are close to being the same height) but far from being identical. The campus also is big enough yet compact enough to make the place very easy to get around on foot.
One feature worth noting is the arboretum, or what Joni Mitchell would call a "tree museum," but one you don't even need to pay a dollar and a half "to seeum." Image below:

The Vimy myth

We travelled to an SCA event in Whitby yesterday, and returned to Windsor today.  For most of that drive we listened to CBC Radio One.  Excellent material, more excellent than usual.

The most thought-provoking program today was the Sunday Edition (closely followed by "The House," the regular parliamentary affairs show, this weekend devoted to the role of colonial parliamentarians in the negotiation of Canadian Confederation).  Sunday Edition talked about the role of the battle of Vimy Ridge in the First World War in creating modern Canadian nationalism.  

Sunday Edition started out by giving the usual account of why Vimy was important:

It wasn't until April, 1917, the story goes, when Canada stormed a battlefield in the North of France and seized a hill that had been held by the German army, that the country came of age, emerging as a united, resourceful, vigorous and valourous 50-year-old nation.

The Canadians were given little chance of taking Vimy Ridge from the Germans. But the four divisions of the Canadian Expeditionary Force — all fighting together for the first time in the Great War — hurled an awesome artillery barrage at the German position and surged across the battlefield, forcing the Germans to retreat. 

After a four-day battle, nearly 36-hundred Canadian soldiers lay dead in the cold, corpse-littered muck and slime, and 7-thousand more were wounded. But they held the Ridge and helped shift the course of the war toward an Allied victory.

Since that time, Canadian politicians have seized on the Vimy victory, as a symbol of Canada's coming-of-age, o f its independence from Britain, as the smithy in which Canadian nationhood was forged.

The segment was an interview with Ian MacKay, one of the authors of "The Vimy Trap."  According to MacKay, there was no surge of Canadian nationalism connected with Vimy.  As late as the 1930s, the overwhelming evaluation of the war, especially among those who fought it, was that the Great War was a futile catastrophe and that peace was a necessity.  Two people who felt strongly that way were two future prime ministers, John Diefenbaker (Conservative) and Lester Pearson (Liberal and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize).  They like many others made no connection between  the Great War and the growth of Canadian nationalism and sovereignty.  Canada's military history is not universally lauded as an encouragement to nationalism.  In both world wars, for instance, French Canadians were extremely skeptical of the need to support the British Empire, for obvious reasons (note the Seven Years War otherwise known as "the Conquest" and Canadian participation in the South African (Boer) War.)

I find it very unfortunate that both of our most recent prime ministers (one Conservative, one Liberal) have gone out of their way to talk up the Canadian war record for its supposed nation-building role.  I was not raised Canadian so the First World War holds no magic for me.  Indeed, when I have taught the war --not as part of Canadian, U.S. or European history but always as part of world history-- I've had to  hold myself  back from denouncing it as one giant war crime.

Lest we forget

Another in my series of "the best of" my blog. The Toronto Morality Play Among other things, proof that all our present problems can't be blamed on one politician or one party.

A newspaper series you might want to know about

Keen-eyed reporters at the Globe and Mail became aware that a lot of sexual assault cases in Canada were being dropped as "unfounded." Unfounded is supposed to mean that nothing happened. That sometimes 40% of complaintants, people who went to the police knowing that such complaints often go nowhere, were being turned aside and not believed -- this made the reporters suspicious that the category "unfounded" was being misused.

Sure enough, a large-scale investigation has established just that. Likewise the Globe and Mail's efforts have cast new light on the issue of consent. Well worth reading.

The evolution of the Canadian character

The Sesquicentennial of Canadian Confederation is being celebrated by the Globe and Mail with a number of special features. The first one is a long thought-piece by Doug Saunders, who was born on the Centennial year. He's got a lot to say about the many changes that took place before 1967 and emerged into public consciousness in the year of his birth.
Highly recommended even if you don't find the argument persuasive.
Me, I am very interested in how Canada stopped being British, so this was an excellent read for me.
Excerpts:

Eight hours after I was born, the directors of the Canadian National Exhibition filed into a banquet hall for their annual luncheon. The exhibition’s president, W.H. Evans, asked them to remain standing to sing the national anthem – and then chaos ensued, as half the audience broke into God Save the Queen before the pianist had struck the first note of O Canada. A debate over Canada’s true national anthem, begun in 1964, had been winding its way through a special House of Commons-Senate joint committee all year and filling the media with debate. It wouldn’t fully be resolved until a law was passed in 1980, and many people (especially in Toronto) still considered the British national anthem “official.”

In that light, 1967 can only be seen as the apex of Canada’s postcolonial moment. The wars over symbols were one small manifestation of a larger shift. It’s worth remembering how new this all was. We still remained, in important ways, a colony. In 1967, Canadian citizenship had only existed for 20 years – before January 1, 1947, everyone in Canada was a British subject and had to travel with a United Kingdom passport. But it still didn’t quite exist: That 1947 law creating Canadian citizenship declared in its main clause that “a Canadian citizen is a British subject” (this would remain in place until 1977). That idea was still hotly defended by many in the Ottawa of 1967: The Progressive Conservative leadership still opposed Canadian citizenship, and the flag, and the anthem. There was still a sizable political faction in Canada who supported the idea that all Canadians were simply a slightly different, less important flavour of British people. But the great majority of Canadians had moved on – or moved in – and you could see the centennial struggling to catch up with them.

Back in the 1980s, I told my history class that the disappearance of "the Romans" from Britain was less like an invasion and more like the elimination of "a Canadian citizen is a British subject" from the passport. This passed right over their heads, since they'd never seen such a passport.