Look around, discover our good fortune

SOCIAL STUDIES - Published Monday October 13th, 2008

I still think the American Thanksgiving myth has a lot of power as a story. Imagine being part of a failed expedition, starving on the banks of an endless ocean which separates you from home.

That first winter north of Boston, way back in 1629 was a tough one. If it had not been for the Massachuset Tribe of natives everyone would have died.

If you want an equivalent Canadian story, in 1576 Martin Frobisher failed to find a Northwest Passage through the ice above our fair country; but took the time to stop in Newfoundland and have a large celebration of Thanksgiving for safe passage -- we could think of this as our Canadian Pilgrim story.

Or there is the story of how during the difficult winter of 1606/1607, in a tiny wooden palisade at Porte Royale, on the Annapolis Basin in Nova Scotia, Samuel de Champlain created what was arguably a very good approximation of the idea behind Thanksgiving. He called it L'Ordre de Bon Temps -- The Order of Good Cheer -- and it only lasted that one winter.

The story goes that the first year they spent on St. Croix Island saw the death of two thirds of the crew from scurvy. No one knew what scurvy was, or that they needed vitamins, but it was Champlain's genius to suggest that good food and friendly camaraderie would go a long way towards curing the medical problems of his small and struggling colony. So he instituted the Order of Good Cheer. Under the rules of the Order, special meals became the personal responsibility of individual colonists, who then went on to try and upstage each other.

All of a sudden you had great meals decked out with the finest fish and fowl, and game. Entertaining tended to raise everyone's spirits. Good food brought better health.

These stories resonate with us because they remind us of how tentative life can be, and how easy it is to celebrate the good things that get us through.

I spent the week before Thanksgiving driving across half of our country. To make a long story short my youngest brother is going to Korea to teach and I have inherited his car. Since he lives in Indiana I flew out to Hamilton and drove the car back; a remarkably cheap way to move a vehicle.

It was also a whirlwind tour of the Eastern half of Canada. I discovered that New Brunswick has the best fall leaves and the best Tim Horton's coffee. I had time to think about all that I am thankful for and just how much I take for granted about Canada; which includes, by the way, my ability to choose a new leader.

I noticed a few other things in my travels.

First off, Toronto is huge. The scale of it makes you think you are in a science fiction movie where industrialization has taken over the planet. I drove along the Don Valley Parkway in the dusky twilight and there were times when all I could see in any direction were the glassy steel reflection of skyscrapers blocking any possible view of the countryside.

I also realized that despite architectural differences, life was pretty much the same. I passed the same malls, people cut me off with the same regularity, and the election signs even looked the same. I saw school buses and delivery trucks, transports and minivans; and everyone looked like they were happy or worried or indifferent for the exact same reasons that I encounter in Moncton.

The same was true in Montreal. Only replace the skyscrapers with urban sprawl and cars. There are more cars on the road in Montreal city than there are people on the planet. I don't know how that can be true but I am sure it is. It took a good two hours to drive 20 kilometres. Again, however, if I looked in any one of those vehicles, or over to the side at a playground, or apartment complex, the people were just the same as you and me.

The best election ad I came across was a billboard in Montreal. Half of the sign was factories spewing smoke with a gray sky and the word "Stephen" the other half was a forest, with the sun shining through the trees on dappled flowers and the word "Stéphane" emblazoned across it.
If you were commuting down the highway, choking on fumes, a nice nature scene might speak to you about the possibility that Stéphane offers hope for something different.

Of course, I still maintain that the Conservative and Liberal parties are two sides of the same coin and that if we actually wanted change, which apparently very few people really do, we would vote NDP or Green.

Interesting coincidence though, everything falling on the same week means that no matter where you go in Canada you find we are all the same, and we are all closing cottages, getting ready for winter, preparing a fall feast, and about to elect new leadership.

It is worth taking a good hard look around you today before you go out to vote tomorrow.
Too many of us stop paying attention to how good we have it here in Canada.

We forget to be thankful and also forget to participate in the basic decision making tools that are our constitutional right.

Although this may be an election that is being fought over nonexistent issues as opposed to the ones that really matter to us; it is worth taking this day to pause and reflect on what really is important to you, and how is that reflected by those people who claim to speak on your behalf.