Reflections On Being Canadian In A Messed-Up World

The older I get, the more I appreciate just how lucky I was to have been born and raised in Canada.

A lot of people think of this country as the land of ice and snow, in much the same way as they think about Scandinavian countries, and I guess to some extent it is.

But it’s a lot of other things too. And it gave me a lot. It gave me an education that was actually useful to me as a professional writer. It gave me a career that allowed my wife to stay home and be a full time mom to our kids while they were growing up. It gave me friends that I have managed to stay friends with for decades. And most of all, it gave me the freedom to be whatever this is that I enjoy so much every day.

There are a lot of people in countries all around the world who don’t have anywhere near what we have here in Canada. They live under the yoke of oppressive governments. Their resources are plundered by carpetbaggers who enslave their people in terrible jobs for coolie wages while they make billions. Their politicians are purely and totally corrupt on a scale that we know little to nothing about. Their lives genuinely suck because the vast majority of them live in a state of poverty that many of us simply can’t imagine.

There are a lot of people who complain about our government and some of the things that they have done, especially over the past couple of years. But I’ve worked for a number of ministries on both the provincial and federal levels of government, and over the years got to know a lot of the decision makers and worker bees alike, and I can tell you, running a government is one of the trickiest things you can imagine.

You are constantly being criticized and yet you have to carry on. You always have to factor the common good into every decision you make and live with the fact that it will invariably marginalize some one or some group. You have to break hearts, and piss people off, and live with that every day.

So no matter what you think about the politicians in this country, somewhere, either easily visible or buried deep, is the weight of all they have to do to keep things rolling along.

The thing that Canada did in the federal election that we just went thought was to make a statement to the world that the rising tide of Conservatism and the high level of cronyism and influence peddling that surrounds it is not something the majority of us want to have in our country.

I think America has the same attitude, only they got totally fucked over by all the different forces that manipulated their system and ended up with a nightmare named Trump. Hopefully, this will be course corrected and they will get back to where they once were, which is leading the world in a number of different ways.

Right now that looks like a tiny light at the far end of the tunnel, but that can change, because the world truly understands the concept of a madman in power. There’s probably not a single country anywhere that hasn’t gone through that at one time or another.

And that brings me right back to where I started, at home in a country I love, being run by a liberal minority government that wants to move us forward.

There will be a lot of people who are unhappy about this. But I would suggest they see this as an opportunity to re-jig their priorities and align them more closely to what the majority of Canadians have shown they want with their votes.

The simple fact is that for the past 20 to 30 years, Conservatives, in many countries, have shifted from a centrist right position to the far right. And all this does is make them more vulnerable to corporate influence and more out of touch with the vast majority of people. It’s really kinda sad when you think about it.

Anyway, IMHO, the road ahead looks a little sunnier today. Who knows that will happen tomorrow, but for now, a lot of us can breathe a bit easier, while at the same time, keeping our eyes on our fries, which we always do.

jim out