Canada: Introduction
[Under
development 26 December 2006]
Canada is a
magical place.
Once a land only of dreams. The Rockies
were Moominland, Norway
already having been explored. British Columbia was a vast primeval forest, as
forests covered pre-Roman, Iron Age Britain, or the scenery in Return of the Jedi. Montreal
was the height of Parisian sophistication. Toronto
was an English America.
When I first visited in 1993, and subsequently in 1995, Canada
became a country whose British and French incomers
exploited and persecuted the indigenous peoples of the plains and forests,
rivers and ice-fields. They ripped out the trees, gouged great holes in the
ground in search of minerals, raped Claquot Sound, scraped scars in the tundra. These incomers
harboured triad gangsters and nazi-style fascists.
Yet Canada
retains its dreamscape Rocky Mountains, its rolling
prairies and its dinosaur-infested badlands. I have sighted orcas off Victoria,
a family of brown bears on the BC border, and a timber wolf in Alberta.
Wrapped up warmly, I should like to visit the polar bears in Manitoba.
I have sat watching the boat planes in Vancouver
harbour, sailed to Toronto Island,
cruised the Thousand Islands,
driven into St Quebec City as though driving into Paris,
and fallen in love with the St Lawrence.
p.g.h@btinternet.com