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.
As a Brit.living in Canada let me give
ReplyDeleteyou 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.
A really helpful and interesting comment - thank you.
ReplyDeleteI hope to be going sometime in September 2012 though that is still not certain. I will post again.