Across The Divide

That 49th Parallel is an odd and intriguing thing. It divides two countries, sure, but we're still fairly free (although increasingly less so) to cross back and forth, if only to buy cheaper gas. What I also love about the border, however, is that we can communicate across it and actually learn from each other. I was e-mailing back and forth with an American blogger recently, and as a result, the seed for this very blog was sown. Here's what I wrote then, in response to his question about Harper's right-wing potential:

My take is that Canadians -- understandably wearied by Liberal corruption... and spurred on by the media -- allowed Harper in the back door, under the (perhaps) mistaken notion that voting in a minority government will rein in his more right wing excesses. Again, I think the media encouraged this "compromise", but I have a nagging fear that it will backfire. I mean, do Canadians want yet another general election so soon after June 2004 and January 2006, and will Harper take cynical, calculated risks with that reluctance? As for Harper himself, I think he admires(!) Dubya, hails from our version of Texas (Alberta) with all the faux machismo and "rugged individualist" nonsense that entails, has a religious agenda (with all the socially repressive baggage that that entails), and has already taken steps to weaken and distance the media vis a vis his government. But now I'm thinking that you've got me writing something I could just as easily drop into a blog, so...

So here it is. Another blog, whether the world needs one or not. The result of just one of many fertile conversations that occur between our two countries all the time, and one that proves there is still common ground in spite (or more likely because) of the current political realities in our two nations. Anti-Americanism is so tempting for Canadians, as I'm equally sure a dismissal of us as mollycoddled lib'rul pantywaists is from their perspective. But I think we can all be better than that. It's fun to play Rebel Alliance to the United States' evil Empire, but you know, Star Wars was fiction when all's said and done. And Luke really was a bit of a sap. Let's get away from stereotypes and try to play with reality; we might find it has a well-known liberal bias, after all.