My hunch is, almost everyone reading this knows who Carol Off is: host of “As It Happens” on CBC Radio for a decade and a half; author of five books, plus a new one, ”True Patriot Love: Reporting from the Front Lines of Canadian Sovereignty,” which chronicles her own life story along a kind of parallel track with Canada’s own history.
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which → read → history
One of Off’s most interesting discoveries is that, for one of Canada’s greatest ever foreign correspondents, she loves her home and native land a lot more than she thought.
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she → love → home
How are you personally navigating your relationship with the United States these days?
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you → navigate → States
I was just recently doing an interview on stage with American author, Jodi Picoult.
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I → do → author
When we began, she said, “I just want to start by saying, I’m sorry.
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I → begin → ?
We’re all sorry!”
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We → ’re → ?
But I also hear from Americans who say, “Look, you guys have to grow a thicker skin.
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guys → hear → skin
Trump’s just trolling you.
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Trump → troll → you
And I say, “Well, if you were told that you were going to possibly be invaded, you wouldn’t say, ‘That’s just Donald talking.’”
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Donald → say → ?
We know that there are very deep histories to this, and this is just the most bald-faced and cruel way to do it.
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this → know → it
I have just decided not to go at all.
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I → decide → ?
Let’s turn the magnifying glass around and look at us, because you say Canada has not just a chance, but also an obligation to be a beacon of civil society and liberal democracy in North America, and I presume you say that because our friends to the South are not being that right now.
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friends → let → South
Why do you think we have this obligation?
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we → think → obligation
Because we are a liberal democracy and we all have a role to play in pulling our system of values, our system of politics back from the brink.
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we → have → brink
And I don’t just think about the United States when I say that.
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I → think → that
I see what’s happening in Europe, and what we’ve seen recently in elections in Germany.
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we → see → Germany
We see an erosion of some really key values of constitutional democracies like our own.
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We → see → own
And Canada is one of the few countries that’s holding the line.
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that → hold → line
That’s why we’re having this enormous reaction from around the world of “Go Canada!”
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we → ’ → Canada
I was just recently reading a blog from a Brit who said, “I would kill to be a Canadian” because they’re standing up to the bully in the playground, standing up for values, standing up for things that matter.
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that → read → things
You tell us in your book that “Something has happened in Canada that I haven’t seen before: an utter rejection of that unhealthy dependence, a will to nationhood from a generation that wants to light its own flame rather than be moths drawn to the American one.
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that → tell → one
I’m seeing an energy and self-assurance that was present only as a sketch.”
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that → see → sketch
What are you seeing?
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you → see → What
I was just recently talking to Margaret Atwood, who was saying that she remembers a poll in the 1960s where Canadians were asked whether Canada and the United States were very different countries.
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Canada → talk → 1960s
And most people said no, they’re very similar.
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they → say → ?
And then the next question was, ‘Do you want Canada to join the United States?’
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Canada → want → States
We didn’t want to be Americans, but we had no sense of who we were.
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we → want → sense
What I have seen in the past year is suddenly, all the things that I have watched over the decades have coalesced into this sense of, ‘Now I get it; now I know who we are.’
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we → see → it
It often takes a crisis to do that, doesn’t it?
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it → take → that
But there are plenty of people in our country who still do not agree with you.
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who → be → you
Do you take into account the fact that maybe 20 per cent of Canadians really don’t like what this country turned into after a decade of Justin Trudeau as Prime Minister?
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country → take → Minister
Many of them would be all too happy to join the United States.
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Many → join → States
What do you say to them?
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you → say → them
I would have a lot of questions for them about what it is you see the country is about.
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country → see → them
What is it that you value about Canada?
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you → value → Canada
All of those things would probably evaporate if we were to join the United States.
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we → evaporate → States
And so I have to ask, what is the country that you would like us to be?
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us → have → that
There is a movement of ethnic nationalism in the United States that we don’t share.
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we → be → that
And I look to those 80 per cent of Canadians who would probably join me in this, that we believe in being patriotic.
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we → look → this
We believe in a love of country that is based on an idea and not on an identity.
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that → believe → identity
…and 42 more, not listed.
The Aporia
