Oh Canada!!!!

Sometimes cleaning and reorganising space can be a strange experience. Decided to get rid of the huge rattan chair in the living room, to make room for all the plants Moved the large green whatever Himself bought into the corner vacated by the chair. In order to do that had to remove two things stuck in the pot - one, a plastic sign with goofy animals on it, which says "Welcome to our funny farm." It was given to me when I started at Glen Ayr United, and I cherish it. The second item was a Canadian flag. I honestly stood here and debated whether to keep it or toss it out. The Canada of today is nowhere near the Canada I remember growing up in. I was a baby boomer, post-war, lived on the prairies in serious down times for farmers, saw the beginnings of our Medicare system as it came to be in Saskatchewan; rubbed my tiny elbows with Tommy Douglas; shook hands in church with John Diefenbaker; got excited by Canada's role in peace-keeping, rather than war-mongering; demonstrated against the war in Viet Nam in Winnipeg - a march in which the police *joined*. Canada was well respected all over the world. When I finally did go to Viet Nam to live during the war, where people thought I was American - all I had to say was "Yanadai" (Canadian) and watch their faces break out into smiles as they replied "Canada Number 1 !!!!". Canada had a progressive policy for welcoming refugees from everywhere, and we tried hard to help them make a good life here. Didn't always work but it was an ideal. OK, so our aboriginal peoples have not fared well under any of our governments, right from the beginning. We've had some good governments and some not-so-good ones. Yet all of them were committed in one way or another to a vision of Canada as a model of social democracy, living next to a country which thinks socialism = communism = fascism. Today, we have a country bordering on dictatorship; our government is a collection of dishonest people who lie without compunction, and turn a blind eye to anything contrary they don't like. Democratic process and transparency don't matter any more; the *people* don't matter any more. Our Prime Minister reminds me of Richard Nixon, except ours is not only dishonest, he's a right-wing religious fanatic who will bring true fascism to this country if he isn't stopped. Norio and I have discussed, more and more in the last few years, if we really want to live in either country any more. Japan is going the same way as Canada, with constitutional changes which will make it a military power without restraint. So we look at Portugal, Spain, Finland, Norway - yet even those have their right-wing elements emerging. In the end I put my Canadian flag back into the pot beside the goofy little sign - I have to have hope that the people of Canada will wake up before we lose everything which made us the envy of the world, instead of the laughing stock we are now.

Good Morning, Sunshine

Good Morning, Sunshine!!!! Here in Toronto it's just one of those fabulous days that only the fall can bring. I took an Alaska cruise about six years ago, and the Captain - the stunning Bjorn Broch Johansen, started every morning with that over the tannoy - followed with "If you're not up yet, wakey wakey!!!" I won't tell you some of the things we thought of doing to Bjorn but couldn't, as he was the captain, after all. A very funny woman at the dinner table told him ever so quietly that he needed to be a little softer However, the more I think about it, the more I think it's a really good attitude to life. So hats off to Bjorn (wherever you are on the ocean today). Of course, it's easy when one wakes up and the sun is shining, the sky is blue and the day is beautiful. It's harder when the sun doesn't shine, it's pouring rain, or snowing - and life doesn't have the same optimistic cast as it does other days. Almost fifty years ago, I remember sitting in church listening to my father preach at Deer Lodge United Church in Winnipeg - one of his last sermons. He and my mother had just separated, and I was the only sibling left at home. He spent about three days in bed not talking or eating, and then on Sunday he got up and preached about life - that whatever life brings - whether death, great disappointment, deep hurt, disease or pain, that *life is good* and that we learn to appreciate how good it is as we struggle to cope with the deeply painful and difficult times. I don't think it's accidental that my father was a member of the Optimist's Club. He told me once that he thought I wasn't listening, and then at a Confirmation Class he suddenly realised I was indeed listening. One of the things left after Dad died was his membership plaque in the Optimist's Club. I think it's worth hanging on to, because life *is* good. No matter what it brings to us. In a world where so many have almost nothing, and we are privileged, life is good. All of it.