Starting a blog was not an easy choice for me. I've always been thoroughly torn about their relative use, dependability, legitimacy and so on. Also you have to wonder about some of the bloggers out there - why share overtly personal details with an annonymous audience over the web? So, needless to say, this blog will try to avoid all the above quagmires and try not to be anymore than an expression of my ideas in a small space.
My friends will tell you that I am never super easy going about moving. I've done it a couple times in my life, but the moves have all been temporary: moving into university dorms, to the cottage for the summer, etc. My move from Toronto (well really the Greater Toronto Area) to Boston - felt a little more permanent and a lot more risky. I moved to Boston in September to take a job in the tech field. So far Boston has been quite the experience, and I plan to tell you my observations here. I'm not into naming names, spilling the dish or any of that. So if you're looking for a tabloid stop reading now.
But my experiences here will be flavoured by all those in my previous life. I've moved aborad before for University (to London, England), and my views of a place are always seen through my own set of fractured glasses. Like the saying goes: you can take the girl out of Canada, but you can't take the Canada out of the girl. And on that note, I'm including the following -
It's a comment I sent to Metro Morning, a Toronto morning radio program on CBC Radio 1. I was responding to a great interview I heard through the podcast with host Andy Barrie interviewing a journalist from the New York Times reporting on the Canadian election. I recommend listening to it if you get the chance. I find Krauss' opinions some of the most insiteful I've heard in the media since the election was called. The point is not that I'm anti-Canadian, but I can see the benefits of third party objective opinions. The more you live abroad the more objective you become about looking back at where you've been.
"Mr. Barrie/Metro Morning,
Being a Canadian living and working Boston I have listened with interest over the past few months to Metro Morning podcasts. Your interview with Clifford Kraus struck me as a standout Canadian response to American interests. To begin you mentionned that Canadians assume Americans know little about us due to a lack of news resources available to them. Not true. On election night I will sit in my Boston appartment watching C-SPAN which is simulcasting Canadian election coverage from the CBC. I expect that news of the election will also be covered by major dailies and broadcasters like CNN and FOX News. To me, there is not a glut of information in the US about Canada, but Americans choose not to listen to the information, and I think Mr. Kraus hit the nail on the head as to why - Canadian politics are increasingly boring. Having lived abroad previously in the UK as well as the US, the one fact that international news coverage shows about Canada is that we are an extremely complacent society. Complacent about our politics, cities, health care system and even racial tensions. This complacency is part built upon our need to be politically correct and not offend, as Mr. Kraus also pointed out. It is complacency that causes Canadians to reject or dismiss international critisim or analysis of Canadian events as 'uninformed'. And it is what has led to politicians, such as Paul Martin, to turn against the US and some of the international community - a rejection of the 'uninformed' abroad has caused Canada to 'fall in upon itself' introspectively and complacently. What Canada needs is more America. I'm not saying this as a Canadian looking back in anger at my country, but as a Canadian who has bothered to listen to the complaints of our neighbours and wants to create appropriate change in Canada, quite unlike many of our politicians."
But hey, it all ends Monday! Happy voting!
My friends will tell you that I am never super easy going about moving. I've done it a couple times in my life, but the moves have all been temporary: moving into university dorms, to the cottage for the summer, etc. My move from Toronto (well really the Greater Toronto Area) to Boston - felt a little more permanent and a lot more risky. I moved to Boston in September to take a job in the tech field. So far Boston has been quite the experience, and I plan to tell you my observations here. I'm not into naming names, spilling the dish or any of that. So if you're looking for a tabloid stop reading now.
But my experiences here will be flavoured by all those in my previous life. I've moved aborad before for University (to London, England), and my views of a place are always seen through my own set of fractured glasses. Like the saying goes: you can take the girl out of Canada, but you can't take the Canada out of the girl. And on that note, I'm including the following -
It's a comment I sent to Metro Morning, a Toronto morning radio program on CBC Radio 1. I was responding to a great interview I heard through the podcast with host Andy Barrie interviewing a journalist from the New York Times reporting on the Canadian election. I recommend listening to it if you get the chance. I find Krauss' opinions some of the most insiteful I've heard in the media since the election was called. The point is not that I'm anti-Canadian, but I can see the benefits of third party objective opinions. The more you live abroad the more objective you become about looking back at where you've been.
"Mr. Barrie/Metro Morning,
Being a Canadian living and working Boston I have listened with interest over the past few months to Metro Morning podcasts. Your interview with Clifford Kraus struck me as a standout Canadian response to American interests. To begin you mentionned that Canadians assume Americans know little about us due to a lack of news resources available to them. Not true. On election night I will sit in my Boston appartment watching C-SPAN which is simulcasting Canadian election coverage from the CBC. I expect that news of the election will also be covered by major dailies and broadcasters like CNN and FOX News. To me, there is not a glut of information in the US about Canada, but Americans choose not to listen to the information, and I think Mr. Kraus hit the nail on the head as to why - Canadian politics are increasingly boring. Having lived abroad previously in the UK as well as the US, the one fact that international news coverage shows about Canada is that we are an extremely complacent society. Complacent about our politics, cities, health care system and even racial tensions. This complacency is part built upon our need to be politically correct and not offend, as Mr. Kraus also pointed out. It is complacency that causes Canadians to reject or dismiss international critisim or analysis of Canadian events as 'uninformed'. And it is what has led to politicians, such as Paul Martin, to turn against the US and some of the international community - a rejection of the 'uninformed' abroad has caused Canada to 'fall in upon itself' introspectively and complacently. What Canada needs is more America. I'm not saying this as a Canadian looking back in anger at my country, but as a Canadian who has bothered to listen to the complaints of our neighbours and wants to create appropriate change in Canada, quite unlike many of our politicians."
But hey, it all ends Monday! Happy voting!
posted by Jen S. @ 8:48 PM
2 Comments:
At 7:20 AM,
Caroline said…
As the great Canadian I am, I watch "Corner Gas." And I'm reminded of an episode when an American comes to Dog River. This is a big deal, and one of the guys goes off on him about how Americans know nothing about Canada. Well, for that matter, Canadians don't know that much about Canada either. I agree, there is a complacency that happens between those great oceans, in a land we call "Canada." But perhaps it happens everywhere too. I am of the mindset that Canada needs to wake up and smell the coffee. It is no longer that heralded peacekeeper it once was (interesting Granatstein article on that!) nor is it the great economy it promised to be - it's basically a pretty place to raise your kids and have a mortgage (and even that isn't so great with property taxes and all). I think part of the problem is there really isn't anything to believe in. What is truly Canadian? It's always interesting when Canadians are asked to present their nation. The answers are always varied and unusual. What do Canadians stand for? What is the Canadian identity? Is it just one big mass of land that holds a bunch of people who respect each other enough to stay out of one another's business?
And I leave you to ponder that on the day of our federal election.
Congrats on the blog.
~Caroline
At 9:34 PM,
Jen S. said…
Caroline,
You bring up a great point (as usual)! That Corner Gas episode did send up the Canadian view of Americans - but it was a Canadian playing the role of an American (Mark McKinney I think). I think too that Canada is becoming the land of mortgages and family raising. When I talk to Canadians here that's what I keep hearing - Canada's a great place to raise kids. I think they're probably just idolizing their youth...but maybe so...
Post a Comment
<< Home