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integrated with the United States, both
economically and culturally. One friend I
made managed to prove this fact by con-
stantly discussing reality TV with me.
Were it not for their accents, half of them
could have easily passed for born-and-
raised West Coasters any day.

Before I left for Ottawa, many of my
friends and family had cautioned me that
the only Mexicans who could afford to
attend this forum would probably be a
gang of elite rich kids, and in many
respects these predictions proved right.
Along with being incredibly up to date
with the latest pop-culture trends, the
Mexican representatives at Triumvirat
were all well-educated, fluently bilingual,
(and in many cases trilingual) and among
the best-dressed of anyone there. As well,
I was shocked to learn that most of them
had already been to Canada several times
for vacations. Whenever I tried to share
information about Vancouver with them,
many would often respond with “I know,
I’ve been there,” which got a bit annoying.
Though I’m obviously aware that their
glowing praise for modern Mexico was
clearly coloured by the fact that they all
came from fairly well-off backgrounds
and resided in well-off neighbourhoods,
their words nevertheless broadened my
interest in the country. The idea that
Mexico is actually a modern and increas-
ingly prosperous country not too
different from our own...now that is a
bold idea that takes some getting used to.
Someday I guess I'll just have to visit and
judge for myself.

The French-Canadian delegates were
no less interesting. As I assumed, they
were largely all separatists and super left-
wing politically. Yet, despite the
differences in our political ideologies, I
was genuinely surprised to discover how
much we actually had in common.
Suddenly the Duceppe-Harper parliamen-
tary alliance started to make sense.

Like me, the young Quebecers were all
angrily anti-Liberal and shared my outrage
of Canadians’ general ignorance and apa-
thy towards the sponsorship mess. Like
me, they were also extremely critical of
the undemocratic way in which the
Canadian parliamentary system has
evolved, with the PM having near dictato-
rial powers and very few effective checks.
Many of them praised me following a
lunch Q-and-A session with Raymond
Chretien wherein I lamented that
Canada’s contemporary national identity
had nothing to do with any sort of consis-
tent “Canadian values” and everything to
do with unthinking, knee-jerk anti-
Americanism. Though they may have
hated Bush with a passion, Canadian anti-
Americanism nevertheless appeared to be
as much a pet peeve of theirs as it was of
mine,

Like the Mexicans, the French were

10 | www.theotherpress.ca

also eager to hear my perceptions of them
and offer my “outsider’s view” on their
culture. Many were especially interested in
my views on the October Crisis of 1970,
and learning how I had been taught these
events in school. I found the Quebecers
generally viewed the Crisis the same way
anti-government militiamen in the States
viewed the Waco standoff, namely as a
tragic series of events provoked by a
tyrannical federal government. The fact
that there could even be a legitimate
“other side” to the patriotic story of
Trudeau bravely crushing the FLQ was a
concept I had barely even considered until
now.

I’ve always sort of been a lukewarm
supporter of the separatist cause, if for
no other reason than [ve never felt
Canada has much to gain, and a lot to
loose, from holding on to a _ hostile
province that does not want to be in the
union. When discussing Quebec’s future
with the French Canadians I found it
interesting how the young separatists all
argued their case on very eloquent, intel-
lectual grounds, while their non-separatist
English-Canadian cohorts all tried to
counter with arguments that were essen-
tially empty and emotional. But let the
record show that if I were a Quebecer I
would see no reason to separate. As a
Western Canadian I believe, at this point,
that there is very little purpose in contin-
uing to spend billions to bribe Quebec to
stay just to prove some abstract point
about how federalism “works.” Finally
being able to put a human face to
Quebec’s separatist ambitions deepened
the issue for me in a way I will not soon
forget.

As far as the English-Canadian dele-
gates went, they were a largely uninspiring
group who did little more than parrot the
standardized Liberal Party talking points
my generation has been taught to believe
qualifies as patriotism. At any available
opportunity, they would inform the
Mexicans to be awate of how we
Canadians were noticeably more polite,
calm, smart, and kind than the savage
Americans they were no doubt used to
dealing with. Though the Mexicans would
always nod in sage agreement, many
would later privately comment to me how
strange and insecure they found this
obsessive bragging on the part of my fel-
low countrymen.

Few of the Canadians seemed gen-
uinely interested in the topic of North
American relations, and as I predicted,
most were attending the conference sim-
ply because they knew it would sound
impressive to potential employers. As
their bragging indicated, most had little
time for the United States, and were quick
to condemn the country as a bastion of
right-wing intolerance that Canada should
have as little as possible to do with. A

telling moment highlighting the sort of
unanimity of opinion I was up against
came during lunch one afternoon, when
we Canucks were all sitting at the same
table. The topic of political allegiances
came up, and we proceeded to go around
the table stating which party we identified
with. Surprisingly, or perhaps not, I was
the only kid to identify myself as a
Conservative, while all the others either
classified themselves as Liberals, NDP, or
Greens. Throughout the adventure I thus
became the only guy willing to actually
defend the United States and criticize the
Canadian government. None of the
Canadians seemed to have the slightest
reservations about how one-sided our del-
egation was. If anything, J was viewed as
the strange deviant who probably should
not have been there. I shuddered to think
about the sort of liberal echo chambers
these youth forums must usually be. Of
course, conservatives really have no one
to blame but themselves for this. Say what
you will about the lefties, at least they get
involved in things. If the best the
Canadian right can offer is a single eccen-
tric cartoonist from Vancouver it’s clear
which side has dropped the ball.

In the end, I left Triumvirat with
mixed feelings about the feasibility of
FINA’s vision of an integrated North
America. While I had gained a new appre-
ciation for Mexico, and the Mexican
peoples’ modernity, successes, and
progress, I also left with a sense of frus-
tration over how far behind we Canadians
are in supporting the continentalist move-
ment that these foreign go-getters had so
eagerly embraced. While Mexico and the
US are increasingly setting aside their dif-

 

ferences to adopt policies of shared inter-
est and mutual benefit, Canada remains a
nation more interested in obsessing over
its own insecurities than promoting the
future of the continent. If our nation’s
young delegates in Ottawa were any indi-
cation, Canada remains a nation deeply
fractured by internal division, personified
by the energetic separatists from Quebec,
alienated western conservatives like me,
and cocky liberals in Ontario, who are
more interested in hating the United
States than trying to understand the needs
of their fellow Canadians.

During his speech to us, Raymond
Chretien commented that Canada origi-
nally joined NAFTA not because we
necessarily wanted to, but because outside
forces had established an economic envi-
ronment in which our country could no
longer afford to be an indifferent outsider
to continental trade. Unless Canada can
get over itself, history may be doomed to
be repeated. Very soon, Canada may once
again be plunged into some new North
American atrangement the country has
been too busy naval-gazing to anticipate.
If we can’t come up with a sense of
national purpose or identity beyond blind
anti-Americanism and_self-aggrandizing
isolationism, then we have no one to
blame but ourselves if our country is
unable to evolve beyond our present sta-
tus as the continent’s irrelevant junior
partner. This is the true challenge that the
youth of Canada will face in the coming
decades, but you'll have to excuse me if I
am not particularly optimistic.

Learn from the best nightclub
bartenders in Vancouver
in the Hottest club in the city!

 

June 8/2005