Thoughts on Canada...

There was a news report today about a worldwide survey where people from 28 countries said Canada had the most positive image of any country in the world.

I wonder what questions were actually in the poll. I wonder how any Canadians who answered the questions replied.

I'm sure that Canada, thank goodness, doesn't generally strike fear and horror into anyone's heart. But we are currently somehow involved in a war, albeit someone else's war. So what gives us this positive image? The cuteness of polar bears? An image of trees and mountains? Mounties and horses? Our greatest national asset, I am convinced, is Smarties, but the rest of the world doesn't know about that.¹

It says in the article:

"It appears that people around the world tend to look negatively on countries whose profile is marked by the pursuit of military power," said Steven Kull, director of the University of Maryland's Program on International Policy Attitudes.

Well, duh! Of course. We need academic experts to tell us this?

Obviously our positive image isn't because of our weather. It's -26C out there today, -39C, they say, with the wind chill factor. I recently learned that the concept of "wind chill factor" is a Canadian thing: no wonder. It's necessary like those other handy Canadian inventions, the snowmobile and the parka and indoor heating. If you're wondering how cold -39C actually is, just approximate it at -39F, since -40F/C is where the two scales converge.

Lucky us.

Measured on another scale: it's cold enough to make me grumpy on the way to the bus stop. Cold enough to make me cough - why do I start coughing in cold air? Cold enough for the tears to freeze on my face, since the cold makes my eyes run. Cold enough to spark fantasies of Hawaii and India and other nice warm places. Whatever happened to global warming?

This makes me want to list The Ten Things I Like Best About Canada:

1. The CBC, especially CBC Radio 1


2. Certain authors: Antonine Maillet, Jane Rule, Guy Gavriel Kay, Karin Lowachee, Margaret Lawrence, Miriam Toews.


3. Certain TV shows: Due South, Slings and Arrows


4. Equal rights for gays, including gay marriage.


5. Equal rights, period. Sure, we've a way to go and then some - I shudder to think of some ongoing social problems - but we are a country that takes the basic concepts of human rights seriously. Including the right to medical care.


6. The National Gallery of Canada. I love that place.


7. The Stratford Festival in Stratford, Ontario.


8. A national sense of courtesy that extends beyond our borders. I might, giving a bit of imagination to the issue, say that this is the outward sign of something else: that many Canadians have a sense of universal compassion, enough to colour our view of the world and our attitude towards it. There are plenty of nasty Canadians, but the general philosophical assumptions in this country tend to be both kind and inclusive, in a way I haven't noticed in other countries.


9. A generally unquestioned respect for education, literacy, research, knowledge and learning.


10. Poutine. The most decadent junk food ever.

Note that 'the weather' is nowhere on this list.

¹It is possible that I am wrong, and that the greatest national asset of Canada is Paul Gross. I'll have to think about this.

Scupture...

Carving is easy, you just go down to the skin and stop. - Michelangelo Buonarroti, 1474 - 1564

FIC: Doctor Who - The Universal Constant

Title: The Universal Constant
Author: fajrdrako
Pairing: Jack/Nine (with reference to Jack/Nine/Rose)
Part: 1/1
Disclaimer: Not mine, never mine.
Words: 726
Notes: General spoilers for Doctor Who season one; set before "Bad Wolf". Cross-posted to doctorslashjack.

( The Universal Constant )