Sunday, June 10, 2012

Western Canada

The possibility arising at my day job of having to visit someone in Western Canada  caused me to investigate on paper at least a part of the world which is thousands of miles away and which rarely enters my thoughts.

If the trip becomes a reality, traveling there and being fit to talk over the matters affecting those concerned could take a couple of days or more. Even then the enterprise could prove unsuccessful although trying for success would itself still  make the trip worthwhile.

Looking at the maps and possible airline routes over to Western Canada made me appreciate how in some respects the world is truly vast yet in other respects how so much affecting human beings in different parts of this huge world is virtually the same everywhere.

 I surmise that Canadians tend to regard fellow Americans from the USA in similar fashion to the way in which many British regard fellow Europeans from the EU. In other words as friends but with so much in the past present and maybe to come, that is different, that the channel  between England and the continent,or in the Canadian's case the various frontier lands between Canada and USA, are essential parts of  the relationship to keep in mind. Interestingly too the conflicts   of approach thankfully these days mainly political, between  parts of Canada with French ancestry and those parts with British ancestry, superficially   seem to have much in common with some of  the inter necine conflicts between Scots English Welsh and Irish in the UK and Ireland. Doubtless the same could be said of many of the conflicts in Africa Asia  and  South America although equally obviously the selfishness and greed of some individuals wherever they may be, tends to afflict and impoverish  ordinary folk of any nationality.

Whether a  trip to Canada emerges from the current cloud of unknowing has yet to be decided but if it does I shall post more. If it does not, the possibility  of such a trip serves as a major reminder to me anyway,  that the world is huge and is populated by peoples with huge   talents and of course  hurts   but also differences; yet we are all also so similar.

2 comments:

  1. As a Brit.living in Canada let me give
    you my 'take'on the people you will encounter
    in Western Canada. First, a brief word about
    the scenery:it's spectacular !
    People tend to be friendly to the point of
    being overly familiar.Their outlook is usually
    parochial. Issues and concerns are local
    not national.
    If you use the word 'provincial'in the U.K.
    it is as a perjorative. Here it is used in the
    context of our provinces.
    For all this it is still worth a visit.

    ReplyDelete
  2. A really helpful and interesting comment - thank you.

    I hope to be going sometime in September 2012 though that is still not certain. I will post again.

    ReplyDelete

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