Feeling at home

I recently spent a few days in Newmarket, Ontario, about an hour's drive north of Toronto. We had gathered for the funeral of a close family member. It was an emotionally trying time but also an opportunity to reconnect with family, friends and acquaintances. At the reception, talk turned to the topic of home.

Since we've moved out to Vancouver, many people have asked me, "So, how do you like Vancouver?" I always respond by saying that I'm enjoying living on the West Coast and I'm starting to feel at home here. But almost in the same breath I say that for me home is relative. Home is where I am, where I rest my head after a heavy day and where my family is. Home is not that necessarily related to a specific location.

The more I travel, the more I realize that while geography offers us the infinite variety of the natural world and clues to understanding local history and culture, it is also represents simply an aesthetic aspect of life. Life, for most of the week, revolves around work, spouse and family, shopping, food and rest.

As beautiful as the country may be, so much of our daily experience looks the same after a while that in the end it doesn't matter so much whether one lives in the Rockies, the Prairies or the Maritimes. Offices are more or less the same, shopping centres offer the same types of stores and merchandise pretty much everywhere, restaurant franchises are copies of each other, and many of these companies are also national: think about brands like Tim Horton's or The Bay, for example. When you factor in the effects of network television programs, the availability of the Internet, portable music tracks that become the soundtrack of life, and the use of social media, then geography begins to matter less and less.

So as we share similar life experiences across the country, then "home" comes down to our routine and the relationships we form -- relationships at work, relationships in the house and how we stay in touch with extended family members. That emotional "place" is, for me, where home is. And, accepting that, one can, in theory, live just about anywhere in this vast country and find a way to feel at home.

Celebrating achievements in a new country

In a country like Canada, which attracts so many immigrants, it’s interesting to see how new communities develop and grow. In the years after the Second World War, Toronto attracted many Italian and Portuguese workers. In recent years, Asian and South Asian immigrants have predominated. In the last fifteen-twenty years, Toronto has also become home to many Polish and Russian families.

Last night, I attended an event organized by the Russian community to celebrate the achievements of its business people and entrepreneurs in Canada. It was an elegant gala at a suburban banquet hall that attracted several political dignitaries and also Alex Shneider, the Russian-Canadian billionaire who heads the Midland group of companies (Midland Resources Holding Ltd.).

Immigrants arrive in a country, work in small groups, gradually establish themselves and go on to form larger and more influential organizations. Meanwhile, immigrants in groups that preceded them become integrated into the larger society and the younger generation moves forward in the context of a new cultural dynamic. It’s the wheel of immigration. Canada owes much to it.

Immigrant groups do well when they get together and share their accomplishments with the local community. It sets the tone for greater prosperity but also sends out a very positive message of conciliation and cultural enrichment that also benefits the host country.

Last night's award recipients were very interesting people.

Madeline Ziniak, who has been instrumental in the development of ethnic media in Canada, received a lifetime achievement award from the Russian Canadian Business Association. She’s the national vice president of OMNI Television, Canada’s first and most important multilingual television system.

Rabbi Yoseph Y. Zaltzman, who founded the Jewish Russian Community Centre of Toronto, received the award for leadership and commitment. The Centre runs a number of programs to facilitate the integration of Russian immigrants in the Toronto Jewish community.

There were many other others, including a talented friend, Valery Tokmakov, who was recognized in absentia for his many activities in the community.

(My thanks to BSK for the silhouette illustration.)

Get out and vote

Apathy and indifference are the enemies of democracy.

In many Western countries, for some reason (a sense of well-being, a growing distaste for the weaknesses of the political process?), the electorate has been participating less and less in the democratic process. In the United States, for example, voter turnout in the presidential elections in recent years has hovered around a miserable 50% of eligible voters. In the UK, the figure has been close to 60%. One fortunate exception is France, where, during the last presidential election in April, voter turnout was an inspiring 84% of that country's 44.5 million registered voters.

On October 10th, voters in the Province of Ontario will be going to the polls. If you're eligible to vote, please get out and do so. It's a fundamental duty of every citizen. This year's election is especially interesting because of the referendum related to the mixed-member proportional system that's being proposed.

As flawed as the democratic system is, it is still the best participatory system we have. It would be dangerous and irresponsible to allow this hard-fought system to simply slide into irrelevance or into the hands of those who would manipulate it for their own selfish ends. We should heed Thomas Jefferson's warning: "Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories."

The media has been collecting and disseminating useful information throughout the election campaign. Take the time to read, listen, watch and reflect -- then vote. When we look around the world and see what's happening in countries without functioning democracies, we see the perils we could be facing. Don't slide into apathy.

Voter turnout in the last provincial election in Ontario was 56.5%. Let's do better this time.

Diversity: a toolkit for journalists

For some time, the association that brings together Canada's broadcast news directors, has been working on a number of initiatives to improve the reflection of Canada's diversity in news operations, both in front of the camera and behind the scenes.

One of these was the creation of a "Diversity Toolkit."

Presented by top Canadian journalists, it consists of a video guide for news managers, with features that review such things as the history of diversity in Canada, why diversity is good for business and how to make news content more reflective of Canada's communities.

An accompanying booklet adds material on the country's Aboriginal people, guidelines for better hiring practices and recommendations related to people with disabilities.

The Diversity Toolkit offers an interesting insight into Canada's rich demographic reality.

You can view the videos or read the booklet at this web site:

http://www.rtndacanada.com/Content.asp?PageID=2.10

Vancouver's Stanley Park

The first time you venture inland from the seawall that borders Vancouver's Stanley Park you realize instantly that you're treading on hallowed ground: one thousand acres of centuries-old, sky-reaching trees that quite simply take your breath away. These monuments of nature tower around you and overpower you with the scents of cedar and fir. If you wanted to wrap your arms around one of their trunks, you'd need three friends to do it. And as you step into the forest, the sounds of Vancouver's busy West End mysteriously fade away and you are enveloped in tranquility. Walking along the park's trails, you are drawn to the mystical; the combined stillness and energy of the place seeps into your being and awakens your senses in a way that must be experienced to be understood.

What city in the world can claim to have a park of this size, home to approximately half a million trees, within easy reach of its downtown? Little wonder, then, that Vancouver's citizens take such pride in it and were so moved by the effects of a devastating wind storm in December of 2006 that they pledged more than three million dollars to a special fund to restore the damaged areas of this unique urban forest.

Larger than New York's Central Park and jutting into the channel that leads to Vancouver's harbor, the park was opened in 1888 and dedicated to Lord Stanley, Canada's Governor General, in 1889. More than a park, this natural playground, bordered by mountains and the Pacific Ocean, is a testament to environmentalists who were well ahead of their time.

In 1886, the citizens of Vancouver, working through their city council, approached the Canadian government in Ottawa asking to lease what was then a logging peninsula in order to convert it for park and recreational purposes. The city council set up an elected committee to govern all parks in Vancouver, and today the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation is said to be the only elected body of its kind in the country.

Stanley Park is separated from the ocean by a seawall that is more than five miles, or eight kilometers, long; a paved ribbon that attracts walkers, cyclists and skateboarders who take in the sea air and admire the Lions Gate Bridge that connects downtown Vancouver to the North Shore of Burrard Inlet. In the summer months, enormous cruise ships pass underneath the suspension bridge on their way up the coast to Alaska's glaciers. Walking at a steady pace, it takes about two hours to complete the seawall circuit, so be sure to wear appropriate footwear.

On a recent early evening, I was walking along the western seawall at low tide when, no more than fifty paces away, a pair of bald eagles suddenly swooped down from the trees and, talons outstretched, stole a fish from a seagull that was perched on a large rock in the water. Unperturbed by either the angry seagull that dive-bombed them and cried vehemently, or by the human onlookers that had stopped to watch, the pair of large eagles had their meal. Once close to extinction, bald eagles have made a remarkable comeback on the West Coast.

Further along, at Second Beach, three swimmers swam lengths in the park's public pool, quiet now and relatively still as dusk approached. The wide facility, with a connected wading area for children, is an elegantly designed infinity pool, with its edge matching the horizon and creating the optical illusion of the ocean and the pool being one and the same.

It was a splendid evening, with Vancouverites gathering on the beach at English Bay. People with guitars emerged, couples held hands and sat on logs laid out on the sand, seniors and children alike were talking amiably -- all there to enjoy the sunset. A little off to the side of the path, by the tennis courts and behind the building that houses the Board of Parks and Recreation, rose a cacophony of cries, a curious sound like turkeys gobbling and cats fighting. Looking up into the height of the trees, you could see many families of blue herons nesting. A wooden rail had been erected to keep people on the sidewalk; a raccoon combed the ground at the base of the trees. Droppings covered the leaves.

Overlooking the beach, diners at the Boathouse Restaurant sat on the open deck and talked quietly as the sun slid down behind Stanley Park and the distant mountains on Vancouver Island; watched freighters in the bay turn on their lights as the flat sea turned a silvery gray. Two kayakers paddled softly home and glasses and cutlery tinkled over the boardwalk.

A visitor senses that Vancouver's people know full well they've been entrusted with a gift of nature; something worth preserving, just as the park's founders intended more than one hundred years ago.


(This item is also posted on Helium.com )