On the North Shore

A wise person suggested that in times of chaos, “Try not to get swept away by the river; it’s better to stay on the shore”. I can look out my window from a high floor and see the shore of Lake Ontario. On a very clear day I can sometimes see the US faintly on its other side. In the barrage of news that beams out anger and fear, one of the things that I regret is not knowing more Canadian history.  In tenth grade, the history teacher suggested that we could remember the terms of Canadian Confederation by the acronym, LACEFUR. Lace-Fur is easy to remember to this day, but I haven’t a clue what the letters stand for.

But I can look it up!

Doing a little research doesn’t give meaning to the acronym, but some facts help. The British North America Act came into effect on the July 1, 1867. I grew up calling it Dominion Day - because it united three of the five British North American colonies into a federal state – Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and the province of Canada (later divided into Ontario and Quebec). Six other provinces were added later to make ten along with three territories. What also prevailed were British and Canadian statutes that have the effect of a constitution.

Powers were distributed between Parliament and provincial legislatures. Each has named authorities. Some of those for Parliament include banking, criminal law, the postal system and the armed forces. It also included the “Indian Act” the original nations of people who were present before the settlers arrived. (We have unfinished work to do on that one). The provinces had authority over property, contracts, local works and businesses. Naturally conflicts arise over powers and new ones have to be dealt with going forward – radio, aeronautics, official languages – don’t forget that Quebec was a French colony originally. We have had to deal with emergencies, health care and pandemics like the rest of the world.

Canada grew and like other members of the British Empire wanted more independence. In 1931 the British Parliament’s Statute of Westminster put its Dominions on an equal footing with the British Parliament

On December 11, 1931, after decades of negotiations between Britain and the Dominion, the British Parliament passed the Statute of Westminster, which put the Dominions on equal footing with the British parliament.  It also now recognized the monarch as head of the country. In 1960 the Canadian Parliament passed its own Bill of Rights. But there was also a desire for its own constitution. It made several attempts to get provinces to agree and there was also a move in Quebec for greater independence. After many meetings. submissions, and presentations, the Canada Act 1982 was recognized by the governments of the United Kingdom and Canada, which ended the amendment power of the former.

This bare bones summary presents some background information to counter the stupid ones in the news. Canada is a country like the United States of America. It has a Federal Government and Provincial ones, as well as Territorial Governments, it elects members to both bodies. A Prime Minister leads the government. Premiers lead provinces.

It’s a big mass of land:

Here are some comparisons:

Canada is the second largest country in the world, second to Russia

Quebec is three times larger than France and comparable to Texas or California.

Ontario is about the size of Germany.

British Columbia is comparable to Spain.

We’re a nation of immigrants. In Toronto, our largest city, half the people living here were born elsewhere. And that makes us a better place.

I could go on. But here’s the thing.  Naming a country or a prime minister incorrectly is not only brazenly insulting, but phenomenally stupid. Predatory talk will not work with us. We are seldom under attack, thank goodness, but when it happens, we remember who we are.  Don’t mess with us.

Sources: Government of Canada. Wikipedia, Natural Resources Canada. Painting: Lauren Harris

Speaking out

As a resident of Toronto -and an Anglican, I have an excellent Bishop of Toronto who sends us his weekly newsletter that is personal, inciteful, and thought provoking. This week he tells a story of being spoken to by a stranger, who recognized a clergyman’s collar and she remarked, “We need to hear more from people like you”. He notes some of the hazards of being dressed this way:

“ Over three and half decades of ministry, the uniform has elicited a whole host of responses from folks sharing the sidewalk, traipsing through the mall, riding the subway and visiting the hospital. I am sure that my colleagues who don the collar share similar experiences. Some walk by without seeing. Some nod and make gestures of respect. Some notice and then look away. I have had a pedestrian see me coming and cross the street to avoid me. I have had a person or two spit on me and make rude gestures with their middle finger. And I have had folks stop and ask me to pray for them or a family member. But I can’t remember a time when a stranger in a restaurant said, We need to hear more from people like you.

This is typical of what we hear and it is an admonition to us all, including those who don’t wear a clerical collar - as Anglicans, as Christians, as citizens. I’m reading a lot of “Ain’t it Outrageous’!!” from the opinion press this week, and it’s not hard to agree. It was good to hear a former US Ambassador to Japan say, “I’m ashamed”, after he saw what a US president and vice-president did to humiliate a brave man, who not only spoke up, but for three years joined his country’s men and women to stay and fight. Those former two aren’t just small schoolyard bullies. They have power to exercise. Their values are pretty obvious. Power to dominate is all that matters. I liked it when Andy Borowitz characterized the meeting as “Zelenskyy Meets with Russian Agent” because as yet another Bishop, Desmond Tutu, realized long ago in South Africa, that laughter is often the only defense for the powerless. I also liked the the satiric article’s ending. “Vlod, you kicked his ass!” said Bishop Budde.”

That’s the Bishop who got under the president’s skin. He knows exactly what she is saying. He knows there are other values than his that matter. He knows that other people have them and embody them - and that they are admired for seeking justice and mercy long after they are gone. He knows that some people will not be defeated. no matter how much he wishes to bully them. And he must be very afraid.

Most of us are not fawning, but still - what are we doing? “Nevertheless. she persisted” became even more famous with Sen. Elizabeth Warren was speaking up, and I started in writing this as, “Nevertheless, she protested”. So I’ll protest:

• Dismantling government is wrong. Private freedom depends on public governance to ensure accountability

• Humiliating people in public or in private is wrong. It’s also stupid, because it demeans both parties to the communication.

• Giving up on long term friends is wrong. Trust is easy to dismantle between people and countries and very difficult to regenerate.

• Thinking that more money or more power will make you happier is wrong. It won’t. Trust me. I’ve been around for more than eighty-nine years.

And there are things that I am free to do here and now.

• Enable good government - by voting, by commending good actions to elected and appointed persons in an system of governance and questioning actions that appear harmful.

• Treating all person I encounter with respect

• Valuing long term friends. I like Timothy Snider’s suggestion of writing one letter a month to someone I care about.

• Spending and conserving all resources wisely and noting the effects of what I do upon others and upon the planet.

That will keep me busy enough - and away from social media this week.

Puzzlement

There were myriad criticisms of a former president after that one awful debate. I watched only a small part of of it and concurred with the media view that this person was no longer fit to be president on the basis of his performance. But it might be fun to turn the tables. What if Mr. Biden said “I’m going to fire as many people as I can”. Or “ I think it would be great to turn Gaza into a beautiful seaside resort.” or even “How about Canada becoming the 51st state!” The hue and cry would be that the poor man was delusional or just plain crazy. If he had continued to declare that he had always been effective in his job in government, we would have at least surmised that it was too bad, but he wasn’t in the same position any more.

I just wonder if the current incumbent actually thinks he is just in a previous scenario - being able to yell out, “You’re fired”. Or he is channeling the old real estate developer role. Government isn’t a TV series or a real estate company. No one seems to be pointing this out. Acting out of context brings some pretty serious consequences. Will anybody wake up?

Elephants in the Room

With all the drama surrounding life, we are also involved in an provincial election. For Americans, this isn’t a pejorative comment, but it relates to an election of a geographical area comparable to one of your states. Elections must be called after a certain period of time, but can also be called earlier. In this case the Premier - think Governor in your case, is facing some unpleasant and possibly scandalous revelations and is trying to get ahead of it as a giant going after the USA and needing a mandate. He doesn’t. Bribing me with $200 of my own money doesn’t endear me either.

This morning I received a message from a competing poliical party called the Green Party - and you can guess that it is progressive. Here’s what its message said: Let’s take a look at his environmental record:

• He tried to open the Greenbelt for development. (And is still moving ahead with his plan to build two highways through the Greenbelt – including the controversial Highway 413.)

• He’s working with Enbridge to ensure that oil and gas remain a staple of the power grid.

• He gutted conservation authorities to speed up development. (And isn’t consulting – or even informing! – the public about major changes to environmental policy.)

• He weakened endangered species’ laws, and now Lake Superior’s woodland caribou are in danger of being wiped out.

• He’s making it easier to build on wetlands. (Doesn’t he know paving wetlands will make flooding worse?)

• He’s ripping up bike lanes in downtown Toronto.

• He’s making it easier to build natural gas pipelines.

The Green Party message followed with one very brief paragraph stating what it valued and stood for. Then it went back to their complaints

Later this morning I started on a book called Don't Think of an Elephant by George Lakoff. You know what you just thought of..

The above message is a good example of how not to communicate to potential voters.. It simply reinforces the views of the part it opposes. The book mentioned is written for American progressives, but it has application here as well.

As long as you talk about what you are opposed to, it makes the reader focus on that. In American media You-know-who’s image heads up most news items. I’m now starting to see whether New York Times and Globe and Mail articles start with the fact and then dispute a lie. When the opposite occurs the reader may stop before continuing, and the reinforcement works every time.

Framing of messages matters!

Not revenge, just power

We Canadians are rather a mild lot. But don’t push us. We have something that some of our nieghbours below the line don’t have - backbone.

When we are unhappy with our own politicians we say so. A Prime Minister, who incidentally is not a governor of a state, has submitted his resignation when a new party letter is selected. short civics lesson for House Reps and Senators: we are not a single state, but a country of provinces and territories. Would any American politician have the backbone to tell his/her own constituents a few of these facts. I side with David Brooks in his recent article that stupidity has less to do with intelligence than with behavior.

I like what Brooks has to say about Stupidity (The Six Principles of Stupidity, New York Times, Jan, 30, 2025 )defining it as “ behaving in a way that ignores the question: What would happen next?” and elaborating as follows:

Stupidity makes us befuddled. He goes on to say “When stupidity is in control, the literature professor Patrick Moreau argues, words become unscrewed “from their relation to reality.” . Here is another thing, America. Canada is not a source of overwhelming amounts of drugs entering the US.

Stupidity happens when organizations put all their hopes in one person. Dietrich Bonhoeffer is getting a lot of attention these days. Remember him as someone who stood up to Hitler? He said, “The power of the one needs the stupidity of the other.” Of course there was a cost to standing up. Bonhoeffer died for speaking the truth so that we still be here and free.

Stupidity already has all the answers! Watch this one. Especially since there is such a blast of news that we fall behind and fail to say “Huh?”

People who behave stupidly are unaware of the stupidity of their actions. Most of us know when we have been stupid after the fact. Will any Americans wake up to the fact of what they knew already and still went ahead and elected or approved people? They are going to find out.

Brooks continues: “Because stupid actions do not make sense, they invariably come as a surprise. Reasonable arguments fall on deaf ears. Counter-evidence is brushed aside. Facts are deemed irrelevant.” Stupidity is nearly impossible to oppose. Bonhoeffer notes, “Against stupidity we are defenseless.”

People in the grip of the populist mind-set tend to be contemptuous of experience, prudence and expertise, helpful components of rationality, Brroks says. As the writer Marilynne Robinson noted in her book, Genesis, History is so much a matter of distortion and omission that dealing with truth feels like a breach of etiquette”

Robert Reich, noted in a recent podcast that the press is wrong in seeing all of these befuddling actions as revenge. Instead they are about centralizing power. It’s not fun to watch and be affected by. But it’s impressive until it isn’t. Somehow all of this reminds me of Keats’ poem, Ozymandias:

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

As Sister Joan Chittister reminds us in her book, The Time is Now, we are called to be prophets, not just healer. That takes backbone.