Tuesday, May 26, 2009

The Governor General has a Heart

The Queen's representative in Canada asks for a piece of Seal Heart, she is handed a freshly cut slice and swallows it raw, commenting that is is delicious.

In that gesture she has done what very few Canadian politicians have ever done in the history of Canada. She has shown an appreciation for the regional differences that ideally define this Canada. She has sat in solidarity with the people who have lived off the resources of Canada's North long before "Canada".

When there was brief talk of adding seal fur to Canadian athletes in 2010 Vancouver there was a spark of a true coast to coast Canada, as is the national dream. It was quickly dismissed of course; few could honestly say that being Canadian is trully identiable by all of the people of this federation.

So for this one single powerful act by the governor general I congratulate her. By reaching out to this Northern culture that is so far removed from her own experience, by emercing herself into the virtue of their lives she has shown what Canada trully lacks as a country: An empathy and understanding of all of the cultural identities of this dominion.

If the dream of Canada is to be successful more of our leaders have to reach beyond their comfort level. Reach beyond being a country that is like the awkward cousin of the U.S. and look to our history and culture, the very definition of what this country could be. If only it had the heart.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/gov_gen_arctic

2 comments:

Charlie said...

Good title bnb! I had to cover this a little as well. It's CTV online's favorite topic it seems. They "beat it" to death each year - you'd swear Watson's mom worked there. Maybe the gg will start a trend, and before long Sobey's and Dominion will carry the nicely packaged seal hearts, alongside the beef organs.

NL-ExPatriate said...

Nicely put sir!