When I first moved to the United States from Canada, I had that slightly superior attitude that people from smaller countries typically have about America.
"He subjected the country to a full suite of progressive shibboleths—a dramatic expansion of immigration, commitment to DEI principles, net-zero regulations, meaningless land acknowledgements, neglect of the military, the macabre spectre of MAID (medical assistance in dying), national hand-wringing over truth and reconciliation, the elevation of documents like UNDRIP (United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples) over the laws passed by the people’s representatives in provincial and national Parliaments, COVID-era dalliance with the Emergencies Act to quell protests against vaccine mandates, and a dramatic increase in the role and scope of the federal government in the economy and society as a whole."
A) Thank you for giving us license to increase the length of our sentences!
B) That list seems incomplete given the train wreck he was ... maybe you left some things out and could have made that sentence longer!
All kidding aside, Trevor, as sad (and angry) as all this makes me for my friends in SK and AB, this is a beautifully written piece that I immediately sent to all of them.
Really well done. We can never get enough of your work! 👏👍
I think some writing exercises involve writing long, long sentences. I might have done that once or twice. 😉 Thanks for forwarding this to other people. It was difficult to write at times. I thought I could knock it out in a week, and it took much longer.
This was a very interesting and informative essay. Although a bit long for my normal tastes, I did learn quite a few things re Canada that I didn’t know or understand.
As a retired oil & gas professional from the U.S., I spent several years in western Canada that on balance I enjoyed immensely. I especially enjoyed the Canadian Rockies of Alberta / BC, where my wife and I honeymooned in the mid ‘80’s. Wonderful part of the world !!
Switching over to current Canadian cultural issues that the author expanded on; a couple of my views are:
1. Immigration: Today’s Canada is not the Canada I knew and loved in the ‘80’s thru 2000. And it hasn’t changed for the better. Like the U.S., Canada must get a grip on recent excessive immigration. Assimilation of different people groups takes time (several generations) and is best done in smaller batches.
2. Restitution / Reconciliation: Once started down this path, it’s nearly impossible to stop and reverse course. In the U.S., various reparation efforts are generally led by small groups of “aggrieved” agitators and outright grifters. Nothing ever good comes from the attendant, never ending law fare. Everyone, everywhere has ancestors that got a raw deal and were treated badly. Rather than tearing others down, today’s generation needs to get over their “hurt feelings” and start working for a better future outcome.
Looking forward to future posts on this newly discovered Substack. (Ha, it was the Olympic hockey photo that brought me in.)
As a not-quite-retired oil and gas professional, I appreciate your comment and interest. I was born and raised in Saskatchewan, started my career in Alberta, and learned to ski in the Rockies you remember, so I have more than a passing interest in the fortunes of our northern neighbor. Once again, thanks for reading and jumping into the comments!
I'm just not seeing the real reform to Trudeau era policies from Carney. Lots of trips and words but in substance very little has changed - more announcementism, more fiscal insanity, more pro-China naivety, more illiberal Liberalism. Instead of tearing out the Impact Assessment Act and UNDRIP, we're given the Major Projects Office to expedite projects the Liberals deem of value instead of an equal playing field for all that would provide certainty and spur investment. Even on the miltary, he claimed to have met 2% spending but at the end of this fiscal year in two weeks it will be around 1.5% with the only movement a raise for CAF (now the highest paid military in the world) and moving the unarmed coast guard's budget under defence.
We had a limited time to turn things around before we reach real collapse but all we're getting is a shell game.
Of the items I mentioned as positive steps, all are announcementism at this point. It's early days, so I hold out hope, but the CNRL deferment reflects real wait-and-see conditions on the ground.
It's always nice to read thoughtful pieces from fellow Canadians that moved to the American South (Louisiana to boot!). Pickering and the neighboring cities of Oshawa, Whitby, and Ajax were my old stomping grounds. And it looks like we even share vocational interests: after I graduated from the geology program at Fleming College in Ontario, I started my geology career with Western Geophysical in New Orleans in 1998.
As for Canada now: I detest going back to the place. The neglect of the military is my biggest ideological bone of contention, but what I've really come to resent is Canada's pathological, unhinged hatred of all things American. I remember cheerfully participating in this as a child in the 1980s, imagining that the Untied States really was some awful, fiery hellpit.
Now, I'm thankful that living in the United States has given me the opportunity to grow, develop, and flourish—in ways that almost certainly wouldn't have been possible in Canada.
And thanks for tolerating my rant. Your article was far more cogent and intellectual take on Justin Trudeau's wokisme political destructiveness. I'm a bit less optimistic about Carney than you are, but my fingers are firmly crossed. I do sincerely want to see Canada thrive.
Thanks for the comment! If you were working at Western Geophysical in New Orleans in the late 90s, I'm sure we know a few of the same people. Like you, I want to see Canada thrive.
I'm an ex-Canadian who left 35 years ago to live in the Bahamas and I have no regrets, as I saw the direction Canada was going. To me Canada is not a democracy anymore - it is a bureaucracy where the elected politicians have surrendered control of the country to the civil servants and the NGOs. The decisions that affect peoples lives are not made by elected officials but by entities like the Ontario Law Society and the OMA.
I find it very upsetting how many people and institutions have given up on Canada. When a pipeline to the west coast was offered up on a silver platter, there were no takers. When I talk to my stepson and his friends it’s upsetting how many would rather be Americans. I hear the same story elsewhere, the ambitious young
generation, our future movers and shakers want to be elsewhere. Possibly it’s the grass looks greener across the fence but ages of blocking change and everyone has a veto have created stagnation.
Much like Europe, one wonders to what extent Canada’s decline is due to them “not being like those goddamn Yanks.” It’s funny, the little ways cultural inferiorities build up.
Go Canada! Bring in millions more hopeful immigrants from Third and Stone Age worlds. That'll fix everything. Check in with Minneapolis, MN, for more information.
"He subjected the country to a full suite of progressive shibboleths—a dramatic expansion of immigration, commitment to DEI principles, net-zero regulations, meaningless land acknowledgements, neglect of the military, the macabre spectre of MAID (medical assistance in dying), national hand-wringing over truth and reconciliation, the elevation of documents like UNDRIP (United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples) over the laws passed by the people’s representatives in provincial and national Parliaments, COVID-era dalliance with the Emergencies Act to quell protests against vaccine mandates, and a dramatic increase in the role and scope of the federal government in the economy and society as a whole."
A) Thank you for giving us license to increase the length of our sentences!
B) That list seems incomplete given the train wreck he was ... maybe you left some things out and could have made that sentence longer!
All kidding aside, Trevor, as sad (and angry) as all this makes me for my friends in SK and AB, this is a beautifully written piece that I immediately sent to all of them.
Really well done. We can never get enough of your work! 👏👍
I think some writing exercises involve writing long, long sentences. I might have done that once or twice. 😉 Thanks for forwarding this to other people. It was difficult to write at times. I thought I could knock it out in a week, and it took much longer.
This was a very interesting and informative essay. Although a bit long for my normal tastes, I did learn quite a few things re Canada that I didn’t know or understand.
As a retired oil & gas professional from the U.S., I spent several years in western Canada that on balance I enjoyed immensely. I especially enjoyed the Canadian Rockies of Alberta / BC, where my wife and I honeymooned in the mid ‘80’s. Wonderful part of the world !!
Switching over to current Canadian cultural issues that the author expanded on; a couple of my views are:
1. Immigration: Today’s Canada is not the Canada I knew and loved in the ‘80’s thru 2000. And it hasn’t changed for the better. Like the U.S., Canada must get a grip on recent excessive immigration. Assimilation of different people groups takes time (several generations) and is best done in smaller batches.
2. Restitution / Reconciliation: Once started down this path, it’s nearly impossible to stop and reverse course. In the U.S., various reparation efforts are generally led by small groups of “aggrieved” agitators and outright grifters. Nothing ever good comes from the attendant, never ending law fare. Everyone, everywhere has ancestors that got a raw deal and were treated badly. Rather than tearing others down, today’s generation needs to get over their “hurt feelings” and start working for a better future outcome.
Looking forward to future posts on this newly discovered Substack. (Ha, it was the Olympic hockey photo that brought me in.)
As a not-quite-retired oil and gas professional, I appreciate your comment and interest. I was born and raised in Saskatchewan, started my career in Alberta, and learned to ski in the Rockies you remember, so I have more than a passing interest in the fortunes of our northern neighbor. Once again, thanks for reading and jumping into the comments!
Ha! Come for pic, come back for the great writing!
I'm just not seeing the real reform to Trudeau era policies from Carney. Lots of trips and words but in substance very little has changed - more announcementism, more fiscal insanity, more pro-China naivety, more illiberal Liberalism. Instead of tearing out the Impact Assessment Act and UNDRIP, we're given the Major Projects Office to expedite projects the Liberals deem of value instead of an equal playing field for all that would provide certainty and spur investment. Even on the miltary, he claimed to have met 2% spending but at the end of this fiscal year in two weeks it will be around 1.5% with the only movement a raise for CAF (now the highest paid military in the world) and moving the unarmed coast guard's budget under defence.
We had a limited time to turn things around before we reach real collapse but all we're getting is a shell game.
Of the items I mentioned as positive steps, all are announcementism at this point. It's early days, so I hold out hope, but the CNRL deferment reflects real wait-and-see conditions on the ground.
Greatly enjoy your articles whenever they come out, keep the good work coming
Thank you!
It's always nice to read thoughtful pieces from fellow Canadians that moved to the American South (Louisiana to boot!). Pickering and the neighboring cities of Oshawa, Whitby, and Ajax were my old stomping grounds. And it looks like we even share vocational interests: after I graduated from the geology program at Fleming College in Ontario, I started my geology career with Western Geophysical in New Orleans in 1998.
As for Canada now: I detest going back to the place. The neglect of the military is my biggest ideological bone of contention, but what I've really come to resent is Canada's pathological, unhinged hatred of all things American. I remember cheerfully participating in this as a child in the 1980s, imagining that the Untied States really was some awful, fiery hellpit.
Now, I'm thankful that living in the United States has given me the opportunity to grow, develop, and flourish—in ways that almost certainly wouldn't have been possible in Canada.
And thanks for tolerating my rant. Your article was far more cogent and intellectual take on Justin Trudeau's wokisme political destructiveness. I'm a bit less optimistic about Carney than you are, but my fingers are firmly crossed. I do sincerely want to see Canada thrive.
Thanks for the comment! If you were working at Western Geophysical in New Orleans in the late 90s, I'm sure we know a few of the same people. Like you, I want to see Canada thrive.
Corb Lund would be proud of this piece! https://youtu.be/IGPijk717fw?si=zNENv1lELrXaNSTa
🥲 🇨🇦
I'm an ex-Canadian who left 35 years ago to live in the Bahamas and I have no regrets, as I saw the direction Canada was going. To me Canada is not a democracy anymore - it is a bureaucracy where the elected politicians have surrendered control of the country to the civil servants and the NGOs. The decisions that affect peoples lives are not made by elected officials but by entities like the Ontario Law Society and the OMA.
I find it very upsetting how many people and institutions have given up on Canada. When a pipeline to the west coast was offered up on a silver platter, there were no takers. When I talk to my stepson and his friends it’s upsetting how many would rather be Americans. I hear the same story elsewhere, the ambitious young
generation, our future movers and shakers want to be elsewhere. Possibly it’s the grass looks greener across the fence but ages of blocking change and everyone has a veto have created stagnation.
Much like Europe, one wonders to what extent Canada’s decline is due to them “not being like those goddamn Yanks.” It’s funny, the little ways cultural inferiorities build up.
Go Canada! Bring in millions more hopeful immigrants from Third and Stone Age worlds. That'll fix everything. Check in with Minneapolis, MN, for more information.