Missing Canada
July 12, 2008
I
was recently in Montreal for a conference, and briefly in Kingston and
Toronto. Registering at the conference (actually, filling out a receipt
when buying a Canadian Mathematical Society t-shirt) a secretary
wanted basic address information. She looked at my conference
name-badge, and asked, "Oxford... Is that in Ontario?" (To be fair, it
was the France-Canada Mathematical Congress, so it was not unreasonable
for her to assume that anyone apparently not French was probably
Canadian, and the best guess for an English-sounding place-name is
Ontario. In fact, there is an Oxford, Ontario, though it is actually a
county -- or, more precisely, a regional municipality
-- and does not, to my knowledge, have a university.) What followed,
though, was typically Canadian. "No, UK." "Oh, you came all the way
from the UK? Welcome to Canada!" The greeting seemed touchingly
enthusiastic and heartfelt. It was like someone saying, "So glad you
could drop by. Sorry, the place is a mess, but make yourself at home."
It's a sense I've often had in Canada, of an unpretentious pride in
their humble home; it's really not much, but we hope you'll enjoy it. I
really enjoyed the three Canada Day celebrations (July 1, naturally --
British imperial order ensured that any important events would happen
January 1 or July 1, and you'd be crazy trying to make anything happen
in Canada in January) that I attended -- in Vancouver, Kingston, and
Ottawa. The tone was remarkably inclusive and I felt none of the crazy
world-dominating fervor of US patriotism, or the weirdly forced
exceptionalism of British national pride, expressing itself in such
atavistic ideas as the recent government report on citizenship,
which proposed encouraging school children to swear a formal loyalty
oath to the Queen. (What is this monarchy thing about, anyway? I've
never seen people more touchy than the British about someone putting on
airs, or acting like he's better than someone else; and yet, they're
content to let their country be formally ruled by someone whose
qualification for the post is that her
great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather was Elector of
Hanover (or something like that). Of course, the Canadians also have
Queen Elizabeth on their money and stamps, but they keep her at arm's
length through the Governor General.) It is perfectly possible to be
proud of being Canadian, without hating other people for being
something else. The US finds its existence threatened by the mere
existence of people in the world who neither are nor aspire to be
American, and in this struggle the UK sees its proper role to be the valet de bourreau.
Last
fall I received a letter from our Toronto lawyer, informing me that
our permanent residency application in Canada had been approved. It was
not only the accompanying bill for $4000 that left me feeling slightly
sad, but also the sense of a missed opportunity. Of course (!) I miss
the Kingston winter, the bracing -20°C mornings, tramping through the
snow, and skating with Chaya in the park, or the Market Square. (I
noticed here a day care mentioning in its brochure that the children
would go outside every day, unless the temperature were below 0°C.
You'd never leave the building for months with that policy in
Kingston!) I loved Chaya's Waldorf school in Kingston, and am
struggling to come to terms with the state church here. But there was
something more fundamentally attractive about Canada and the idea of
Canadianness. I have always
cherished my status as an outsider to any group I may be suspected of
belonging to, but I think I could have enjoyed getting to be a
Canadian. What's more, it seemed even vaguely possible, whereas
regardless of good intentions, oaths sweared and formal conferral of
citizenship it seems absurd to imagine becoming British. I don't think
there is any country more welcoming of foreigners than Canada.
(Well-off and well-educated foreigners, to be sure, but then that is my
experience.) Just compare the immigration authority home pages: Immigration and Citizenship Canada
is full of smiling faces and links to promotional information like
"Coming to Canada as an immigrant is an exciting opportunity" and
"Canadians are proud to hold one of the most prized citizenships in the
world. Every year about 150,000 people become new citizens of
Canada." The grim UK Border Agency page,
on the other hand, leads with the declaration "The UK Border Agency is
responsible for securing the United Kingdom borders and controlling
migration in the United Kingdom." On this particular day (15 July) it
prominently features the news flash that "Foreign nationals wishing to
become British citizens will have to earn the right to stay, the
Government announced today. The tough new approach will require all
migrants to speak English and obey the law if they want to gain
citizenship and stay permanently in Britain." The presumption being, of
course, that migrants are unlikely either to learn English or to
obey the law. (This is followed by somewhat defensive sounding
citations of public opinion polls which supposedly show the populace
supporting this "tough" approach -- or some tough approach, anyway.)
The underlying legal regimes may be quite similar, but there's no
mistaking the difference in attitude, between the Canadian "Please
consider joining us. I hope we can use your skills" and the British "We
may desperately need your skills, so please come, but fuck you
anyway." (For specifics, see my comments on Polish nurses and maternity
ward overcrowding here.)
