Nov 4

It’s been an exciting time to be living here in the United States.  Of course, the election campaigns have been going on here for a long time already, but being here in the months leading up to this election has been fascinating. An Lose Weight Exercise in understanding the differences between Canadian and American cultures.

Here is my experience as an observer: America has trust issues. Please don’t hear me say that America is wrong or bad. Only a fool would make such callous comments, being a citizen of a neighbouring country, and although I have do have a sense of Canadian pride, I am very aware that Canada doesn’t have everything right. But here in the USA people seem not to be able to trust others to use the sense God gave them. I get the strong feeling I am not trusted to be be rational and reasonable.  This is why I have to sign significantly more forms here than in Canada when I take my children to the doctor, when I enroll them in school, when I set up a bank account or driver’s license – to ensure I won’t come back and sue them over a ridiculous technicality. The television is rife with commercials, news broadcasts and tv specials full of warnings and anxious, cautious language.

This is why, when I have listened to Americans discuss today’s election, they talk about their great fear over what will happen if the candidate they don’t support is elected into office. Not to minimize the very valid concerns American citizens have about who governs their country and how they do so.  I just find it very hard to identify with this crippling sense of fear.

As an outside observer I don’t get a say in what happens in today’s election. But there are many countries in the international community with a vested interest the outcome.  I dare say there are a LOT of Canadians hoping that Obama wins. If for no other reason than he didn’t talk smack about our health care in a nationally televised debate or have a seven minute telephone conversation with a fictional French president!***

Perhaps Americans have more reasons to be afraid. A major war, an economic tailspin, and no universal healthcare are all good reason to shake in your boots a little or to feel suspicious of people who claim to be able to make changes. While I don’t claim to fully understand (or even to be correct about) the feelings or attitudes I observe as a foreigner here, I do know that today is the day that Americans get to make a choice to move forward without fear by electing a candidate who has campaigned fearlessly and without perpetuating fear in this country.  

America, this is your opportunity to move beyond fear to confidence, beyond suspicion, to trust, and to take the next step out of your country’s childhood to become self-aware, humble and to lead with conviction. When people look back on this day in history they will say that this is the day America left fear behind. This is the day they elected president Obama.

***While I wouldn’t say that Obama’s health care plan is a copy of Canada’s for a number of reasons, and while I would be the first to agree that Canada’s health care plan DOES have a number of problems, let me refer y’all to an article from a July 2008 copy of Maclean’s magazine. This article states that Canadians pay half as much as Americans per person each year for both public and private health care.  The result? We live an average of 2.5 years longer than Americans! With those numbers I’ll take the Canadian health care system, warts and all!

Sep 29

The very best thing about the upcoming Canadian Election is that Rick Mercer has started posting on his blog again.  I love the way he pokes fun at Canadian politics, Canadian politicians, Canadians, and, most recently, Canadian politicians who blog…

But now I love blogs again. Blogs are serving an exciting new purpose: making politics interesting again. When I turn on the news and hear that another candidate is in trouble because of something they said on their blog I am like a kid at Christmas.

We are in a brave new time. In this election, like all of them before, there are people stepping forward for the first time. Candidates in their 20s and 30s … represent a generation of Canadians who’s every movement from the womb to the ballot has been electronically recorded.

A home video camera didn’t just roll on their first adorable steps and their first header into the coffee table; it was also running when they smoked lousy hash in an apple and then opened their zipper, pulled out their front pockets, exposed their man-tackle and did the elephant impersonation. There are now candidates running for all parties who know that their every embarrassing moment at university has been forever cached in numerous Facebook profiles. And this new generation of politician have all, for the most part, experimented with blogging.

This is a harsh contrast to our current crop of politicians sitting in parliament, the vast majority of whom have no idea how to power up a laptop let alone publish every bizarre opinion and thought they have ever had without a spell check, let alone a sober second thought.

It will change the face of elections forever.

Who will run? In the past politicians had to survive a party background check if they wanted to offer themselves for public office. And by and large most Canadians could pull that off. The question for candidates of the future will be “can you survive a detailed Google search?” Who among us will be able to do such a thing?

And you know what? He’s right! I love it!

Welcome back, Rick! You’ve been missed!

And, ok, the election is pretty interesting, too. I’m actually pretty excited to be all set up to vote from afar and will be casting my ballot before long as it must reach Ottawa by election day.  Can I just say how much I am appreciating the differences between American and Canadian politics?  Because I am.  I know that the American population is about eleventy million times larger than ours and maybe that makes the length of their campaign process appropriate. But it feels like it’s been going on FOREVER. I’m kind of relieved that it’s only a month from start to finish in Canada. In my opinion, it gives our politicians more time and freedom to accomplish what they set out to do. 

Or, you know, write incriminating shit on their blogs to be uncovered in future election campaigns.

Sep 16

I received a comment on yesterday’s post from someone who felt strongly that I was being overly dramatic in my treatment of the breastfeeding issue.

I’m ashamed that you consider this harassment or a human rights violation. At most it is upsetting.

I agree that you should be allowed to breastfeed when/where ever needed. That being said I believe that in this politically correct world we are getting ridiculous. It’s not a human right to never be upset or offended. If the flight attendant had insisted on having her cover up that would be another story but nothing I’ve read on this incident said that is the case.

Comments such as most of those I’ve seen on this incident only cheapen those who actually do have human rights issues.

I mean the very idea that the right to nurse in public could be treated as a human rights issue when people around the globe are being physically mistreated, forced into unethical and unfair situations and going without basic necessities like food and water seems laughable, right? I imagine women shrieking “FORGET STARVING CHILDREN! THEY’RE MAKING ME COVER MY BOOOOOBIESSSS!!!” Laughable! The very idea!

Give me a little credit, folks! I did actually spend some time thinking about that very issue before and while writing my post. So let me address the problems suggested by the commenter.

First, that it is wrong for me (or anyone) to consider this incident harassment or a human rights violation.  I suppose it might seem like that if you take this situation on its own. The fact is, it’s becoming increasingly common for women to experience this kind of hassling by people and businesses when nursing in public. I’ve never been a big “crusader” for breastfeeding rights. I’ve never really considered it my “cause”. But Catherine isn’t the only person who has experienced this reaction to breastfeeding in public.  She’s not the first to blog about it. She’s not the only one to be judged or treated like she’s behaving indecently. And while her treatment isn’t the same as physical or verbal abuse, it was still an ugly judgment on her as a person and a slap in the face of her dignity. I don’t know about you, but I consider dignity a basic human right. When women are treated like they are violating indecency laws while breastfeeding in public their dignity is violated. 

Second, it’s not my right to never be offended. Well yes, of course that is true. And no doubt there have been many people who are too easily offended over trivial issues throughout Canada’s (and America’s) history. What I have to ask is why aren’t more people offended by the way our country treats nursing mothers?  Why are we still so wrapped up in our prudish heritage that we take offense at a bare breast for the purpose of feeding a child and yet not at the subtle attitudes that pile the pressure on to women who are already under incredible pressure with the physical and emotional demands of a nursing child. If we really believe that a person who expects a nursing mother to be completely covered in order to be “decent” is wrong, then why is our first reaction often to go ahead and ask that mother to cover up?

Third, that the flight attendant didn’t actually do anything wrong (ie. forcing a nursing mother to cover up) so I (and others like me) should shut our big yaps. Well, in my humble opinion, the flight attendant did do something wrong and you don’t have to follow the scenario to it’s most extreme conclusion (physically forcing a woman to cover herself while nursing) to recognize that something needs to change here. I am not the only one who believes that this is gender discrimination which IS protected by the Canadian charter of rights and freedoms. 

Maybe it is reaching to call this particular incident a true and blatant violation of human rights. But the attitudes portrayed by the players, especially the lack of appropriate response by WestJet, is a telling sign that our culture does not practice what it preaches, not to mention that we have fanatically juvenile preoccupation with sexualizing breasts.

Does a call to treat nursing mothers with dignity cheapen the much more dramatic injustices many people in the world are suffering? I don’t think so. As the saying goes, charity starts at home. As it turns out, so do a lot of other important things like sensitivity, respect, empathy, compassion, dignity and tolerance. If we can’t treat one of our own citizens, nursing in an airplane, with respect what makes us think we can do so with the citizens of other countries? Freedom in word means nothing unless it’s accompanied by deeds.

Feb 6

This morning I watched the ceremony in which Stephen Harper was sworn in as Canada’s 22nd Prime Minister. Stephen Harper has always seemed just slightly less than human to me. Not in a monstrous way. He just seems so bland and expressionless which makes him just a tiny bit creepy.

But this morning, as he entered the room where he officially became Prime Minister, I saw a different man. On his face I saw an expression that said “Holy Crap! I’m going to be Prime Minister!!!” He looked giddy and excited and a tiny bit nervous and completely petrified all at once. It was totally endearing and I think that in those moments, as he waited to take office, he won my allegiance.

Does it sound like I’m talking about him like a puppy? I hope not. It’s just that I always thought that Jack Leighton and Paul Martin both had a certain likeability factor. Maybe it’s because they just seem more real. Maybe Harper’s detachment will make him a better PM but I think that if I were voting between the three leaders, he would be hard to vote for simply because he is hard to relate to. I don’t know. But I appreciated seeing a bit of humanity this morning and that’s really all I needed to know. It is comforting to know that our new leader is a real person with actual feelings and it was gratifying to see his excitement over this new job shine through just for a minute. Congratulations Prime Minister Harper.