Will the last word ever spoken be why?

Will the last word ever spoken be why?

This was a song by Roger Whittaker a number of years ago. Will the last word ever spoken be “why”? A few months ago I walked into the Pass Herald and asked Lisa, the owner Editor of the paper, if she would like me to write a column. I said that I am tired of people assuming that we the people of the South West of Alberta are all politically Rightwing and stated that my articles would be controversial. Lisa said that controversy is good. Done. I am writing “The Simple Raven’s post,” and it is well received. There isn’t a day that folks don’t tell me how much they enjoy my post. One said that its too long but I am unable to express my opinions in a tweet. Sorry, my friend. There are enough people who state an opinion in a sentence or two, but I am not one of them.

Last week Lisa wrote her personal opinion in an editorial about the recent Ontario Provincial elections. The Pass Herald is neutral, but the editor is a person with opinions. I like to differ with her opinion on politics. Thanks to the Pass Herald being a free paper, not owned by corporate interests, (owned by Lisa) like the big news media organizations, I can.

Doug Ford didn’t win the popular vote in Ontario. His party was better organized and won the “first to post” system which should be done away with. Doug is lying since if all his promises are priced, which he refused to do, Ontario will be in worst debt then it would have been under an NDP government.

The editorial went on to say that hopefully in a year time the Ottawa government will be changed. I agree but wouldn’t change it to Andrew Scheer. In the last three years, steps were taken by the Liberals to help Alberta out of the economic problems created by oil prices falling; steps were taken to help families with financial issues, bring retirement back to 65, and above all correct some of the past injustice done to the original inhabitants of this land. Discrimination against none-Christian Canadians stopped and the useless austerity measures based on fictitious “going into debt” reasons reversed. Our economy is growing the fastest in the G7. Our great grandchildren will not be stuck with our debts and thanks to us placing a price on Carbon may not suffocate, be drowned or burned either. Are the Northern European countries suffering from crushing debt?

On the provincial front, I have the same take. I am not ready to simply convict the Notley government without looking at the evidence. I prefer the present government to the Redford government even if I have some problems with Rachel’s direction. I do like the fact that Alberta is leading all provinces economically again, even with the lower price of oil and the lack of access to markets.  Calgary is all under construction again, and unemployment is low. A lot has been done to help with daycares and living wages for the lowest paid workers didn’t increase prices as predicted. No, Mr. Kenney, you will not get my vote for any emotional reasons, you will have to prove that businesses are leaving Alberta because we didn’t decrease taxes on corporations, not just say so.

The big question always is who is better to create an environment that will make life better for most people without killing the business initiative and without starving the poor and less able amongst us. The business is the driver of our economy and the government must ensure that we live up to our Christian moral code. In my opinion, business should take the lead for growing the economy while government must regulate how much profit business is permitted to take from workers.

If it were up to me I would not allow corporations to be equal to people. A person (Corporation) with only one directive, to increase wealth for shareholders, is an enemy of the people.  A political party that is dedicated to the well being of corporations at the expense of people, is not my party. I was a Progressive Conservative but I can no longer support the party since they abandoned my kind. If they are openly the political organization for the corporations, they will have to go without the workers and small family businesses. If they think that all Christians will join them because they restrict abortions and condemn gay people, I wish them luck. Let's count the votes on election day.

By the time Alberta votes again the country will have seen how Doug Ford will cut taxes by five billion and solve hospital waiting lines as well as improve public education without firing people or increasing the Ontario deficit. If he fulfills his promises, good, and if not, he is just another Trump. I predict that Ford will stand in front of the cameras, call us “his friends” and blame everybody else for his failure to fulfill his promises.

We have the ability to provide all of us with all the basic needs, especially if we don’t spend so much on wars. I will vote for someone who will help my community, and who cares about people. We have the teachings that say “love each other as yourself.” The only question is what motivates us to do what we do and why. Will the last word ever spoken be why?

This is a link to my blog: https://thesimpleravenspost.blogspot.ca/  Feel free to check other articles and comment.

 

Unnamed internet source. Mematic.net

 

Waterton is back in business.

Posted in Pass Herald Waterton Addition June 20 2018.

Waterton is back in business.

For a number of years, Waterton has been my favorite quiet place. I used to be a frequent visitor to Banff in the sixties and seventies, but slowly found myself crowded out by a steady increase in commercialism. For a while, Canmore retained the “little town in the mountains” character, but it didn’t last long either. Only an hour from a city of over a million people left Canmore vulnerable to a steady push towards mega development and altered its character. The next place that offered majestic mountains, forests in natural state and lakes of fresh mountain water was Waterton. Here I could still enjoy a one of a kind natural Canadian Rockies beauty, meet thousands of international visitors and enjoy a solitary walk on a natural trail without feeling that enjoyment in life is directly related to my credit card limits.  

I live in a mountain forest and I am too old to start looking for another place even if I wanted to. As much as I try to never even think about my peaceful haven being endangered, I could never forget the warnings of those who made it their business to study major trends in the environment. They predicted that the increase in greenhouse gasses would eventually cause climate change, and steady increase in floods, droughts and forest fires frequencies. Closing my eyes and burying my head in the sand didn’t help.

One after another weather-related disasters came, each time with a qualifier that this was rare events. Calgary had a hundred year flood, the Crowsnest Pass had floods and fires and now the big one, the Kenow 2017 fire in Waterton National Park. Climate change is assaulting my home and my favorite places. I know that forest fires are an integral part of nature, but natural disasters are speeding up. My political leaders are saying that it should be ignored for economic reasons, but our well-learned experts are disputing the notion and are winning based on evidence.

Last summer we heard the warnings of the weather experts, as we do now every summer. BC was tinder dry and fires were erupting everywhere. Alberta was still recovering from the Fort Mc Murray disaster when the news splashed over the screens. A fire in Waterton Parks coming from Montana and BC. I tried to ignore it so it will go away but I didn’t have an alternate universe like the President of the United States does. The ranchers were being evacuated from what I call God’s Country, and the huge wall of flames was charging faster than any cavalry towards that peaceful, simple town that I love, Waterton.

Just like a few years prior in the Crowsnest Pass, brave Canadian men and women don their orange suits and shovels in hands went to fight for their country. Our brave pilots both helicopters, and fixed wings, worked to the point of exhaustion while churches and community halls turned into evacuees centers. Money and volunteers poured from all over and grandmas were baking for displaced families. A wall of firefighters with determined blackened faces stood their ground against a much bigger wall of flames and smoke and defended the homes of other Canadians they never met but felt a strong kinship with. Whoever or whatever attacks Canada, or any part of it, must know that they will not win against our determination, hardiness and strong sense of unity. We were not melted together in Canada; we “chose” to be one and you see the benefits in action when we face a foe.

Last week I went back to see how Waterton is fairing after the fire. Many trees are leafless and the surrounding mountains don’t look like they used to. Everywhere there are scars, but nature and people are fighting back. The lakes are still peacefully blue and the mountains remain majestic as ever. They have been through fires before thousands of times. The ancient people of Waterton, named Blackfoot after their ability to exist after fires, opened a new information center and descendants of pioneers operate the quaint little businesses in the area. Others are a testimony of new Canadians who brought interpretership from the far east and prospered under our multicultural system. You hardly find any chain stores or restaurants in Waterton. People don’t come here for the predictable and familiar, but for the unique and creative experience.

I was surprised to see the town already being under construction and even more astonished to see the number of tourists constantly driving in or even arriving in busses. There are trailers and motorhomes in the full campground and happy faces wherever you look. Just like every other year before the fire, you hear every language on earth spoken on Main Street. People are hiking and strolling about, looking with awe at the line that the fire was not able to cross. Just like in our game Hockey, the defense did their job and people are amused by our determination. Every half-burned tree right on the edge of town is a witness and the majestic hotel, the Prince of Wales, stands defiantly amongst the burnt brush as a background for the thousands of visitors who take “selfies” in front of it.

PHOTO CREDIT: P PHOTO CR

I watched a wedding party taking pictures with Cameron Falls in the background and got talking to a couple of teenagers who mistaken me for a tourist.  The girl said wise words that can’t escape my mind. She looked at her relative getting married and said: “it is more important to love than to be loved.” So Canadian and so appropriate in a place they call The Peace Park.

EDIT: Parks Canada I watched a wedding party taking pictures with Cameron Falls in the background and got talking to a couple of teenagers who mistaken me for a tourist.  The girl said wise words that can’t escape my mind. She looked at her relative getting married and said: “it is more important to love than to be loved.” So Canadian and so appropriate in a place they call The Peace Park.

My blog: https://thesimpleravenspost.blogspot.ca/  Feel free to check other articles and comment.

Avner.

 

Photo Credit Parks Canada/ Ryan Peruniak.

Who are those dangerous Immigrants crossing the borders?

Who are those dangerous Immigrants crossing the borders?
Almost every time I watch the news, listen to radio or read the paper, I observe fear. Fear is a great seller of news and a huge political motivator. The West is fearful of people invading and taking over. It is a valid concern and none of us wish to have other people take what we have. We still have collective memories of the European revolutions, guillotines and people storming the Bastille. We shouldn’t. If we are fair to people and view them as human beings, they will be more than happy to come here and learn our ways. History proves it.
I remember in the seventies when the women’s equal rights movements were starting; men were fearful of women taking their jobs. Some did and many didn’t. African Americans didn’t make life worst for us by being allowed to vote, people with turbans didn’t force us to speak Punjabi, Muslims didn’t make our courts chop the hands of thieves and most of us never seen a woman wearing a veil. At best some of us went to school with kids from China, India or the Philippines only to discover that they are humans as we are. We even learned that it doesn’t take seven Ukrainians to change a lightbulb and Newfies tie shoes with both hands.
European countries, even the ones who scream and cry about migrants, admit that their economies must have more people to grow and the US depends on immigration to keep its economy going. When Trump proposed to curtail immigration from the Orient, Silicon Valley in California, went berserk.
 I often go to visit my dad in a seniors lodge in Calgary and the staff are all immigrants and there is always a sign outside looking for more workers. I go out and visit some businesses around, and I find immigrant owners employing Canadian students and trying very hard to look and sound Canadian.
The USA is very much like Canada and doesn’t have as much natural resources. The main reason that the US are economically better than us is the fact that they have more people in the right environment. More people are working, paying taxes and consuming, providing more services causing economic prosperity. When people are given the freedom to work and benefit from their labor, they flourish. The US learned that fact earlier than we did.
This idea is not new by any means. In the 1880s Canada was advertising in Europe and the US, trying to lure people with promises of free land. It was during the Brian Mulroney era that immigration quotas increased and in 2006 the landing fee per immigrant was slashed by 50%. Both actions were taken by Conservatives who now are talking against accepting refugees since it is a popular thing to do.
In the United States today the president fights for a border wall, knowing full well that he will have to get immigrants from somewhere. His dream of getting people from Norway is not very realistic as are most of his dreams. Norway is presently welcoming immigrants and far less than 1% of immigrants from Norway come to either Canada or the US. Why would they leave a country with free healthcare, including pharma-care, free higher education, very low crime rate, hardly any incarcerated people and much more, to immigrate to North America?
People by nature fear the unknown and even try to kill it. This is obvious when it comes to insects. When I was young, you couldn’t find a person who would not kill any bee that they could catch. It took many years to convince ourselves that without bees there will be no people. The same goes for spiders (OMG) and just about any other living being, but it takes a long time to convince people of it.
Canada initially was populated by the two dominant nations of Europe at the time England and France. Not much effort was spent on inviting Francophones, but their numbers were compensated by a higher birth rate that now is rapidly diminishing. We exhausted our ability to bring Anglophones (1849 brought the most because of the Irish potato famine) and turned to other European countries. The eastern Europeans were most suitable to farming and settling our West. Those slowed down when Europe began to recover from wars and economic disasters like Communism, and we began looking farther east.
Now the dominant group is from the Philippines followed by India and China. Other war-torn countries even if you include Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and count both their refugees and legal applicants, are hardly registering on the scale. All the statistics are easily available on the internet.
The US now started to separate children from their immigrant parents in the cruelest possible way according to US Senator Jeff Merkley. Do we want to be like them or do we prefer the Canadian way?  Most of us here are immigrants, or our parents were, and we wave the Canadian flag and sing O Canada with a tear in our eyes. Do we want to support politicians who try to make us scared of immigrants or do we see ourselves as a nation that helps people in need?
I have a Nigerian friend named Chrisantus. He went through unbelievable suffering to become a Canadian and now he employs a number of Canadians and provides a much-needed service. In my opinion, he has done more for Canada in a short time than some people who are shouting on TV that we are being invaded with our government’s consent. We have a good immigration policy, obey international laws regarding refugees, and billions of people around the world use us as a good example. Be not afraid.
Here is a link to my blog: https://thesimpleravenspost.blogspot.ca/  Feel free to check other articles and comment.
An 1880 poster inviting people to Canada
Source: Wikipedia.

Are we the victims of extortion?

Are we the victims of extortion?

I can’t remember a time in which Canadians felt separate from our neighbors in the US. Canada and the US typically trade 63 Billion dollars worth of goods and services a year. We are different from our American kin next door, but we act like one family. You can’t tell the difference between a Canadian and an American unless they tell you. I had neighbors who were American and didn’t even know it for a long time. Now (sadly) I do. I feel like I been kicked by someone I trusted.

One does not expect family or neighbors to point a gun to their head and say, give me your money, but yet this is exactly what is happening now, and the gun is pointed at us. We remember all the times when we fought, and some of us died, to help the US, but they forgot. At least their self-proclaimed great businessman President did. Canada declared war on the US enemies after Pearl Harbor before the US did.

The ruling US elite just wants the money and don’t care where we get it from. If we must put thousands of Canadians out of work in order for Trump to create jobs, and win the next elections, he doesn’t care. It's our problem.  Our little Pass community here that mines metallurgical coal may be affected.

Last week our Prime Minister was scheduled to visit the White House to sign a newly negotiated trade deal (NAFTA) and found out that the good neighbors will only agree if we capitulate on one of the main points that we negotiated, the sunset close. We can play negotiating games with them all we want, but at the end, we either give them the money, or they will hurt us as much as they can. If we don’t give them the money, they will not let their “free” businesses buy from us, and we will have to look for other customers. They do the same to all their allies, the G7 countries and to their less friendly competitors, like China. Family, friends or neighbors doesn't count for much in the new game; it is only about money.

Deals signed and believed to be binding are only binding on one side, when the once again great America, become richer and the others, like us, become poorer. Other deals faired the same. The Paris accord, the sad co-existence in Korea, the deal with Iran, the unspoken agreement about Jerusalem, the status of transgender people in the army, the regulations on banks, consumer protection laws, safety of drinking water, wildlife sanctuaries, public lands, and parks, freedom of the press, rules about nepotism, all been assailed in short order.  I can go on just out of memory and it’s shocking.

The US is a very powerful country and everyone at one time wanted to be their friends. The only country that didn’t have to ask to be their friend was Canada. Both Canadians and Americans understood that Canada is the US friend. What we Canadians didn’t understand is that we are the house slaves. The Americans want us to supply all they need or want, for the price they wish to pay and not expect anything back. It's not all Americans; it's actually the few who make big money. They are used to taking whatever they want from their own population and they view us as a threat. Some kind of big labor union named Canada. Trump truly feels that we should be taught who is the boss.

I stayed in the US for a while and always have been around Americans. Calgary is home to many Americans and even a presidential candidate in the last elections was born in Calgary. Aside from him I never yet met an American I didn’t like and “lying Ted” I never really met. They are nice people if you keep in mind that they come from a different culture. Many of them are here because they can’t stand the constant stress of their culture. Some are here to make money and some moved here to be with Canadians since they have more in common with us.

I love and respect Americans that I know since all of them happen to be nice. I used to admire how they used competitive human nature to build and invent things, but I always had reservations about how they treated others like the African Americans, the native population and many of those who immigrated like the Chinese and Japanese. I can’t blame them since we as a nation are guilty of the same. However we Canadians are now living up to it and making attempts to make at least symbolic amends. In their case, they as a nation are going the other way.

The US today is crossing the line from being good business people to becoming plain pirates. They are at war against terrorists but do not even try to hide that terrorism is legitimate in their eyes if used to make gains. The America of this generation is keeping half of their own numbers in poverty, lack of medical and educational services or even in jail as well as complete future insecurity and now they turned their gaze on us.

We build up an industry and sale them some products, they develop one of their own and force us to close down. It could be anything, agricultural, technological, whatever one can imagine. I for one am tired of being the hewers of wood and drawers of water. In my humble opinion, we should push for an end to this unfair marriage.

A country like Canada can easily support itself without depending on big brother. There are plenty of nations that we can trade with, and I sooner become used to paying for transporting goods instead of getting used to giving Trump and his panel of robbers unfair tariffs.

Community Newspapers.

 

 The Simple Raven’s Post.

 

Community Newspapers.

 

I think that community Newspapers are important and that expressing opinions in them is vital. This is what is meant by saying Grassroots. It is the base of Democracy. If you follow the Mass Media, you see huge numbers of people bunched together made to look like one unit. I remember hearing someone on the CBC stating that Southern Alberta is the Wildrose bastion. Yet when you read individual little town papers, you see that many people in southern Alberta are not supporting the political Right for very explicit reasons. It is not in their best interest.

 

Last week I was having tea with a friend at Stone Throws Cafe and entered a conversation with two intelligent looking local teen girls less than a third my age. Most people would say, kids, and expect them to talk about hair and makeup. Not these two. One of them told me that she is going to spend this summer doing an internship at Premier Notley’s office. That is the Premier of our Province!  Here we have a situation where none of our local politicians are able to get any attention from the Provincial Government, since we are viewed as a bastion of the right, by a government that is slightly on the Left, and this teenage girl is going to be chatting with the premier every day. How much would the rich lobbyists pay for an opportunity like that?

 

 

Years ago before the internet, I wanted to know about the community my wife comes from, which is situated seven hours north of Calgary. I subscribed to the local paper, Smoky River News, and kept the subscription up for some years. Eventually, I was getting the paper in the mail but rarely read any of it, and I stopped. They had news about kids baseball games and High School Grads, talked about local businesses and honey production, but there was no content that was interesting to read. The events were too ordinary for this century. People like to know about community happenings but seek information about how the community fits into the big picture. A paper that is truly non-political is like a dish that got all the major food groups but cooked without spices, salt and pepper.

 

A community newspaper is an asset, but it faces a challenge. The job is to report, accurately at all times, local news that interests the community. Unfortunately, a lot of little communities don’t have much news. The advertisers pay for the operation since the people in the community assumingly read the paper… Stop the press… here is a problem. If the paper is not interesting, it starts competing with advertising pamphlets and brochures, and it is going to lose. The local paper doesn’t have the resources that the big marketing firms do. Brochures have more pictures, better color and expensive paper.  The only edge of a local newspaper is that people read it for local news and often to get a glimpse of what others in the community think. All people in our community are not extreme right unquestioning sheep, they have their own beliefs and look for expression in the community newspaper. Since I have been writing this column, I have been getting a lot of comments, and all but one were complimentary.

 

Unfortunately, or fortunately, many little communities don’t have much news, to report and Council meetings are often not interesting enough to many residents. People want to know what is happening in their community but expect more than just that. The expectation is that the Paper will report and the columnists will offer opinions. Controversy can be good if it stimulates discussion.

 

Years ago, when I was looking for a place to eventually retire to, I noted that the Crowsnest Pass had two local papers. I met an old guy who was driving a green SUV with the word “Press” on it and inquired about his function. He was such a professional Reporter that I placed a check mark by Blairmore as a potential place to spend my later years at. The Pass was a place that had a tradition of free thinking and rebellion in its blood, and old Buddy proudly pointed it out. I went to the Frank Slide Interpretive Center and saw an old movie highlighting the women of the Pass singing, “I will stand right beside you,” on a picket line. I moved to the Pass.  This was a community that historically rebelled if things went wrong. It was like moving amongst my people.

 

When I was here to stay, I assumed that the population would be engaged in local affairs. I talked with neighbors and others and discovered that it was no longer the case. My neighbor said, ”we don’t get the local papers since there is nothing there.” If there is an issue, we buy the paper but not otherwise. What about your political affiliations I asked, and he answered, we are Conservative like all Southern Albertans and there is no-one questioning it. Humm… The town that broke prohibition, that harbored Tim Buck and had strikes that shook the nation became uninterested in politics? I wonder.  

 

Now I am witnessing a unique phenomenon. Some of the people who remember the long and painful struggle of mine workers to feed their families are still around. The people who sang, “I am the working man I am, and I been there underground,” are passing a rich tradition to the new people, the millennials, and the young ones are ready and willing to take the torch. Girls with their cell phones are taking the tradition of fighting for the middle class, and the word is spreading through the Social Media and Community Papers, like this one. We have what Calgary and Edmonton don’t, an independent Newspaper that supports real journalism. Thanks, Buddy. Your portrait should be hanging in the Civic Hall.

The American Dream before it moved to Canada.

The American Dream before it moved to Canada.

I was mowing the lawn first time this year. It occurred to me that I am living the American dream. The idea of an American dream was originated in the early thirties but took shape after the Second World war. American and Canadian boys were coming back from the war and settling down for life of peace. The duty to the country was done, and now it was time for the rewards.

What was the American dream? Most men were going to marry their sweethearts, buy a house, often with a front lawn, have a garage, a family car and a job that would take them into retirement. The girls who worked during the war in men’s industries, were quite happy to have and raise kids, look after the family and enjoy the freedom granted by new appliances that performed the traditional women's duties with electricity instead of muscle power. Guys worked in industry during the week, cut the lawn and waxed the automobile on the weekends. On Sunday the family dressed up and went to church. Most people found ways to enjoy their holidays. TV became common and people began watching sports, soaps, and news. With that came tempting commercials.

Most of the boys, GI’s they called them, had “free” healthcare and the ability to obtain “free” college education, as a reward for their service. Roosevelt’s New Deal provided a new infrastructure, new access to electricity, roads, rail, and schools, hospitals and other amenities that didn’t exist for the masses during the prior great depression.  In other words, people had jobs and money, sold and purchased things, and the economy roled well right till the seventies or early eighties. This was the great America that people today are dreaming about getting back. Colored people were mostly excluded from the dream, and some blame them for the loss of the American dream.

Inflation threatened to change the balance, but a combination of unionized workers and government regulations kept the relationship between those with capital and the majority of workers healthy. Still, people had jobs, pensions, homes with garages and lawns and a chicken in every pot. Americans, even while paying for wars and starting to include minorities into the American dream, were on top of the world. In 1981 President Reagan was elected in the US and in 1984 Brian Mulroney became Prime Minister of Canada.

People had to work for what they had, strikes were happening and the Cold War was a constant reminder that if the many millions of workers don’t do well, revolutions may happen. There was a healthy fear of Communism in the air. At the end of the eighties, the Soviet Union was collapsing and people were sold on the idea of Supply-Demand economics or Reaganism, as many prefer to call it. Now it is known as the Trickle-down Economics.

Another notable change was the invention of credit cards which gave the masses the ability to purchase more then they could afford. The average people began to improve the American dream without saving. Now people were looking for ways to afford more, and the idea of “fly now pay later” became common. Folks who traditionally were reasonable about expectations looked at their credit limits as the new ceiling of their buying power.

The new ideas were causing people to view the success of big business as the savior of the working class, which it wasn’t. All efforts shifted from protecting the working public and consumers towards making “big business” prosper, waiting for the wealth to spill down upon the rest. Taxes on big businesses were reduced, bringing a decline in services and infrastructure, wages remained stagnant and the corporations took their incentives and capitalized on new opportunities. They move manufacturing to countries with lower labor costs. For many millions of Americans, the American Dream became more of a dream and less a reality.

Banking institutions took advantage of new freedom from regulations and reduced healthy competition by amalgamating. In 2008 the big crush caused millions of Americans to lose their homes and jobs. Canada was spared due to brilliant action by Jim Flaherty the finance minister of the time and the economist Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

 

I watched an interview with Scott Gilmore, a Canadian diplomate who studies statistics. As it stands, here is the latest. College graduates in the US are 46% and in Canada 59%. Home ownership in the US is 63% and in Canada 68%. Life expectancy 78.7 years and in Canada 81.2. Canadians enjoy more vacations, don’t go bankrupt for being sick and have better access to education. The best feature is the fact that here there is better social mobility. In Canada, your chances of improving your social status in one lifetime are twice as good as in the US.

People in America do not enjoy the equal opportunity that we do and often work two jobs. They view us as a socialist country, but in their case, they have more socialism for the rich and less for the average people. The huge army is protecting corporate interests all over the world; energy corporations get incentives, banks and industries get bailouts and so on, while social services, education, and medical programs are being cut. The latest was just announced, a cut in the program that provides food stamps.

 

All together I am glad to cut the lawn in the spring here, which is later than spring in most States, and know that we are doing something right. I don’t gloat in our success but hope that people who believe that our neighbors have a better system will take a long second look. The American dream moved north and Americans are trying to get it back by force instead of following what we do.

This is a link to my blog: https://thesimpleravenspost.blogspot.ca/  Feel free to check other articles and comment.

Letter to US friend

Published to Pass Herald The Simple Raven's Blog May 2 2018

A letter to a US friend.

I have a friend in Arizona who spent a couple of years in Montreal in the early seventies. He went back to the US and I stayed here. Now, my friend Tim is watching Canadian news and often compares what happened in the US and Canada. In his words, Canada is a Heaven in comparison to the USA today. In self-defence, Tim tries to find some things that Canada is doing wrong. Here is his letter from last week.  It is dealing with journalism which in the US is treated more like marketing.

Hi Avner,

I've been watching The National for several weeks (possibly even a few months) and I've noticed almost no coverage of any story in Quebec.  Quebec has a quarter of Canada's population. First Nations peoples represent only 4% of the Canadian population. The Maritime Provinces have tiny populations.  Yet, when three children are killed by a drunk driver in a First Nations community, people mourn for days on television.  And when an isolated community in New Brunswick flood, and The National covers it.

 

I mention this because tonight The National covered two stories (May Day riots in Montreal, and a court ruling against a Mohawk requirement that people who marry outside of the community leave the community).  Both stories together totaled 50 seconds.  It was the most coverage of Quebec that I've seen since I started watching - and most of it was dedicated to the Mohawk ruling, which was really a First Nations story.

 

One would think that 25% of the Canadian stories reported would be about Quebec.  But it seems that possibly less than 1% of Canadians stories are about Quebec.  Do Canadians believe that Quebec is unimportant or just uninteresting?  Is Canada one country or not?

 

Just wondering from down here, where we've got plenty of our own problems.

 

Tim

 

Here is my reply.

“There is so much in this letter Tim. First, we must remember that the Prime Minister of Canada is from Quebec.

 

I have been watching the Canadian news including The National for fifty years, and I would estimate that overall more airtime has been devoted to Quebec than any other province. Each time when there was a danger of separation we heard nothing but Quebec on the news. We heard about people from the West going to Quebec to tell them that we love them. Another time we heard about farmers in Quebec filling a train up with hay for drought-stricken Albertans. We don’t treat news coverage as a commodity but as a way to let people know what is happening.  Each region and major city here has a CBC station that deals with issues close to home.

 

 I been listening to CBC Calgary for years. When the local station has something of national interest, usually it appears on the National. If it needs translating it may takes a little longer.

We have an ongoing war against drunk driving, so an issue involving a multiple killing by a drunk driver will surface on national news. It could be anywhere in Canada.

 

There is news, hockey, arts and entertainment all in French available to every Canadian where ever they live both on radio and TV. Many of us listen to our favorite French singers all the time.

 

 

Quebecers are not very volatile at large. A year ago some white supremacist (who adores Trump) murdered a number of people praying in a mosque. We had it on the news constantly. Now with the nut-case who drove a van over people in the street of Toronto it makes headlines all over Canada. The accident that killed 15 young hockey players touched all of our hearts. The news covered every funeral and talked to every family. When a train derailed in the Quebec town Lac Megantic five years ago, it was the same. To this day we often talk about the accident. Most of us care much about each other.

 

You probably noticed on our news yesterday a case where the last government handed an innocent Muslim Doctor Hassan Diab, an Ottawa University Professor to France with false evidence. The French courts have eventually determined that he was innocent after he spent three years in jail. This was not the only case of that government acting against our laws towards people of a minority group and one of the reasons they lost the elections. They lost the support of many minorities and even decedents of minorities. Doctor Diab was a French-speaking Muslim. He doesn’t want to sue the people of Canada.

 

We have an element of tribalism here in Canada, but it's not dominant and most of us, in our own quiet Canadian way, fight against it. Since Trump was elected, in your country, I have not yet met one Canadian who openly says that he or she supports Trump, and I reside in our Conservative bastion, Alberta. Canada is one country Tim, and most Canadians value all other Canadians. Our Conservatives are mostly people with a different economic view but not a trace of what I call the Nazi attitude, and most celebrate differences and don’t wish to subdue minorities. We exist free because we are able to live peacefully with each other. Canada is a mosaic, not a melting pot.”

 

Being an American, my friend Tim envies Canada but fails to understand the real difference between our two nations. We are more concerned with the plight of “our people” while they try to make people more useful at the lowest possible cost. This is why we have a brain drain. We educate and they lure our educated people.

I would venture to say that in 2018 most Canadians feel proud and have hope, while next door its no longer true. The difference is rooted in our news media. Canadians still feel that they are informed while Americans know that they are being sold on something.