"Horse and Train," Alex Colville
I've been thinking more about defining a nation's character, especially when it's an outsider trying to do the defining. The problem with coming up with a national personality is that everyone knows someone of that nation who doesn't fit that definition.
For example, say Canadians are polite. What about that company that keeps calling me, even when I've asked to not be called? What about the dorks on the expressway who are so much more important than everyone else that they tailgate and pass on double yellows? OK, maybe that's stupid but it's also rude.
Defining a national character requires taking the eagle view, not the mouse view. The mouse sees a few blades of grass; an eagle sees a meadow. Stand up close to a famous Canadian pointillist painting, and you see dots. From farther back, it's a horse about to meet a very rude train.
The real problem comes when the mouse and eagle start claiming, "I'm right and you're wrong." Both are right. Both are wrong. The picture is made up of dots. And it shows a horse and a train. Saying that Canadians are polite or that they tolerate diverse personal choices may be legitimate statements. However, it's also correct to say that some Canadians are rude and intolerant.
Any definition of a nation has to allow for the dots, for the individual perspectives. One reason why 2004 felt like a good time to emigrate to Canada was that the space for my dot, my perspective, in the U.S. political landscape was small and shrinking. The U.S. national character didn't include me and my ideas, and the political climate didn't put any value on the contributions I could make. Any disagreement with the majority was painted as near-treason. Ugly, ugly, ugly.
My solution was to go to a geographic location where I felt at home; it happened to be in another country. Others in the U.S. came up with different solutions that involved staying in the U.S., and the political landscape is changing. I hope that the shifts don't simply define a different, still limited, character for the country. I hope that in the future, people in the U.S. can hold a variety of political opinions and feel part of the bigger picture of the nation.
I do think that the Canadian political climate accepts and encourages a wider range of perspectives. The two main parties may mirror the U.S. two-party system, but the Bloc, the Green Party, and NDP also participate as legitimate players in national discussions. But you know, I may be mistaken. I may see only part of the picture. It's very nice to know that I learn and disagree with others and won't be called a traitor.
