The right kind of Canada

Last week, Zahra and I were in Nova Scotia searching for our slice of Canadian paradise... and trust me, it does exist (right around Mahone Bay, I might add!). We were staying at the Fairmont House Bed and Breakfast and we were enjoying conversation over coffee with our host, Thomas. I invited him to have a read of my blog.

The next morning, our discussion turned to the blog and his thoughts. He enjoyed what he read, he said, but suggested that I was rather hard on my fellow Canadians. I appreciated the feedback and the critique.

For any readers I may have out there in cyberspace, I wanted to say that, while I have been a bit hard in the course of my blogging, it was never because I harboured disdain or dislike for my fellow citizens or my country. I am critical for the exact opposite reason -- I have incredibly high hopes and expectations for Canada. Those hopes and expectations are the responsibility of each and every citizen.

We can only shape Canada and its culture by embodying the values we deem important. If that's a strong sense of conservatism and intolerance, and we elect a government that matches those values, that is exactly how we will be viewed by our peers in the international community. Consequently, it will also be the kind of society we will build. On the other hand, if we chose to be a progressive, innovative, forward thinking society, and we embody such values and beliefs in our society and hold our government to account for promoting those collective values, we will be seen by our international peers as such. We will also build a society much more relevant in a globalized, multi-ethnic world.

Canada is the country it is today for having chosen the latter route. We may not always get the credit we deserve for innovative thinking or bold policies (after all, we do share the North American continent with a larger, more powerful and more "glamourous" neighbour), but our strength as a society is precisely because we have the confidence to make difficult choices, with or without recognition. Our society should not, in the age of fleeting popularity and Hollywood-style showmanship, abandon our conviction to do the right thing. Never.

As for the doubters and naysayers who think the American way is the only way, James Howard Kunstler's most recent blog post should set you straight. In his recent drive up to Watertown, New York, and then over the border into Canada, he wrote:

"It was, I'm sad to say, a relief to cross the border out of my own country. Once you got off the main highway of Canada, 401, along the north side of Lake Ontario, the landscape presented a disturbing contrast to what you saw on the American side. Unlike the slovenly, failing farms of New York State, the farms of Ontario looked successful and prosperous. The barns did not tilt at weird angles and the roofs were intact. The farm houses were freshly painted and the grounds generally not strewn with the sort of dingy plastic effluvia Americans like to deploy around their dwellings to give the impression of plentitude. You wondered: how did all the IQ points below the Great Likes [sic] somehow migrate over to the Canadian side? Had they invented some kind of quantum spirit vacuum, run perhaps on dark matter, that sucked all the vitality out of their neighbor-to-the-south? (If so, maybe Canada should take over our dreary duties in Central Asia.)"

We must, as Canadians stay true to what we believe -- peace, order, and good government -- and have the spine to demand it from our government. It is, after all, our responsibility. The more we integrate with our neighbours, the more we risk losing our country.

I look to my inspirational friends Ray and Marge, who moved to Nova Scotia from America in the early 1970s to protest the war in Vietnam. Actually, it wasn't just in protest, but to be a part of a peaceful and progressive society, to be locally active, and to promote citizen engagement. For that reason alone, I say the world needs more Canada (and more Ray and Marge!). But, if the world really does needs more Canada, it has to be the right version. Each and every one of us is responsible for that version, whatever it may be. So forgive me for being tough, but I will continue, in order to force all of us to think about the choices we make each day. I would also like to inspire readers to become more engaged -- the next time your MP has a townhall, hold him or her to account by attending, asking tough questions, and demanding more. It's not enough to be critical or offer ill-informed opinion from the sidelines. The time is now to get involved with a critical eye and open mind.