By Caitlin Kelly
I moved to the U.S. permanently 34 years ago.
This two-year absence — COVID-caused — is likely the longest time I’ve not been back to Canada, where I was born (in Vancouver) and raised (in Toronto and Montreal.)
If our COVID tests are negative, we’ll soon drive the 5.5 hours through upstate New York and cross into Canada at the 1,000 Islands, then have lunch in Kingston, Ontario, before going to stay with my father, 93, who we haven’t seen in more than two years and who lives alone in rural Ontario.
And we’re off!
I’m also looking forward to seeing some old friends who live near him.
I miss Canada.
Yes, it’s riddled with COVID — as is everywhere now. We are fully vaccinated and will mask wherever necessary.
But only on August 9 did Canada even open the land border with the U.S. so this is our first opportunity to drive back, which is what we always do. I don’t want to sit in an airplane now with un-vaccinated passengers and crew, let alone face standing in crowds at security and immigration.
Many people (especially some in the U.S.) think Canadians are just quiet, polite Americans. But we’re not.
I miss just sharing a culture and history with others there.
Whether books, magazines, films, music, politics, food — there are many specifically Canadian things and points of view that most Americans wouldn’t know unless they went to university there and got to know it more deeply. Like Canadian content, mandated by the government to boost homegrown talent and protect it from American domination — what percentage played on-air radio has to be Canadian.
I like going into a local bookstore to see what’s new from Canadian authors, certainly since so many of my journalism colleagues there also write books.
Canada has also been through its own special hells this summer, in addition to COVID — the terrible discoveries of children buried at residential schools in several provinces, schools where indigenous children were literally pulled from their parents’ arms and forced to renounce their languages and culture.
Now Canada faces a snap election and the Conservatives are as ugly as ever.
So I will be curious to hear what Canadians have to say about all of this. I follow Canadian media on Twitter so I hear and see a fair bit of coverage.
Some of the pleasure is silly stuff — little things like playing a round of golf at a lakeside course we know and love or lunch at Basil’s, a small deli in Port Hope, or eating a butter tart, not sold in the U.S., mostly sugar and calories and sooooooo good.
We are also just really ready for a break, as our last one was five days upstate in March.
Broadside 