History mystery

When I moved to Canada for the first time, back in the mid 1970s, my wife was anxious for me to visit one of Toronto's most "historic" buildings, Casa Loma.  It's a rich man's baroque folly, and as the name suggests, it is indeed a house on a hill.  I wasn't unduly impressed: the house was only completed around 1920.  As I pointed out to my wife, my parents' house in London was a full quarter of a century older, and nobody had ever been moved to call it historic.

Within days of our return to Canada, there was a fresh reminder of how shallow the pool of history can seem on this side of the Atlantic.  The Federal and Nova Scotia governments have stumped up a good chunk of change to refurbish and refloat the "historic" schooner Bluenose II, and the relaunch in Lunenberg attracted large crowds and coast to coast media coverage.  Bluenose II was first constructed in 1963!  She's a handsome vessel, but she's not exactly historic in the same sense as HMS Victory or the Vasa, is it?  Even the original Bluenose, of which the current ship is a replica, was only built in the early 1920s.  

Still, there are some bits of genuine history that can stir passions in these parts.  Aside from the Bluenose, the other big media story that greeted us on our arrival was a plan for Canada to share diplomatic facilities in a small number of locations with the UK.  This sort of thing goes on all the time without any fanfare, but some bright spark decided to make an announcement about it, mainly to give a bit of substance to a visit to Ottawa by the UK Foreign Secretary, William "the Mekon" Hague.

Bad idea! From the public reaction, you'd have though that Canada was planning a tryst with Satan. The public outcry was muddled, to put it mildly -- one letter writer referred to the Brits as the "tea and crumpets crowd", while others denounced their bellicosity -- but it was sufficiently heartfelt that the big announcement was hastily buried, though no doubt the actual sharing of fax machines and doormen in obscure foreign capitals will go ahead anyway.  The facts -- that Canada has been effectively independent since 1867, that the two countries have fought numerous wars together, are members of the Commonwealth and the G8, and enjoy innumerable family ties -- counted as nothing against the perceived slight to Canada's sovereignty and its delicate sense of self esteem.

There is, of course, one thing that can offend Canadians even more readily than a run-in with the old colonial power, and that's being dissed by the United States.  And there's a fresh instance of that going on right now -- which will be the subject of the next posting.