Hey everyone! We’re number 1! Among G8 nations, we have the number 1 worst environmental record! Virtually no national policy to reduce emissions! A quickly crumbling (if not already lost) reputation! Little cohesive vision!
Here’s the thing. Some of us have too much to do to write passionately, eloquently, and most important, constructively about the many detailed aspects of our national direction. Thankfully we have a few good people to turn to, not the least of whom is Jeffrey Simpson. His last two articles in particular are worth a read, on our lost humility and the lack of any intelligent national health care debate. Thank you Jeffrey, and the other few who push our leaders to build a better society, and not just tear down the elements they don’t agree with.
I’m just going to say this now: I apologize for this post. I apologize for all of the photography, writing and speaking I will be doing in the next few years. It will be critical. It will be negative. It will challenge the people in my country who still care how we contribute to the world, and to our fellow Canadians.
I’m going to be a massive, negative pain in the ass because I feel we’re floating on myths and coasting on hubris, our vision obscured by all the Canadian falsehoods we so preciously guard. When we can get past those myths, we can grow again and then, only then, promote ourselves as a force for good.
Canada, I’m sorry. I’m sorry I’m not going to rock your flag on my backpack or eat patriotic doughnuts. I’m sorry I’m not going to rehash the same tired cliches in our debates and scream at people on the opposite side of an outdated political spectrum. I’m sorry I’m going to yell, argue and point fingers.
It’s because I love you.
B
(today’s shot from a peaceful christmas on Vancouver Island)
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
I remember a (good) teacher telling me once that ‘…you don’t fail the stupid people, you fail the smart ones’ because you know they can do better. Somehow I see an analogy here. If you didn’t think we could do much better, and if you didn’t think we were made of much better stuff than what we have displayed internationally the past ten or fifteen years (or longer, I guess) then I expect you wouldn’t waste your time, effort, and passion. Good on ya, I say.
But I have another memory trying to awaken here: your screed puts me in mind of an evangelist, say, St. John the Evangelist. You can take solace in the knowledge that he was the only apostle, apparently, not martyred for his faith (according to Wikipedia, the modern Bible)
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I share your anger. I was at a train station in Rome and I got into a discussion with a nice man from Parma, who gave me a long disappointed speech about Canada’s role in the international community, and how he thinks Canada is losing (or has lost) it’s role as a positive player in the international community. A combination of environmental, and political decisions, starting with our lack of environmental policy and going through our role in American wars and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
It is fair to be angry now. I look forward to the day a Canadian a shoe at Harper (or any other similar politician).
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My latest life rule: never propose a problem without also proposing a solution. Even if it’s a bad one, at least it’s a start. So what do we–not Stephen Harper, John Baird, Leona Aglukkaq–start with?
-t
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Personally, I feel we start to strip away the myths people have about what Canada actually is, and is doing these days. Contrast what we think our country is with what the world now thinks. Compare our generational progress with what other countries have accomplished.
You can’t start to fix something without convincing people that there’s a problem in the first place.
B
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This iss awful news–it shall not stand that the U. S. is not number one!
I shall write the Obama administration immediately, demanding their immediate attention in taking back the coveted number one position from Northern usurpers.
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Tess and B: you can start by writing a book, maybe a collection of essays (that way you could try and publish the essays as they’re done, somewhere). Years ago Tom Berger wrote a great book called Fragile Freedoms, about how Canada, almost since its inception, has systematically ignored/tramped on civil rights. Jehovah’s Witnesses, Jews, Japanese, Communists, you name it. You need a book like that focussed on our international role and responsibilities. I know there are other books out there, so maybe a boiled down or distillate kind of book?
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