[BLOG-LIKE POSTING] Notes on the Durability of the Canadian Nation-state

I was planning to write this on Canada Day, or better yet the Fourth of July, but reality intervened. The point, though, deserves to be made regardless of the time of the year.

Canadians--English Canadians, rather, since Québécois have a clearly-defined national identity of their own, thank you very much--have a perennial fear that Canadian nationhood is fragile. This despite the fact that the trend over the past two centuries has been for a growing separation of English-speaking areas in Canada from the United States. Late 18th century English Canada was almost entirely the product of immigration/refugee movements from the American interior and New England to the Canadas and Nova Scotia; English Canada's component regions were integrated with each other only because they all shared a common loyalty to the British Crown, in other respects remaining satellites of their parent regions. English Canada has since evolved into a more-or-less united entity in the two centuries since its foundation--don't we all share a common disdain of Toronto (or if you're in Toronto, Bay Street)? Aren't Maritimers looking for work much more likely to move to Ontario or Alberta, now, than New England or the American Midwest? Don't we have shared dialects of English?

Still, English Canada and the United States do share much in common. Québécois have the comfort of knowing that they are sharply distinguished by language and culture from our southern neighbours. Possibly, our cultural similarities could act against the preservation of a distinct English Canada.

( But then, look to the eastern Balkans. )

An Afternoon's Outing

I joined Steven Garrity, Will Pate, and other Island bloggers at Interlude (across from the fire station on Kent Street) at 1 o'clock for the monthly Island bloggers meeting. Interlude is a Chinese-style café much like the Formosa Tea House, but I don't think it's derivative; there's a lot of similar tea houses in Toronto, the proliferation here being only a matter of catching up. The food and drink was good, although there was noise from Interlude's blender and street repairs (which should be done in May, but anyway). The discussion was good--CityFilter Charlottetown, a community weblog, was the subject of discussion, as was the immense expenses of Virtual Charlottetown (quadruple one blogger's high-end estimate at 400 thousand dollars).

The meeting broke at a quarter after2. I went to Cows for ice cream (praline and cream, if you're interested) and then strolled over to Government House. I didn't catch Jen, but I did enjoy the festivities--every Thursday from 2 to 4, there's apparently a leveeput on. Chatted briefly with Dirk Druett.

Now, I'm at Timothy's. Reading Edward Behr's The Last Emperor, basis of Bertolucci's film of the same name, about the life of the Qing scion Pu Yi. Fascinating, if depressing.

I plan to partake in some Pride events, going to Mexico Lindo with Steve and his boyfriend. Hopefully it should be fun.