Joyce Murray and Justin Trudeau

A brief comparison of two contenders for the Liberal leadership.

Joyce Murray

Justin Trudeau

Let's agree they both have good hair and winning smiles. One was born into a famous family, one was not. One is the child of a former Prime Minister and one is the child of an award-winning architect who specialized in affordable community and senior housing. Does this have any bearing on their ability to lead a nation? No, it does not, so let's have a look at their personal accomplishments.

Joyce Murray
Sustainability has been important to Murray for years. She served as a Cabinet Minister and as B.C.'s first-ever Minister of Water, Land and Air Protection. Murray has been instrumental in creating recycling and waste management systems that are now in effect across Canada. She has called for a ban of all shipments of oil and bitumen along B.C.'s pristine and dangerous northern coast and recommended that more oil be refined in Canada and that oil sands subsidies be ended. This is just a brief look at Murray's involvement. The video is a recording of tree-planting back in her early days. She was only 22-years-old at the time and went on to personally plant over half a million trees and develop a business that employed thousands of Canadians. The business now operates in six countries. Joyce Murray on Facebook.

Justin Trudeau
Youth and sports are important to Trudeau. He was a high-school teacher before deciding to enter politics and has represented the Papineau area since 2008. He also played the part of Talbot Mercer Papineau in the 2007 CBC mini-series The Great War. He served as the Liberal critic for post-secondary education, youth and amateur sport but, according to the Huffington Post, has never tabled a private member's bill during his time in office. His campaign slogan is "Be Part of the Change".Unfortunately, Mr. Trudeau has not taken any policy positions during this leadership race so it is difficult to speculate on what his slogan means or what a future Liberal Party would look like if he were elected leader. I would have included a video but there are none available featuring Mr. Trudeau other than those associated with politics so that will have to be left to our imaginations... or perhaps you can find the mini-series on YouTube. Justin Trudeau on Facebook.

William Shatner Sings O Canada by Jacob Medjuck, National Film Board of Canada

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

From the heart of the land to the land of my heart

Now writing from Canada's beautiful Cape Breton Island...

It really has been a long time since I've updated this blog. Many changes have taken place in our lives and in our country. Some good, some not so good. For a while, I was bogged down in the politics of our nation until it dawned on me that it was unproductive for all except the politicians.

A few things stand out:

United we stand, divided we fall. Don't let selfish agendas divide us whether they be corporate, political, or religious. We are Canadian first.

We are not sheep. Don't be fooled by anyone wearing a fluffy new outfit and don't fear any wolf in a business suit. No one is going to save us from ourselves. Learn to see past the attempts to rally the public to one side or another. We must not allow ourselves to be manipulated and must look past the slogans and rallying cries because every single one of them has an agenda and it's not about us.

See the big picture. Where do we fit in the world? Should we be leading or following? What is the cost of our aspirations? And now think about what it is we want for our lives and for the lives of our children and grandchildren. Sound like we are auctioning off our existence for money? We are.

Saving the middle class is easy. There are very few left so it won't take long. What about the legions of Canadians working in retail and service jobs and being paid far below the poverty line? How much are your kids' lives worth? How about they exchange their time on earth for $10.50 an hour?  Want more for your kids? Work until you are 80 and pay their tuition on your box store greeter earnings.

Not so long ago, Canadians could live comfortable lives and raise our families without selling our souls to the devil. As of October 2012, the average home in Canada sold for between $366,773 for a bungalow to $403, 747 for a two-story.  Have we all gone completely mad? Perhaps... hope you kept your flaming receipt.

September in Manitoba

Photo credit: can131 from morguefile.com

Mid-September on the Canadian prairies is gentle this year. The temperatures are warm during the day and cool enough at night to make sleeping comfortable and a fire welcome. September has always meant a time of new beginnings for me; a new school year, new books, new paper, new ideas, and a great new scarf. This year is no different except for the slower pace.

The leaves have not yet begun to fall and the warm days tend to lull me into a false sense of security. Winter is still a long way from my thoughts as I head out for a walk in the Saturday sunshine. Still, there is a nagging question in the back of my mind about the stores in the pantry. This must be the tribal memory part of my brain talking, the part that wants to stash things away like a squirrel and ensure we don't starve in the months to come.

On the way to class yesterday, I noticed a sign on a garage proudly promoting antifreeze products that are good for days of -50 degrees. A smile spread across my face in recognition. We are hardy and strong. We love the change of seasons. We bake very good bread. And we are no fools when it comes to antifreeze. We are, indeed, Canadian.

William and Kate thrill Canada Day crowds - Canada - CBC News

Photo by Darcelle Douglas Watts

Record numbers of Canadians arrived in Ottawa to celebrate Canada Day and to catch a glimpse of the royal couple, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. Crowd estimates were at 300,000 but the numbers may have exceeded that.

This July 1st would also have been Princess Diana's 50th birthday. Join the celebrations by clicking on the link below!

William and Kate thrill Canada Day crowds - Canada - CBC News

Hecla Island - Grindstone Provincial Park

The weather reports had called for rain all weekend but we packed our gear and headed for the park anyway. It wasn't as warm as earlier in the week but we were prepared for chilly nights and wet weather. We drove past Winnipeg Beach and Gimli where many people were opening their cottages over the long weekend and from there the traffic decreased rapidly.


We were on our way north to Hecla Island. Hecla Island was first settled in the 1800s by Icelandic people. In 1875, the Republic of New Iceland was established by the Canadian government exclusively for those coming from Iceland to build new lives, fishing and farming as they had done in Iceland. But there were differences the newcomers had to face. Canadians wanted fresh fish, not the smoked fish that was popular in Iceland so ice houses had to be built. Instead of fishing on an ocean that didn't freeze, the people had to learn how to hack through the thick ice that formed on Lake Winnipeg and in the short summers, grow enough food to feed their families. Many of the original settlers were persuaded to leave by the clergy who served the community. They were convinced the settlement would fail and led all but eight of the original families to what is now Icelandic State Park in North Dakota. But other hardy Icelanders arrived and the community survived. 

View of Hecla village from the shoreline. Rugged terrain, harsh winters and isolation were some of the challenges early settlers faced.

Hecla village pier - still a very cold wind off the water but beautiful and if you are hardy, patient, and dressed warmly, the fishing is very rewarding!

One of the original fish stations, this one is now a museum that houses some of the artifacts used by the island's intrepid inhabitants.

The islanders were self-sufficient and bartered for what they did not produce on their own homesteads. A general store carried items like coffee, tea, sugar, dishes, and fabric. The church played an integral role in community life and continues to have services today. A school was built in 1922 but closed in 1966 under a school consolidation program. At this point, many families with school age children left the island. 

Early evening at the Hecla pier.

Hecla was completely isolated. Riverton was the closest town and there had been no ferry service until 1953. Even then, the trip took four hours through the Grassy Narrows marshlands. In the late 60s, the residents approached the government to have the area declared a Provincial Park. The steady decline in forestry and fishing gave the Islanders little choice if they were to survive. In 1969, the park became a reality. Eventually, a causeway was built in the 1970s and the trip by car was only 40 minutes. Hecla Island life was changed forever.

Remnants of the Hecla Ferry dock - it was discontinued after a causeway was built in the '70s. From the time of the first settlement in the 1800s, the community on Hecla Island was completely isolated with no electricity or other modern convenience until more than half the 20th century had passed.

Another piece of the past from the Hecla Island Ferry that made the trip though what is now Grassy Narrows Provincial Park. The ferry ran from the early '50s until the causeway was completed in the '70s.

Narrow inlets weave their way through this vast bird sanctuary.

Finding the way by boat through this area of wetlands must have been challenging. It took 4 hours by ferry to do what is now done in 40 minutes by car. In the summer, the mosquitoes must have been frequent companions on the ferry!

Today, the island industry is tourism. The marshland is a protected santuary for birds and offers a wonderful opportunity for photographers. Fishing spots are abundant and many are equipped with cleaning stations. Foxes dart in and out of the forest and black bears are active in the campgrounds when given the opportunity.

Pelicans are the most patient fisherman of all!

This fox stopped for a moment to watch me take the photo before he disappeared back into the forest.

In spite of all the changes, Hecla Island remains the same. Its inhabitants live in harmony with nature and it's not unusual to see a fox being hand-fed by one of the islanders. It is wild, windswept, and not just a little enchanted. 

Mordecai Richler: Iconic Canadian Author

Richler in a Montreal Park, October 1983. Source: Ryan Remiorz/Canadian Press

"Coming from Canada, being a writer and Jewish as well, I have impeccable paranoia credentials."

If you type the name Mordecai Richler into a search bar, you will get results as varied as the literature he penned and no small indication of controversy. What you will not find are Canadian schools and universities where his books are being studied other than maybe one or two courses offered occasionally at a teacher's discretion. Doesn’t it seem odd that an author who is the recipient of numerous awards including the Governor General’s Award, Companion of the Order of Canada, Screenwriters Guild of America Award, the Giller Prize, and an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from McGill University in Montreal, would have his work largely excluded from literary studies at Canadian universities? Oh, Canada!

During Richler’s lifetime, he provoked people to think outside the box but this is a distinctly un-Canadian activity. Nobody knew quite what to do with his sometimes (okay, often) caustic observations of Canadian society so they did what comes naturally. They declared him racist and attempted to ban one of his books, Oh Canada! Oh Quebec.

He was deliberately misquoted and duly penalized with death threats, anti-semitic Nazi-type reactions (from a journalist) and with political cartoons in the French press depicting him as Hitler. It didn’t seem to matter if the insults made any sense as long as some sort of negativity was hurled in his direction. Oh, Quebec!

Richler was born January 27, 1931 and raised in a Jewish working class neighbourhood in Montreal, Canada. He left Montreal at the age of nineteen and lived in Europe for about twenty years, eighteen of them spent in London. When he left in the early '50s, he felt Canada was not a good place for an aspiring writer and in Richler's own words, was "a very narrow and parochial society...the standards weren't very high". He returned to Canada with his family in 1972.

The reason for his return was quite simple.

After writing several novels in England, he was beginning to run into problems constructing the characters’ ordinary experiences to work within the novel's precepts. He felt he was missing the more banal aspects of the cultural life that makes a novel ring true. In order to achieve a sense of authenticity, there were hours of research involved that a writer within that culture would have at his fingertips. In other words, it came down to what every English literature professor tells the students: write what you know.

He published his first novel around the tender age of twenty-one and received a £100 (British pound) advance; not much of a salary on which to live. However, he began writing for The New Statesman and The Observer as well as several British periodicals and that kept the wolf from the door. He also did a little film work but it wasn't until his novels started being fully recognized that his life became more comfortable and that took a few years.

He wasn't completely outside the Canadian experience during this time. In the last 10 years of his self-imposed exile, he returned to Canada about once a year on visits usually associated with magazine assignments.

By this time, he was married and had five children. The family returned to Canada for a test year in 1968 while Richler worked as a writer in residence at Sir George Williams University in Montreal, a post he held until 1979. He made the move permanent four years later. Richler had been careful to ensure that his children were able to adjust to Canadian life. They did, although he stated that what was available in Montreal at the time did not compare with what the family had left behind in London, England.

As for his feelings about the parochial nature of Canadian society he experienced in the early '50s, he found them very changed twenty or thirty years later.

Asked this question in an interview with WCBS New York, December 5, 1983, Richler had this to say: "There's been a remarkable swing of the pendulum, almost too far in that we're now going through a period of cultural nationalism...now merely to be Canadian makes you a writer. So there are a lot of inflated reputations...a certain amount of nationalists' cultural nonsense being taught. On the other hand, there are some very talented people. I mean there's Robertson Davies, and there's Alice Munro and Margaret Atwood, Margaret Laurence.. the climate has changed and there are some very reputable publishers."

An interview with Charles Foran, author of Mordecai: The Life and Times

Adults

	The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz
	Cocksure
	Mordecai: The Life & Times

Richler died in 2001 at the age of seventy. His last novel, Barney's Version , was published in 1997 and made into a movie in 2010. It subsequently won nine awards and an Oscar nomination.

Other novels by Richler include:

• The Acrobats (1954) (also published as Wicked We Love , July 1955)
• Son of a Smaller Hero (1955)
• A Choice of Enemies (1957)
• The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1959)
• The Incomparable Atuk (1963)
• Cocksure (1968)
• St. Urbain's Horseman (1971)
• Joshua Then and Now (1980)
• Solomon Gursky Was Here(1989)

His forays into screenwriting produced, among others, such memorable films as:

• The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz  (1974)
• The Street (1976) - nominated for an Oscar
• Fun with Dick and Jane ( 1977)
• Joshua Then and Now (1985)

He also produced a large body of work in essays and anthologies. He was opinionated and clever, a combination not easily embraced by his contemporaries.

Children

	Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang
	Jacob Two-Two and the Dinosaur
	Jacob Two-Two's First Spy Case

So why aren't we studying Richler?

So why isn’t Richler, one of Canada’s foremost authors, on the required reading list in Canadian schools? It comes down to a simple answer. Most of Canada doesn’t care if students read any Canadian literature at all. We are one of the few developed nations that don’t bother to read and study our own literature.

Education is a provincial matter, not federal. British Columbia and Saskatchewan have legislation that ensures the study of Canadian work, both fiction and non-fiction. Quebec and Newfoundland are a little different. They have a culture unto their own and enjoy celebrating it. The rest of Canada is apathetic at best and at worst, still under the impression that Canadian work is inferior. This is what drove our authors out of the country 60 years ago. Isn’t it time we grow up?

Budget cuts are another reason. It’s too expensive to supply copies of Canadian work to schools so we still rely on the old novels that have been taught since the ‘50s and before. They are not Canadian. Now we have entered the less expensive digital age.

One of the recent changes as a direct result of this is the inclusion of blogs, newspaper ads and Facebook as part of the definition of literary text in the Ontario School curriculum.

Personally, I find this horrifying. It’s like finding a spray painted Jen is a whore on the underside of a bridge and including it in the Art History curriculum. I’m embarrassed by the pathetic scrambling to be contemporary in schools. Just because it is written somewhere doesn’t make it worth studying.

If we want to fully understand what it means to be Canadian, we need to stop asking self-proclaimed pundits whose only claim to fame is Canadian government television. Don't get me wrong. I'm glad one of our networks is government owned. It makes a nice counterpoint to others that are driven only by greed and as a result, does create an interesting balance.

We need to stop being ‘liberal and inclusive” with whatever scribbling is on the Internet and start reading Canadian authors like Margaret Laurence, Carol Shields, Alice Munro, Margaret Atwood and Mordecai Richler. We will be surprised. Not only will we develop a sense of what it means to be Canadian, we just might continue on discovering more like Leonard Cohen (Beautiful Losers), Douglas Coupland (Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture), Michael Ondaatje (The English Patient), and Robert James Sawyer (Flash Forward). This list of gifted authors is by no means complete. There are many more.

In my opinion, we have lost our collective minds when it comes to eduction. Let's get back to learning the basics and growing new ideas from a good foundation. Save Facebook and blogs for a course in urban sociology. If we read Richler, we might actually learn a thing or two. Who knows? We may even produce more interesting graffiti!

Canadian Authors

• Margaret Jean Wemyss Laurence: A Style All Her Own
  There are some writers who have had a profound influence on me. Among my favorites are Alice Munro, Carol Shields (if you haven't read Larry's Party, you are missing a gem) and Margaret Laurence. This is about Margaret Laurence.