Interesting editorial in the National Post

 Another very interesting editorial in the National Post yesterday. I read it after I wrote my blog yesterday but did consider writing this  but it was a busy day. I agree with Conrad Black a great deal of the time. Sometimes I do not. 

I think the Governor General position in Canada serves a useful purpose. It means the Prime Minister doesn't have to involve his office in the task of being the chief arm of the Crown in Canada which I think is still an important part of our existence because of the Treaties which were signed particularly during the latter part of the 1800s. The object of the Fathers of Confederation was to seal Canada as a unit from sea to sea to sea. The protection of this huge land mass was very much on their minds and the realization that the First Nations would prefer that status but the potential of it being undermined was very large and could crop up at different times and for different reasons in the future. 

The potential of each region in Canada was largely understood by these foresighted individuals who brought together the four colonies in 1867 and it was no mean feat for sure. Bringing Lower and Upper Canada together was a difficult and huge step. Concessions were made to make it possible and New Brunswick and Nova Scotia were more similar in terms of history and language to Upper Canada but that has changed through the years I must say having traveled a good deal in the Maritimes and Quebec through my many years of traveling with my husband as he searched for his roots was an eye opener. You could watch the march of the French language into Ontario into New Brunswick at a fairly rapid pace since my childhood and indeed all across Canada - it is a good thing in my humble opinion.

Indeed I babysat for a family in my early teens two doors up and that family was from Quebec (transferred by the bank that he worked for in Quebec to London, Ontario) and those children all spoke French but soon learned English. I think they went back to Quebec ultimately but it was possibly the aim to create a more bilingual bank system capable of managing customers from Ontario or the Maritimes or the west as well.

 So I think the Governor General is a necessity in our country (and has been although I would not have chosen some of the Governor Generals who were chosen but we have had some really excellent Governor Generals). At this time and in this place I think the latest choice of our Governor General to be is an excellent one. My only other choice would have been a member of the First Nations because the connection between the Crown and the First Nations is the very basis of our existence as a country from sea to sea to sea. At this moment the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition are both from Alberta in their upbringing with the Prime Minister having experience from Eastern Canada as well as a very world experience in his lifetime of work thus far. So having this French speaking Governor General from Quebec with all of her knowledge of the law (her world knowledge of law particularly apt and is an enormous gift at this time to the people of Canada) is ideal and it was a good choice in my humble opinion. 

But other than that I found his editorial to be timely and lots of good advice. Our view should be outward once again as it was in my childhood - following the Second World War we took in many many people from Europe and particularly Eastern Europe. These people brought us lots of skills and ideas that have helped to make Canada the worldly nation that it is. (As an aside, antisemitism has to disappear from Canada as it is just simply wrong. It hurts us as a people and disturbs our national image of being an accepting people (those causing the events against the Jewish people here in particular take note; if you can not live in our country by our rules then find another home). Our Jewish population has a right to live here without threat and prejudice.) 

Now we just have to get our resources to that world and regain that level of independence that we had when I was a child in the 1940s and 1950s. Becoming a North American market was an interesting idea but we were always getting tariffs slapped on us by earlier presidents as well. We need to diversify our trade and take it to the world where it is wanted and needed. Conrad Black is very right about that. 

A good research day with only fifteen new matches to file away. Today is another beautiful day in God's world and it is Sunday. The sun is shining beautifully and it is already sixteen degrees celsius. A good working in the garden day but first Church and that is soon online.