How I learned to love Canada

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 30/06/2017 (3030 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Today, I have a confession to make. I am hopelessly in love — and have been for quite some time. It was not love at first sight. In fact, for some time I worked hard to stay away. Continually playing the field, looking for a better match. The more I wandered the more I realized there truly is no place like home.

Of course I’m talking about Canada, which celebrates 150 years as a nation tomorrow. 

My love affair with Canada blossomed with my first travels a long time ago, when as a young man I hitchhiked around Europe. I had seen the mountains of Germany, the oceans of Spain, revelled in the history of England and tasted the foods of Italy. Yet the more I explored, the more I realized Canada had everything those far off destinations offered — and something more. It may be hard to describe, but like eternal love, you just know it is there.

While I have yet to explore Nunavut and Newfoundland, I am fortunate to have paid a number of visits to each of the other provinces. Ours is an amazingly beautiful country with an aboriginal history that goes back centuries more than the 150 years since the Confederation we celebrate.

I have been fortunate to have also spent time in a number of continents. After each trip away, as much as I may marvel at their differences, I return with a pride in my country that has continued to evolve from many of the experiences that have come to me while on those journeys.

These excursions have also taught me how tenuous the advantages we share as a country can be and how we cannot take them for granted.

When I first began my travels, the country that invented democracy was under military rule. As I travelled through Greece, there seemed to be soldiers everywhere on the streets. It took a determined effort by the citizenry, and Greek expatriates, who simply would not let their heritage rights permanently disappear.

I was in Communist-controlled Yugoslavia in the fall of 1970 when I incredulously read how Canada had just been put under the War Measures Act.

This was my country and I could not understand how it was possible that an entire country was now in a position where freedoms, in theory, could be stomped on.

That very night, after I had read that story, I visited a nightclub in Zagreb.

With my mind already in conflict with the information I was processing, at the disco, the song that was being played over and over again was American Women, by the suddenly internationally famous band called The Guess Who. “They’re from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada” I told anyone who would listen. “It’s my hometown”, as though hoping some of the fame would rub off on me.

While Canada may still have a long way to go to find ways to lift all of its citizens out of poverty, a later visit to West Africa showed me what real poverty was. There I experienced how the wealthy meet in gold-and-marble covered convention halls, while a significant percentage of its citizenry are left to starve in the streets.

As many countries go out of their way to block immigrants from entering, we are a country that is not only welcoming, but most often celebrates the diversity that enrich our nation with their arrival.

Like all countries we have our extremists, from both old and new Canadians. But we are mostly a people who care for and try to support one another.

During this 150th year I have been writing about many of the Canadian provinces, trying to communicate what there is to see and experience.

But when I talk about Quebec, in one story I cannot do justice to its distinct place in our history. Or how one event 50 years ago changed the view of Canada by people from around the world. Expo 67 opened our window to the world and is being celebrated in Montreal again this year with visual reminders of that celebration.

When I describe the beauty of Peggy’s Cove, N.S., it does not adequately capture the feelings of how the thousands of immigrants must have felt, entering Canada at Pier 21 between 1928 and 1971, who with great hope and belief, put their feet on Canadian soil when they landed in Halifax for the first time.

When I try and change people’s belief system about Saskatchewan not being a flat province to avoid, by telling them to get off the cursed Trans-Canada Highway, it does not underscore how important this province was in initiating, and fighting for, a health-care system that is arguably one of the best in the world.

And when I brag about my home province, to people who live here as well as those from elsewhere, as I talk about our lakes and our own history, I cannot adequately describe the intangible pride most Manitobans have in our diversity, perseverance and sharing mentality through floods, snowstorms and other natural or man-made challenges we have faced.

I hope to continue my love affair with this country by finding a way to travel to Newfoundland and Nunavit.

I have just returned from an outstanding visit to Charlottetown and Prince Edward Island. I look forward to sharing those stories of an amazing people and province with you next week.

And yes, I will continue to explore other countries as I have always done. But I know where my true love lies. It is right here in this nation, as I too join in celebrating our 150 years since Confederation.

And as I mark this important point in our history, I will further reflect on how lucky I am to be able to call Canada my home.

To all of you, Happy Canada Day.

 

Read Ron’s blog at thattravelguy.ca. Listen to Ron’s latest podcasts via his website, or on demand on iTunes.