Today's Thought-Food

comes from Irvin Studin, a "rising star on public policy". He asserts that Canada should allow a much greater rate of immigration, such that the country's population would roughly triple, to 100 million people. "Watch the strategic power of the country multiply", he says, if we significantly increase the population. We would be better able to counteract the immense cultural forces arrayed to our south; we would have a greater international presence and influence. In short, says Studin, we would become "a serious force to be reckoned with".

I must admit I'm not keen on the idea. It smacks too much of "power for power's sake". I'd contend that Canada is not overly interested in being a global 'playa'. We live by the maxim we'll leave you alone, you leave us alone.

Moreover, inviting double the current population to come here with all their tribal hatreds intact wouldn't strengthen this country: it would destroy it.

Canada's mythology recognizes three 'founding nations': the aboriginals, the English, and the French. In reality, we are a myriad of tribes. You can work your way westward from Cape Spear, Newfie-land to Saltspring Organic Tofu Island encountering countless variations on a Canadian theme. What makes the Canadian melody so enchanting, to me, is its unusual harmonics. Dissonance is rare and usually fleeting: most of our people get along with each other nearly all of the time. Even Quebec's threatened secession was (mostly) amicable, and about a hundred thousand Canadians attended a spontaneous rally saying, in effect, 'we love you and please don't go'.

That harmonious spirit is not present in too many other places, globally speaking, and that's one big reason I don't want to see the borders opened much more than they already are. Because despite our mostly calm and contented history, we do have our share of nastiness in our national closet. From the Black Donnellys down through the deplorable internment camps for Japanese-Canadians in the 1940s all the way to current and recurrent anti-Semitism in Montreal, tribal hatred occasionally rears its ugly head even here. I'd prefer not to see any more of it than I have to, and throwing the border wide open would pretty much guarantee I'd have to.

And for what? Power? Pshaw. The United States is the power round these here parts, and anybody with any sense knows better than to challenge that. The world can continue to find Canada boring as far as I'm concerned. I may live in a backwater, but damn it, it's my backwater.