Americans missed out on this one. The celebration on December 26, of Boxing Day that originated in England, never caught on in the American colonies. It is understandable, when you consider that it was a day for giving things to the poor and people who do the menial, under-paid chores for our society.
Canadians have Americanized the holiday by making it a time to buy things for themselves. It is just another day for shopping.
We Americanize a lot of things in this country. After all Canada’s population is strung out along the 5.5-thousand-mile border with its American neighbour. The only establishments guarding that unprotected border are outlet malls.
Canadians like to worry about the United States. America is our largest trading partner and we are never appreciated until the American administration needs something. There is always some American commodity organization complaining about our supposedly unfair trading practices because of government subsidies, in the guise of lower taxes or stumpage or our lower dollar. Sometimes we wonder if it is all worth all the trouble.
But our main concern in the coming year is the presidential election in the American Republic, next November. It is the stark fear that Donald Trump will find a way through the quagmire of charges and litigation to win the College of Electors and win a second four years in the Washington White House. As far as Canada is concerned it would be another reign of terror. It would be without the fumbling that marked the fiascos of the first four years. Trump would go for the jugular the second time around. He would be doing nothing more than assuaging his own ego that he can be, the dictator he wants to be. It might not mean the cancelling of the North American trade agreement but it would seem to be of the same effect.
Frankly, we should all be tired of these self-absorbed politicians of the extremist right, who are popping up around the world and have no compassion for us and our needs. There is much to be said for the kindly grandfather in the guise of a Franklin Roosevelt. We all need more people in politics of compassion and caring.
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Copyright 2023 © Peter Lowry
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