The Alternative North American Reality: 1867 to the present

Canada is a strange world, especially to Americans, who often seem hardly aware of what goes on up there north of the border.  Going to Canada is a little like slipping into another dimension or an alternative North American reality, kind of like an episode out of the Twilight Zone.  Everything is almost the same as in the US but with odd little differences. like it's colder outside.   They call themselves loyalists, which I guess makes the rest of us disloyalists. 

 

They look like Canadians to me, Boss.

They have silently and sneakily infiltrated our entertainment industry, pretending to be as American as you or I, but they aren't, like Lorne Greene, or Michael J Fox, or Peter Jennings.  And then you wake up one day and realize that "The most trusted man in America" may not even be an American.  You also discover that your thesis adviser is actually some strange little dude from Alberta who does even stranger things with chicken blood. They are clearly the original pod people.  You can sometimes detect them by asking them to pronounce certain words and noting their reluctance to use Webster's dictionary.  

 I have been to Canada several times, mostly because I married a girl from Niagara County, NY and I wanted to see the better view of the Niagara Falls afforded from Canada.  The US side is depressing, industrial, and dirty looking. Every time I've been there (at least a dozen times) the Canadians on the other side of the river seemed to be having a LOT more fun.   Their money is more colorful and shows pictures of people I had never heard of, they occasionally do strange things, like put gravy on french fries, and they sell gasoline by the liter, which gives you an interesting conversion problem when trying to figure out if it is more or less expensive than it is in the US.  (Usually it is more).    There is also the GST and all products and signs sport both English and French versions (except in Quebec).    And then there are mayors like Toronto's own Rob Ford, who seems to be doing old Washington, DC Mayor Marion Barry proud.   (Maybe they should nominate that guy for the Martin Sheen award). 

Canada became a confederation in 1867 and I realize there is more history than that, but since 1867 marks the point at which Canada began to have prime ministers, I start there.  One always has to begin somewhere.

What was known as the the province of Canada came into existence years earlier of course.  It was the union of Upper and Lower Canada  (Upper Canada being Ontario, Lower Canada being Quebec) which had its legislative assembly.  Thus began the somewhat uneasy partnership between the French and the English in the St. Lawrence Valley.   

The conclusion of the American Civil War in 1865 was a sign that something had to be done to keep the Americans out.  The British and Canadians had seen what the US had done to Mexico in the 1840s, and now that the slave vs free state issue was moot and the demonstrable size of its army and residual resentment against the British for their favoring the South in the war made many in Canada and the UK feel that an invasion might be next on the American agenda.

The solution to this problem was the Confederation of Canada, which became official on July 1, 1867.  At that time Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia became known as the Dominion of Canada, a self governing part of the British Empire, although it wasn't until 1931 with the Statute of Westminster that the UK parliament renounced its ability to legislate for Canada. 

Conclusion: 

   After having reviewed Canadian History through the lives and governments of Canada I must admit there was a LOT I didn't know about our neighbors to the north (2).  I was faintly aware that Stephen Harper was Prime Minister and that Jean Chretien had left office, but I scarcely remembered Paul Martin at all.  Pierre Trudeau I remember primarily because he was kind of a media darling and was married to Margaret Trudeau a flower child 30 years his junior.  She had three children by Trudeau before their divorce in 1984.  Towards the end of their marriage she was seen hobnobbing with Teddy Kennedy and members of the Rolling Stones and partying at Studio 54 in New York on election night. 

 About Brian Mulroney I remember that he was in office for a time and then left abruptly letting Kim Campbell holding the bag while the Progressive Conservatives went down the toilet.  I have wondered for a long time how a political party could fail so completely that only two seats were won by it in the general election.  Later the fragments of the conservatives reconstituted themselves much like that evil character in Terminator II and became the Conservative Party of Canada.   

PC had rather the wrong connotation anyway.  In America anyway to be "progressive" is to be blatantly left-wing while attempting to fuzz away any association with Marxists.  To be "PC" is to be "politically correct" which is to play an inane game of catching other people using words that others have labeled as "not politically correct" because of their supposedly sexist, racist, or "just not with-it" connotation.  (Didn't you get the memo, Mortimer?).  Also political correctness seems to be an exercise in intolerant "like-think" where everyone on the ground is waiting for signals from Moscow before deciding what to think.  The most celebrated episode in this sorry episode was the Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact of 1939, after which American Communists were, overnight, told that Germany was no longer the enemy but our friend.  And then of course, after Hitler invaded the Soviet Union in 1940 they were back to being the enemy. 

The PC crowd also has a marked tendency to appoint people to "speak for" all people "of color" or "of gender", or so forth, as though the group was a monolith of interests, but that is best talked about elsewhere.

I knew that the Canadian Federal government was patterned after the British model, and that Queen Elizabeth II was the titular head of state who must be consulted, so to speak, before elections can be held, though actually this job is done through the "governor general", who is appointed by the Queen on the suggestion of the government.   

 While in the US people "run" for office, in Canada they "stand" for office.  In a similar way, when lawyers receive their license to practice in a given state or province, in the US they are said to be "admitted" to the bar, whereas in Canada they are "called" to the bar.  There is also the curious institution in Canada called the Senate, which seems to be somewhat like the "House of Lords" in the UK.    And in Canada the electoral districts are called the "riding" or "constituency", akin to the American congressional districts. 

What have the Canadians been up to?  Mainly the same sorts of things Americans have been up to.  More than Americans they have had to deal with identity.  Their proximity to the US has been a constant danger and temptation.  The Western provinces are much closer to American markets than Eastern Canada, which has led to a certain East/West resentment.  Quebec is mainly French speaking which has led to a cultural divide which has threatened to split from Canada at various times in the past.  And there is a significant French speaking minority in the rest of Canada.    In the middle of Canada is a huge mostly empty wilderness known as Western Ontario, which seems good for only flying people in occasionally to fish and hunt.

After having read a little about the Charlottetown and Meech Lake summits, I frankly still don't know quite what the fuss was about.  Constitutionally the Federalists seem to be winning the struggle against the Quebec separatists. I was surprised that until early in the 20th century Canadian foreign policy was handled through the UK.  

Free trade of course is a good thing.  Those that don't think so are usually owners of protected industries or members of labor unions enforcing inefficient practices.   It has taken the Canadians a long time to realize this.  Americans are as afraid of free trade with Canada as much as the Canadians were afraid of it from the US.  Ross Perot's giant sucking sound was actually the noise of his own ideas.