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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2017-01-19, Page 5THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JANUARY 19, 2017. PAGE 5. Other Views Let's et excited by Canada's stories As Canadians enter 2017, the 150th anniversary of Confederation, I'm hoping that we may be able to rediscover the fascination with our country and its stories that helped make us proud to be Canadians when we celebrated the Centennial 50 years ago. Rereading Pierre Berton's memoir My Times recently (and younger readers may need to Google Berton to even know who he is) I was struck again by how much the Centennial changed us. Berton quotes Christina McCall Newman who wrote in MacLean's "the need for a show of independence has taken hold of the Canadian psyche in a way that four or five years ago nobody would have believed possible." It's hard now for people to comprehend the changes that the surge of patriotism of Centennial brought. In the 1960s you virtually didn't hear music made by Canadians on radio, unless they were people like Hank Snow who had left Canada to make a name in the U.S. There were few Canadian books published. There were no Canadian movies. There were hardly any Canadian professional theatres and the few that there were, performed British or American plays. The only hints of the unique lives of Canadians were those portrayed on CBC television and radio. Prior to 1967 Canada was still struggling with its colonial past. There was a political crisis in 1964 when Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson's minority government attempted to give Canada its own flag. Opponents saw it almost as treason to replace the old red ensign with Britain's Union Jack in one corner. But the raising of the new red and white maple leaf flag was the beginning of a new Keith Roulston From the cluttered desk pride that exploded in cities, towns and villages across the country during Centennial celebrations and carried on for years. Berton himself was one of the reasons and one of the biggest beneficiaries of Canadians' discovery of the stories of their own country. In 1970 when he published The National Dream and The Last Spike, his two -volume telling of the epic story of the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway, the books sold more copies than anyone thought a Canadian book could sell. When the CBC made the books into the series The National Dream, millions watched, discovering that Canada had stories in its history that were as fascinating as any other country. This spirit that was born with the Centennial transformed our own corner of the country. A young man from Atwood discovered theatre and was driven to tell our own stories. Paul Thompson brought a group of actors to a farm near Holmesville, creating The Farm Show which was a hit in Toronto and toured into the U.S. and Britain, not to mention coming back to be performed in cattle auction barns and fair buildings in our own area. The Farm Show led indirectly to the creation of the Blyth Festival and the drive of founder James Roy to tell local stories made the theatre unique. Its success encouraged other summer theatres to tell Canadian stories. The patriotism of the Centennial spirit turned out to be like a shot of adrenalin that provides a momentary surge of energy, but leaves you feeling spent when it subsides. When the country shifted philosophically to support the idea of free trade in the late 1980s, things like Canadian content regulations on radio and television soon went from measures to give our stories their proper place on our own media, to "protectionism". In a new sentiment that said we should reward the winners and let the losers die, many Canadians came to see the creators of Canadian stories as welfare recipients who had to be propped up by unnecessary government regulations. Private broadcasters, with the exception of visionaries like Wingham's Doc Cruickshank, were always more interested in making money than contributing to Canadians' sense of self- worth, so they preferred cheap American imported shows to producing Canadian. Today, when I hear many commentators speak about the communications revolution brought on by the world wide web, I often detect a sense almost of delight that Canadian content regulations are becoming impossible to enforce, as if it were an unbearable imposition to give part of our time to watching stories about ourselves. If I had one wish for Canada 150 it would be that it inspires in people under 50 the pride in being Canadian that brought such changes 50 years ago. Canadians will finally have found their place when we don't need Canadian content regulations because viewers would punish networks, including Netflix, that didn't uncover and tell Canadian stories. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we came out of 2017 with that kind of healthy sense of self worth? Not the power house he thought /t's Monday of inauguration week and for some odd reason, I just can't bring myself to be overly concerned about it. Don't get me wrong, I know that it's an important event and President Donald Trump will likely be either one of the most influential presidents in modern history or have one of the shortest presidencies in history (nothing insidious intended there, I'd imagine impeachment is not an outside possibility when it comes to Trump). Throughout 2016 we watched and waited and laughed as Hilary Clinton led the polls and Trump made gains then lost them by saying ridiculous things (or having ridiculous things he had said brought to light) but now it's time to pay the piper as it were. Will Trump's presidency have an impact on life in the communities The Citizen covers? Your guess is as good as mine. While he has promised changes to trade that could see Canada face some difficult years in the market, I wouldn't count on anything happening just yet. Will this lead to some kind of war in which the United States of America and Russia have some kind of uneasy truce? Anything's possible. Despite how much of an impact Trump is going to have on this world, it just seems to me that getting worked up over it is a waste of energy and time. If (or when, if you're of that mind) he slips up, there will be more than enough people ready to kick him out of office that he will at the very least have his hands too full with those issues to effectively steer the country to where he wants. For the meantime, however, Trump has a lot to learn and that will take time. Walking into the White House, Trump likely atDenny Scott rimilbuida Denny's Den has the least experience of any politician who has ascended to such an office and, like any political position, there usually isn't the kind of power there that outsiders think there is. Yes, the President of the United States of America (POTUS) is a highly influential individual with unrivalled power in the world, but there are checks and balances to make sure that power isn't misused. That's why I'm not overly concerned about what's going to happen at the end of the week when Trump officially becomes the leader of the most influential country in the world. If you don't necessarily understand where I'm coming from, the best way I can explain it is to look at local politics. You don't often have a situation where someone who has no political experience jumps to the head of a local municipal council because people want someone who has experience, but, as Trump's presidency proves, anything is possible. Becoming a mayor or reeve doesn't give you a heck of a lot of power overnight. Trump becoming POTUS isn't going to give him the ability to wipe out trade deals, replace health plans or mandate any other massive change at the drop of a hat. These things take time, require planning and agreement of governing bodies. That's why I always have to stifle a laugh when someone says, "Well if I don't get my way, I'll run for council and change things." That's not really how it works. Sure, you can run for a council position, bring up motions and try to have things viewed your way, but the truth of the matter is that one person doesn't make most major decisions for a municipality or a country. Municipally, you need to have a majority of political representatives agree to look into changing things and then a majority of those same representatives must agree to change it. Even at that point, those changes can be reviewed and undone by governing boards — you can champion a decision, but you can never force something through that a majority of the other elected representatives don't agree with. Hand-in-hand with that notion is the fact that you can't force changes that are beneficial to yourself, especially financially. That's why I'm not overly concerned about Trump stepping into his new role at the end of the week. Yes, the U.S. system is different to Canada's and sure, there are changes he can affect, especially with the amount of support the Republican party legislative bodies in the United States (although his most recent announcement about providing health "insurance for everybody" may have lost him a lot of that support). Hopefully, however, that same support won't let him do anything that would place the nation in jeopardy... hopefully. I may be wrong and, by the time January 2018 shows up we could be embroiled in the worst war or recession ever. However, and maybe this is the optimist in me, I have to believe that the U.S. Congress will realize the President needs to have his hand held for a little while, at least until he knows what he can and can't do. 411. Shawn torniali" Loughlin Shawn's Sense An engaging person For those of you who have yet to hear — its true, on Christmas Eve, I proposed to my long-time girlfriend Jessica Mann. I kept telling people this when they asked about my holidays and would move on to other aspects of the holiday break, prompting more than one person to interrupt me and ask whether or not she said yes. Leave it to a reporter to bury the lede, as they say, but yes, I proposed, and she said yes. We met over 10 years ago when I first came to Huron County. It was for the funeral of her sister, Sarah that I first found my way to Huron County. During that first visit I met her parents Lynne and Steve and then -editor of The Citizen, Bonnie Gropp, a meeting that would lead to me being hired at the place I call home (and have for the last decade). One of the first times we ever went out for dinner was to the Benmiller Inn — now I'm calling the Benmiller Inn about hotel rooms to accommodate our wedding guests this fall. My, how the times have changed. We have battled through tough times by one another's side and we have built a great life for ourselves in Blyth in a home with plenty of room to grow. So, while some will react with the sarcastic "it's about time" I would respond with the sincere "it's about time" because it is about time: the perfect time. Because of the timing, which I had to take credit for, we were able to celebrate alongside our friends and family for the entire Christmas holidays. The celebratory tone of that two- week stretch was unlike any holiday I've ever experienced. Not only did Jess and I shift into the next phase of our lives, but with my new niece Addyson, Christmas was not about adults gifting each other socks, but about Rainforest Jumperoos and baby's first Christmas ornaments. Things have truly changed for the better at the Loughlin house. Now we shift into planning mode. I consider myself lucky for the bounty we have at our fingertips. Whether it be beautiful wedding venues, tasty food, talented photographers or pastors I consider friends, Jess and I didn't need to look much farther than our own backyards to get some of the best people in the business on the case. (Seriously, I went to a London Knights game, New Year's drinks and the Blyth 140th New Year's Day Levee and left those events with a potential photographer, caterer and venue, respectively.) Those who know me know I'm an organized person, so really, I had much of the wedding planned before I proposed, which I suppose is a good thing. I'm getting ahead of myself here. The story is that I proposed to Jess. I was able to employ a family friend to hand- craft the ring for us. He and I go way back — I was only a few years old when I accidentally burned myself with coffee at his office. He is months away from retirement and has had his health challenges, but he was able to squeeze this one in. I had always hoped he would make this ring for me one day, so I was glad that wish came true. And I did things the old-fashioned way. I spoke to Lynne and Steve and while I didn't exactly ask for permission to marry their daughter (perhaps we can call it old-fashioned with a bit of a modern twist), I said that I would hope they would support my asking Jess to marry me. OK, that sounds a bit like someone running for the Democratic nomination asking for a senator's support in the upcoming primaries. Trust me, it was more romantic than that. An exciting year lies ahead.