Canadian Cultural Identity & Rural Life

Ode to rural life and the new urbanised Canada

"Canada was built on rural life and values; independent people seeing to their own needs and answerable to themselves."

"In rural life children are exposed to the facts of life and the realities of natural systems early, inherent in their existence is an attachment to the land and our tentative alliance with it and its other inhabitants."  

"There is a temptation to wax on about the bucolic majesty of rural existence, I find it hard to overstate rural existence’s value or to lament thoroughly enough its waning influence." 

As a child I spent time following my father around the farm as he did his work and as many farmers, he had a dog – Tweed a hard-working Border Collie. Tweed and I stood approximately the same height and in Tweed’s mind that put us on equal footing. Equal footing in Tweed's mind met he felt the need to attempt to assert dominance, so in my father’s absence, I found myself often seeking safety from Tweeds bared, bright white canine teeth. At nearly age five my father passed away leaving Tweed and me to live life by whatever arrangements we might make. In the spring of the following year on a sunny day I had taken up a spot on a sheet of plywood on a sawdust pile; sitting there day dreaming and enjoying the sun. I looked up to see Tweed slowly making his way toward me, given our previous exchanges this was a less than welcome occurrence. With nowhere to go, I choose to sit quietly and let things unfold, and there I sat – in suspense, waiting to endure whatever outcome befell me. Tweed circled wide around me in an arching pattern and slowly with his head down made his way to me, when he was a couple feet away the situation was growing more uncomfortable; then, to my relief, rather than baring his teeth, he lay down beside me and put his head on my lap. Gingerly I placed my hand on his head and stroked him as my father had done. It seemed in my father’s extended absence Tweed preferred my company to none. Tweed never became my dog, but an amicable truce lasted until Tweed's usefulness around the farm was over. 

In rural life, children are exposed to the facts of life and the realities of natural systems early, inherent in their existence is an attachment to the land and our tentative alliance with it and its other inhabitants. Tweed taught me about vulnerability and to seek remedy through language unspoken – one neurological system to another. The lessons associated with rural life are many and all valuable. The lessons provisioned by rural life are sorely absent now as our children exist in an urbanised world.

There is a temptation to wax on about the bucolic majesty of rural existence, I find it hard to overstate rural existence’s value or to lament thoroughly enough its waning influence. The farm teaches appreciation of the strong and the value of the weak, as even a sickly animal, if nurtured properly has value. Rural life teaches self-reliance, exposure to natural systems and all the related sundry experiences make it possible to judge the seriousness of an illness without going to the emergency ward and provides the inclination to exercise such judgment. Most rural circumstance has people exposed to the full gambit of endeavour, from building the shed, playing midwife to a heifer, to planning a risk management strategy for their wheat crop and inputs. It is rare in an urbanised setting for a single individual to gain exposure to the whole production chain, particularly one as complex and containing the natural systems related to rural life.

Canada was built on rural life and values; independent people seeing to their own needs and answerable to themselves. Most people in a gainful occupation in a rural setting produced and sold a commodity. The wondrous thing about a commodity is that the channels to market are absent of any direct customer, products are sold into a large pooled market or at auction. This met people who derived their livelihood from the land really were able, more than others dependent on employers or exposed to public opinion in some way, to be critical thinkers. Critical thinkers, self-reliant with limited exposure to public pressure and a thorough knowledge of natural systems, it is hard to imagine a better collection of people to build a country.

Living in a sparsely populated rural setting often your only help was a neighbour, your only social opportunity was a neighbour – needless to say, you valued your neighbour whether you liked them or not; this is a unique type of association that builds tolerance for difference. The community was tight and small, which breeds accountability. E. F. Schumacher in his book Small is Beautiful gave an enlightened example of small community life, he said when you live in a community of 100 people it’s pretty hard to steal your neighbour’s shirt because he’ll see you wearing it. Even in the absence of the strong citizenship that rural community developed, small communities have a way of making you accountable to people that is absent in large urban settings.

The harsher side of our reliance on the land is found in rural settings. I once spoke to a teacher that use to take kids to a slaughter house every year so they could become acquainted with the realities of harvesting livestock for food. In the 1970’s he would ask the students if they had ever killed anything, 70% would respond in the affirmative the same question 20 years later failed to yield more than a couple affirmative responses. I suspect you would find similar responses to a question related to weeding the garden. The almost complete divorce from husbandry and interaction with natural systems creates a mindset of alienation to sources of sustenance and their processing. I believe, even though there is a dominate acceptance of the utilisation of animals for human sustenance, there will be growth in the animal rights movement as people evolve away from immediate contact with animal husbandry.  

When one contemplates the complete complex associated with traditional rural life in Canada, one realises what an effective rearing environment it was/is for children. The rural community’s waning size and hence influence on our society has reduced the input of a unique and important component of Canadian society and along with that input, an important part of Canadian identity.  

The urbanisation of Canada is accelerating. Cities offer a technological, cultural and social dynamic that fuel effectively the new and complex economy. In contrast to our urban settings, in the rural setting’s socioeconomic mingling was a natural element to daily life, keeping all walks of life in contact in the same social complex. In urban centres, it is possible, in fact likely, that people can occupy an entire day having only engaged within their socioeconomic strata or perhaps as specific as the same occupation. The irony of the mass of humanity in large urban centres is you’re likely to see less of humanity and experience isolation. This creates social cliques who tend to breathe their own air while the world outside a specific area of endeavour passes by. Again, in contrast to rural society, occupation is so finely specialised peoples scope of thought tends to narrow. Where the farmer is contemplating fiddleheads, Fallopian tubes and finance, the computer programmer is writing one piece of code for a program, or a biotech worker is manipulating a gene for a given bacteria. As was once said, “An expert is someone who knows more and more about less and less until, eventually, he knows everything about nothing.” As a student of Adam Smith, specialisation is enthusiastically embraced; however, a large bank of broad spectrum thinkers is most useful in the process of building a nation and a nation’s identity. 

Who aspires to ordinary?

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I’ve wanted to be a lot of things in my life, but ordinary, never – I take comfort in never having had anyone accuse me of being ordinary. The challenge with people who espouse about “ordinary” is that I think they see themselves as ordinary absent any clear definition of ordinary, except perhaps the juxtaposing to extra-ordinary. There are some who voice support for ordinary people; they want to build policy for “ordinary” people so government serves the ordinary, ordinarily. The challenge I have is that in all my time on earth I have never met an ordinary person, in the very middle of the societal bell curve, I have never encountered “ordinary” people – there I have found the extra-ordinary amongst the “ordinary”.

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I spent most of my life at the altar of exceptionalism, reading Winston Churchill speeches and the like, it was my first and only wife, that taught me about the extra-ordinary amongst the ordinary. When I was reading about Mr. Churchill, she would be talking about a neighbor. She had the capacity to admire the people who filled her everyday life, to see and appreciate a quality that a person possessed – save perhaps the person who left their socks on the floor one too many times. This is a lesson I got from one that considered herself from the ranks of the ordinary, it was a good one.

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The point here is that the only time there can be ordinary people is when you’re looking at a “herd” of people, the moment you take person out of the “herd” they become exceptional. Therein lays the evil in collectivism. Whenever you aggregate human existence, an ill-defined blob is born where an individual use to be, where there was once a thousand flowers to bloom, there is now no flower to be noticed. The tall poppy syndrome comes to play, it is necessary only because collectivism wants people to be the same, treated the same, having the same – no exceptional individuals. My wife’s lesson was that all people are exceptional; my observation is they get lost in a crowd. 

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Canadian Identity - Closing Thoughts on Canadian Identity

Canadian Culture, Canadian Identity, 

Pondering Canadian Culture 

The Canadian's identity devolution from a person in a relationship to the natural world and community, to one that emanates from a hyper-stimulated urban techno world that is politically correct, conformist and collectivist challenges me. We have a tradition of conformity stemming from what was almost a bureaucratic birthing of a nation, so the trend I am commenting on is long-standing. The ruggedness that accompanied our evolution in the face of a harsh climate and the appreciation of the stark beauty northern regions provide and which inhabited our sense of ourselves as Canadian holds some charm. While in viewing the realities of modern society one understands the attachment to the land having to fall to the wayside, however, surely the character of the individuals the land formed should be extended prominence in our national psyche. A little more Robert Service and a little less rap cover, please.

Having as a part of our identity, a doctrine like Multiculturalism, placing tolerance for others' ideas, values and beliefs as a first premise in the pursuit of equity in our society is noble indeed and eminently practical. Canadian’s ability to function in cultural segments and yet synergistically harmonize as a society that accents cultural pursuit by the presence of the other is remarkable. Inter-cultural, secular and interfaith actions in Canadian society are providing us all with a basis for the future which is needed and lacking in much of the world.    

The institution of family in the context of being culturally supported and as a part of Canadian identity is waning. One enters into a discussion around family values with trepidation, as the extreme left in Canada has maligned the verbalization of family values for reasons I fail to understand. Most certainly, a strong family does relieve the state of much functional necessity in the realm of social assistance and hence resulting in less government. While the compassionate and generous safety net Canada provides is laudable, it has had a corrosive effect on families. One realizes that there are people in need, which require policy to address their special circumstances, but the degradation of the family as an entity of paramount importance as it resides in our collective consciousness has been most detrimental to Canadian society over the past few decades. The infusion of cultural support of family in our national narrative, in concert with affirmative family policy, is wanting in contemporary Canadian discourse.

Inherent in the identity that accompanies citizenship as a Canadian is a value or lack of value that citizenship represents. That is to say, the higher the value of citizenship the greater deference will be given to the values the recipient identifies with. My citizenship as a Canadian is innate, I am absent of any other expression of citizenship. When people immigrate, the process by which they commit to Canada and to the extent to which we elevate that process will be reflected in the value they put on citizenship and the extent to which they identify themselves as Canadian. Canadian traditions are likely muted in relevance to traditions from their point of origin. While every effort needs to be extended to immigrants in terms of quality of life, earning full citizenship should come with time and be rigorous. Only in this way will citizenship be elevated beyond merely being a means by which to access a better life and move to be a real commitment to the dominion of Canada. This commitment is very well expressed by the majority of immigrants, but in many cases, the absence of extended commitment has lessened the value of citizenship and as a result, minimized the attachment of identity to and image of being Canadian. 

The Great Generation, the generation of my mother and father, has all but passed. I wonder who we can count on now. When one contemplates the degree of commitment they had to their citizenship and its responsibilities, one begins to quake at thought of filling their shoes. What was in their sense of national identity that would have so many of them engage voluntarily in as perilous a task as warfare to defend the source of that identity? An anonymous general once commented to King George ll he thought General James Wolf was mad, and King George ll replied “have the dog that bit him, bit all our generals.” We might consider looking backwards for inspiration, if not for war, but for a cultural primer on identity-based on commitment – seek out a healthy patriotism – perhaps being bit by the dog that bit the great generation. Over time perhaps Canadians will find identity as sovereign agents of the world, who are supported in that agency as citizens of Canada and project influence through the logical progression of individual, family, community, region, country and world government.     

Canadian Identity - Government Sanctioned Anti-Americanism

Canadian Culture, Canadian Identity, Anti-Americanism

What? we’re not sharing the back of a turtle with an elephant –  government sanctioned anti-Americanism

Let me premise these comments by stating clearly that Canada’s independent and eternal dominion over north of the 49^th is a passionate desire of mine – I am a patriot if such a thing exists in Canada. What is annoying though is that I felt compelled to make the declaration as I begin to affirm affection for elements of American culture worthy of representation in Canada. As the Molson advertisements so aptly put it “I am Canadian”.

There is pervasive in Canadian society an anti America sentiment that I believe to be a most unfortunate rallying cry for defining our national identity. We as Canadians need to define ourselves by what we are as opposed to being non-Americans. The sheer mass of our neighbour is intimidating from the perspective of developing and sustaining a differentiating cultural element sufficient to generate robust cultural resolution to the Canadian population.

The America media / meme / culture machine is a power house and the resulting vigorous American culture is infectious. In the face of this cultural powerhouse too often Canadian leadership has taken an ugly turn and permitted a degree of Anti Americanism in our culture and it is cultural as opposed to just public opinion, which has precluded a more fruitful utilisation of what America has to offer. By permitting the development of a narrative around the US that is negative as a cultural immunisation against US culture’s entry to Canada, Canadian youth carry a generalised aversion to ALL things US. This cultural insecurity is closing the minds of our youth to a plethora of worthy elements in America Society.  

In Canada we hold as our guiding tenet of governance peace, order and good governance and who says credos are ineffective, because in Canada we have peace, order and good governance. The US has as its tenet - life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; could it be that in this tenet there is a snippet worthy of consideration? Noteworthy from my perspective is liberty; our young people need to yearn for it, to watch over it and to keep a steely eye on threats to it. Liberty is the one element of society that insures all other actions, from personal choice - to freedom of association - to freedom to worship - to freedom of speech. As important as the lust for liberty is, is the fear of its loss. We are a kind hearted people who have built a kind hearted country, with a modality of life as good as it is generous, this comfort though, has conspired to create an apathy to the one element of society that lets us enjoy our modality of life - liberty.    

Canada’s genesis emerges out of the fur trade and a single massive corporation the Hudson Bay Corporation. The HBC worked in concert with the British Empire and was largely responsible for opening Canada to colonisation. This foundation provided stability in our evolution to nationhood, a far less tumultuous beginning than the US. Out of this orderly beginning emerged an orderly state with orderly people – people conservative in action and frugal in adventurism. This meme has remained robust in Canadian culture, yet it to some extent it limits us. This bureaucratic link in our development has produced an aversion to failure resulting in a cultural aversion to risk. In the US nobody fails, they participate in creative destruction. Winston Churchill said “Success is moving enthusiastically from one failure to the other” the American’s do this well. Churchill also said “you can always count on the US to do the right thing having tried everything else first.” These observations are far from criticisms, they are the essence of America’s success, the willingness to engage in bold massive ventures win or loose, as it is hard to argue with results, perhaps there is a lesson for us here as well.

There are many structural and cultural elements of the American society that are worthy of adoption, as Canada has much to offer to America should they want to look. The key point here is, in negating the significance of their offering is we are damaging and limiting our ability to export elements of Canadian society that have merit. Canadian measured cautious response to matters of state offers an effective counter to American adventurism; we need to be involved, credible and friendly to exercise influence. 

Much of our rebuke of America culture stems from people’s observations of American foreign policy and the means by which America projects power. America's foreign policy attracts a lot of criticism from many, within its ranks and without. Much of the resentment that has emerged in regard to America foreign policy is the result of extreme actions the US needed to take in the context of a decades long confrontation - the cold war. The cold war drove action by both parties that were extreme in the form of proxy wars and other means of securing regional influence. In this context many actions occurred that people site as humanitarian affronts and they are correct. When on the basis of these observations people resist American culture, they fail to serve the greater good by the absence of acknowledging the context of a highly charged geopolitical circumstance on American behaviour. Many in the Canadian intellectual vanguard who take the righteous position that exempts Canada of a stained past in realm of cold war driven human atrocity, fail to accept that we eat at the trough of US success in that struggle and in so doing share in the responsibility. I am unable to gauge the necessity of each action taken in the pursuit containing the USSR, only each person in each action has that judgment; however, one lives in comfort as a result of their collective actions. So now Canadians in reaping the benefits of those actions, are equally responsible to seek redemption through remedial efforts. To use a Canadian colloquialism, “we need to get off our moral high horse!”

Canada has the cultural mass to set aside the unattractive practice of US bashing as a means to effect cultural differentiation. We need to conduct ourselves with confidence in this regard, and rather than erecting a cultural firewall, permit the positive aspects of Americanism to find their way into our culture. By engaging in a process of winnowing the good from the bad we get to extract the best of the best cultural elements from our good neighbours; a process that has served us well from our British Roots and a process that is serving us well from our association with all other global players. 

Canadian Identity - Canadian Nambi Pambism & Political Correctness

Canadian Culture, Canadian Identity, Political Correctness, State Paternalism, Individualism

Canadian Identity - Canadian Nambi Pambism & Political Correctness

Canadian nambi pambism is rampant. This is one element of our culture that needs to be altered if not eradicated. Rather than promote characters, we promote compliance. In the mist of plenty and under the umbrella of state paternalism we’ve allowed a marshmallow to reside at our core. My mother had many stories about the depression and the hardships people endured through those times; that was a group of resilient people. The single redeeming element of her life in that era was the presence of strong individualised people – people worked in concert but were absent the blandness that the collectivism of today produces.

The mantra of collectivism has permutated our culture and generated milk toast where fire should be. From a constant refrain of “check with your doctor first” to “be careful” to “the inability to cook a meal without checking with the Canada food guide” and an incessant need to turn to government for everything, a culture of dependence is emerging.

Peace order and good governance has served us well. Wrapped in that package is a strong tenancy toward conformity. Conformity to political correctness has in many cases stifled thought, political correctness is truly a conditioning tool to restrict entry into the narrative of that which some deem undesirable.

The nearly tyrannical enforcement of politically correct speech in academic institutions is a frightening example, frightening because in the limiting of speech, the limiting of thought is inherent. This was exemplified in the actions of one institution when they suspended a professor for suggesting that the biological differences in men and woman may be at the root of the way society evolved extending an inappropriate portion of influence to men. I personally am unsure what caused the gross inequity between men and women to emerge, I can see the biological requirements of women would put them is position of vulnerability in the absence of social structure. The man’s assertion had a basis in thought to contemplate a societal outcome absent the attachment of value, there are many possible reasons why women may have found themselves in position of inequity, and surely it is reasonable to have the debate. Political correctness is a means by which social pressure by the majority suppresses the view of the minority, aside from being unfair, it is unhealthy.  

Give me another one like Sir John A. McDonald who was quoted as saying “they like me better drunk than they do Brown sober”, if a politician was to demonstrate such humorous character in contemporary Canadian society, the do gooder healthy kiddy foundation would launch a full scale smear campaign.

In concert with nambi pambism and political correctness, comes the muting of the individual, it seems we are becoming a nation willing to adopt the oppressive cultural that has as a component, the inclination to chop off the head that rises above the crowd or even the head that wants to go its own way.

In an ambient culture of goody two shoes, conditioning to turn to authority for direction and tyrannical political correctness; where are the free thinkers going to come from, where will diversity of thought come from? We need to reignite the cultural appreciation of the strong, critical thinking, self-assured individual.  There is a balance to be struck between adventurism and conformity, conformity in Canadian society has reached gag inducing levels – lets dial it back.   

Canadian Identity - Canada the Warrior

Canadian Culture, Canadian Identity, Military History, Canadian Military Culture

The Warrior Spirit Needs Awakening 

My father and uncles fought in the Canadian forces in WWII, Uncle Omar Middleton died when the aircraft he was piloting was shot down. My father’s contribution Harry S. Thomson was exceptional, with active duty as a pilot throughout the entire war. My Uncle Woodrow Middleton (Canadian) fought as a US paratrooper in Asia and was taken prisoner of war there. Much of my identity stems from this Canadian heritage. There is some effort to attach pride to our actions in the wars; they always seem to be wanting in the breadth and enthusiasm. Canada’s intellectuals seem so afraid of the warrior spirit being ignited, that a critical component of our nation’s history is understated due to a fews' misdirected efforts is shameful. In contemplating my entire exposure to British Columbia’s education system, nary a single compelling exposure to our war history comes to mind. The only war history I have been exposed to has come from personal reading and time around the kitchen table.

We are a brave people and yet our governing and intellectual elites are so wed to the bland non-activist anti-warlike narrative, a critical element of our countries identity lies languishing completely off our youth’s radar. The warrior spirit is sorely absent in our culture in general. We have people with the warrior spirit, but the warrior spirit has come to them through family as opposed to a can with a maple leaf on it.

The archetype of the warrior gives robustness to a national identity, the willingness to “through down the cloves” on the big issues is paramount at the heart of culture, in order for a culture to project itself. Whether or not this finds expression in violent action, it is a critical to the development of a collective “eye of the tiger.” Could the active cultivation of the warrior spirit result in collective violent action - perhaps if it is needed - but its existence provides so much more than a war footing. It provides the gumption to act in the defence of others. The world is a long way from being peacenikville, and a little warrior spirit will go a long way to our commanding a position in the world order.

The aversion to warrior verbiage entering our narrative was most emblemized when General Rick Hillier said he was going to “kill some scumbags in Afghanistan”, Canada’s political nambi pambi brigade was out in full force. Surely, when we ask someone to assume leadership in what - is a war after all; we can allow them a little bravado and physiological framing of the enemy. As with anywhere, Afghanistan has a few scumbags, let’s hope they are the ones that got killed and in their absence, we’ve helped to promote good.

Canada has every reason to take pride in our contributions as peacekeepers, the Lester B. Pearson tradition is a welcome addition to Canada’s military history. Peacekeeping, however, is dwarfed by our wartime contributions. Canada, at the close of WWII, had the third-largest military in the world, we fielded a million men from a country of 10 million. The US army now barely has a million people. Our actions as warriors are grossly underrepresented in every facet of Canadian culture, from schools to movies – its muted expression is deafening.