ALL THE BEST THINGS ABOUT CANADA YOU WON’T FIND ANYWHERE ELSE, FUN OUTDOORS, AND THE IDEAL CANDIDATE
Vol. 1, No. 39
In this edition, your heedful correspondent conveys the notion we don’t have to define ourselves by what we’re not, makes fun of another country, and then publishes a letter that reminds us that there but for the grace of God … .
This week: A 6-minute read
CANADA THE POSITIVE
The other night, someone on television—it might have been the CBC’s Ian Hanomansing—was commenting on how Canadians who live or have lived outside the country have a different perspective on Canada than those who have lived here all their lives. I believe he’s on to something, because that was my experience, too.
I lived in the States for seven years. I don’t mean to dwell on that, though it must sometimes seem I do, but I do recall my perspective on Canada gradually changing, becoming distinctly different from that of the folks at home. My sense of it, and I think this was reinforced by Hanomansing, was that too many Canadians are too focused on what Canada isn’t; that is, it isn’t the States. That seemed to me an odd benchmark on which to measure oneself, but it seemed to be the prevalent attitude.
To my mind, there was much more to Canada as a sovereign state and to Canadians as a people than what my compatriots at home felt. Take the U.S. out of the equation, I thought. Certainly Americans don’t think about us as much as we think about them. In fact—excluding this recent business with Donald Trump—Americans don’t usually think about us at all.
Moreover, when Canada did come up in my conversations with Americans, it was overwhelmingly in the most glowing of terms.
My sense of it was that Canadians should measure themselves and their country by what they both constitute: a politically stable, prosperous, peaceful, accepting, and multicultural and bilingual society that is unique in the world, nurtured in a setting that is beautiful and pristine, with dynamic cities, pastoral rural areas, and unspoiled wilderness. Its people are well-educated, relatively healthy, and friendly unless provoked.
I pretty much feel the same way today, though don’t get me started on mosquitoes.
Maybe we should think about that as we head to the polls tomorrow. As a nation, we are fortunate indeed, and worth fighting for.
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SO TO SPEAK
“Anecdotally speaking, I’ve come to the conclusion a lot of Americans don’t have much experience travelling in other countries—unless of course it’s to invade them.”
Another post of mine on Facebook back in the day when I still thought I was clever and funny
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RAINY DAY FUN
It’s astonishing what passes for entertainment these days, and nowhere was that in more evidence than in the southern Ontario city of St. Thomas, where sisters Lillie and Harper O’Reilly were seen getting drenched by rainwater.
They were not victims of happenstance. Rather, their mother, Taylor Brooks, instructed the girls, ages 11 and 10, to put down their cellphones and go out to play. When we were kids, that was sort of expected of us, and we’d stay outside, too, until the proverbial streetlights came on. These days, parental edicts are required before kids venture outdoors for no better reason than just because.
Well, it was Good Friday, friends not around, the kids were bored, the streets were flooded because of a recent rain, and they hit on an idea. Thus the sign reading “Splash Us.” Passing motorists complied; one driver in an Dodge Ram pulled a U-turn so he could go back and do it again. Others followed suit.
Once Mom got wise to what was going on, she grabbed her own cellphone and captured the kids on video. The rest, as they say, is history. “I personally think it’s ‘90s nostalgia,” Mom told the CBC. Lady, playing outside goes back a lot further than that.
Said Harper: “We were wet ... really wet.”
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HARD SELL
“Pope’s Dead, Buy My Book”
Tongue-in-cheek sales pitch by an author pretending to be annoyed because the Pope died the same day her new book came out. Shame was not in evidence.
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A ‘DEAR TERRY’ LETTER
Re ‘Journalism’s Future,’ March 30. Terry, whenever I see mention made of the 1936 Olympics, which always implicitly or directly refers to Jesse Owens and the USA team showing those white supremacists what’s what, I reflect on how tales get told. As a boy, I was told of Owens showing up Hitler under the U.S. flag. I heard that often over the decades. We all did. It was only when living in Alabama in the 20teens and driving past a billboard for the Jesse Owens museum in his hometown that I was compelled to look up the back story. Owens had to leave Alabama because that state’s white supremacists wouldn’t let him attend a leading university to pursue track and field. He moved to Cleveland where the racism was less overt. And lest we Canadians feel smugly superior to those in the U.S., we should reflect on how Canada might have developed had the trade winds brought slaves north and cotton had grown there. We’re all the same human beings. Murdoch Davis, Valparaiso, Indiana
By the way, if you want to drop me a note (and risk me publishing it here), just reply to this email or, if you prefer send it to mysundayreader@gmail.com.
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MY SUNDAY READER BOOK CLUB
Heartfelt thanks to those who have so far signed on to the My Sunday Reader Book Club.
In this week’s episode, titled ‘What in Bleedin’ Hell Are You Doing Here?’ it’s been about a year since Harry, now 16, escaped from his captor near Comber, and is now part of a cross-border rum-running crew in Niagara Falls. It’s an adrenaline-charged experience which he soon discovers has tragic consequences. Five hundred miles away in Boston, young Stanley Knowlton celebrates his upcoming 21st birthday with a Red Sox game at Fenway Park with his brother. It’s there he shares some shocking news: he has decided to run away to Canada to join the army and fight the war in Europe. His family is not happy, and he has yet to share his decision with his father.
Again, thanks for your consideration.
That’s it till next week. / T.
Please note: Artificial intelligence was not used in the preparation or writing of any part of this newsletter.