We’ve been away for almost two weeks and it has taken that long to get the American Trump news out of our brains. Even though it happens almost daily, physical distance helps to give some overall perspective. Until you get away, you don’t realize the extent to which we’ve all been sucked into this ongoing Washington, DC-based reality TV show, except this one is kind of an “American Apprentice” and we’re all waiting to see who is going to get fired next. Trump may not be a master of governing but he sure is a master at keeping an audience. Almost against our will, there we are, all glued to the action.
Canadians are much more mellow and amused watching us go through this tribal ritual we call American democracy. All of Canada, which is physically larger then the United States, has a population smaller than the state of California. The cities Toronto, Quebec City and Montreal are typically crowded, but even with lots of tourists, they’re not quite as crowded as our California cities. Their people seem much more relaxed than Americans; people wait in line without grousing and car drivers seldom hit their horns. The country is obviously prosperous. Their roads and infrastructure look newer than ours. That’s not terribly surprising since their major growth has come in the last 20-30 years. Our interstate infrastructure was built when Eisenhower was president back in the 1950s and is definitely showing its age. That’s not because Canada is a young country, because it’s not. Montreal is celebrating its 375th anniversary this year. Although there are substantial differences between French-speaking Canada and English-speaking Canada, and there is no great love lost between them, they never went through a civil war like us. They might not always like each other but they never ended up killing each other in large numbers. Not too long ago, Quebec was going to quit Canada and form its own country. It went through a couple of referendums that almost passed. The referendums hit Quebec hard—thousands moved into English-speaking Ontario and many businesses left Quebec and moved to Ontario. They finally realized they needed each other and made all sorts of accommodations to keep it all together as one country. The Province of Quebec stayed Canadian but it operates with a great deal of autonomy. It has all sorts of restrictions to preserve the French language and its “Frenchyness” (if there is such a word). It’s a wonderfully bilingual country; many of the people speak both English and French. I gave it a momentary shot with my high school French, to no avail.
We started in Toronto, which has one of the most diverse populations on the planet. Half of their population is foreign born and it’s a younger population. Where we are having these pitched battles about immigration and documentation, the Canadians want all the population they can get, particularly younger people. Most Western countries, including the United States, have problems of aging populations and are looking for younger populations, even if it brings some new problems. Older populations retire, have more health care problems and cost more to maintain. In the past, I’ve heard horror stories about the Canadian healthcare system, which is socialized (what we might call a single payer system, like our Medicare). Despite the negative propaganda, I spoke to some politically conservative Canadians who seemed happy with their system. Taxation is another thing on which we differ. Canadians pay higher taxes than us, but the government provides things that we have to pay for out of pocket. For example, university education and child daycare have very low rates.
Old Quebec is a walled city—they’ve preserved the fortress walls and stone buildings built from the 1600s through the 1900s. You have a strong sense of living in history and yet, it also has new interesting architecture. They’ve integrated the two. Parking, needless to say, is a bear so we just signed up for one of those hop-on, hop-off tours (pretty much using it as a taxi) in Quebec and Montreal. Toronto has a wonderful subway system, so getting around is no problem.
There is one caution when you visit Canada. They have a national dish, eaten everywhere, called poutine. It’s a combination of French fries, cheese curds and heavy gravy. You can feel your arteries harden as you eat. I’m convinced a cardiologist, for business reasons, invented it, but the Canadians seemed to like it.
While we were away, we got the sad news that a dear friend, Tommy Hawkins, had passed away. Obituaries don’t do him justice. Tommy had an effervescent personality, liked most everyone and everyone liked him. He had a way of lighting up a room. There aren’t many former basketball All-Americans and former Lakers captains who were also poets and jazz aficionados. I’ll leave you with a story he told us. It was one of those nights when his teammate, Elgin Baylor, scored 60 points while Tommy scored eight points. In the post-game interview, a sports reporter asked Tommy what he thought of the game. Tommy said they had a great night and that between himself and Elgin, they scored 68 points. That was Tommy.