I lived in New York city in the early 60s and loved being there. A return visit a;ways confirms the energy and repeat visits are always welcome though they come too seldom now. But things are different watching America from a Canadian perspective. I’ve also just finished the book, How the Irish Saved Civilization - well worth a read. Much of it talks about the failure of the Roman Empire as the barbarians invaded it. The strange American scene we watch now causes reflection.
There is always a sense that Canadians are different - borrowing, I have often thought from, our British roots as well as our American ones. But the truth is that those roots are far more multicultural than I grew up thinking - even when living in a community where the roots were primarily German. More than 24 years ago we realized that half the people in Canada’s largest city, Toronto, weren’t born in Canada. That was OK and one of the things that made it interesting. There were neighborhoods with ethnic flavours and we sought out their restaurants - Greek, Italian, Indian and Jamaican. While there are clearly groups in our country that have suffered from our white privileged roots, there is no desire for us to return to earlier times, which we know weren’t necessarily great.
Another difference is clear now. We would never characterize our judges as Democrats or Republican - even substituting our local party designations. We don’t have a clue as to what government appointed them. We would be hard pressed to name the members of our supreme court even though we could come up with most of the names of the ones of our southern neighbour. We take it for granted that our judges are apolitical. We speak up when our politicians do things we don’t like. but we don’t demonize them and for the most part we are polite.
Walking to a concert last week, I came upon a very small group of protesters slowing down traffic on a main street. They were shouting “Trudeau must go” - and carrying a very large banner reading “The Trudeau Communist Regime must go”. Passersby generally smiled if they paid any attention at all. We might think that the Prime Minister’s office has too much power - but we would never call it a communist regime, unless we were very young with more enthusiasm than knowledge.
I get the feeling that we still think truth and facts are important. I hope it stays that way. Empires come and go. Thank goodness for the Irish scribes who thought learning from the past was important. If truth and facts can’t find common ground and stay in memory, they begin a downward spiral.