And how does that make you feel?
Recommended reading for when Canada suddenly becomes spicy
If ever there was an interesting time to be a Canadian abroad—which has not been the case during my lifetime—this may well be it. Canada generally carries a global reputation for being incredibly dull. As the butt of every bland joke (America’s hat, Blame Canada, etc), the discourse about us abroad has long been ruled by comments about our Prime Minister’s attractiveness (somehow word of his various scandals and generally cringe behaviour haven’t made it far past our borders) and our cold weather.
This makes it fairly easy to fly under the radar when you’re living overseas. Once you’re outed as not-American, there usually aren’t many follow up questions. Few conversations end faster than a disclosure of “I’m actually Canadian,” followed by the benign “oh, cool...”
That’s changed pretty dramatically in the last few months, thanks in large part, per usual, to the rhetoric spewing from our neighbours. For such a perpetually boring country, our geopolitical situation has been spicy enough of late to attract international attention.
Twice in the month of January, I had major Canadian news broken to me by Irish people. With our country’s leadership up in the air and an unhinged superpower for a next door neighbour making eyes at our landmass, it’s unsurprising that even the Irish are noticing us.
How are you feeling? they ask. (How does it feel to have your country face the threat of annexation and economic disaster? is what they mean.) Not great, I reply. (Pretty bad, is what I mean.)
How do I feel? I feel frustrated and anxious as I keep a close eye on the CAD to Euro exchange rate widget on my lock screen while I try not to think about what this burgeoning trade war is doing to my hard-won pennies. I feel a bit fired up every time I’m jokingly asked about being from the fifty-first state, knowing that the United States have been trying to ‘liberate’ Canadians intermittently since 1774. I feel sick knowing that if an erratic despot did decide to get land-grabby, realistically no one would come to my country’s aid. I’d hope that I’d be brave enough to resist in some small way. I feel aggressively Canadian in that way that our national identity hinges on not being American. I feel like I’ve been handed unending fodder for fiction, and I am trying to ride the wave of writing motivation that comes from this nonsense. I feel very far from home.
So while Canadian politics are suddenly spicy and the world is, for this moment, watching, I am sitting here in Dublin, registering for absentee ballots and scouring headlines from home.
I’m reading
The 1990s called and they want their lumber headlines back. Goodbye de minimis exemptions, hello duties. Why are tech bros making policy? I’m deep-diving on Mark Carney, the UK’s ‘unreliable boyfriend,” who is back home and running for Liberal leadership. An ode to being 23 in 2013 (and all the twee whimsy that entails). Revisiting Tomas Hachard’s CITY IN FLAMES, a novel about what it’s like to be home and away when Canada is really goin’ through it.
5 Canadian books to read in this winter of our economic discontent
If you’re already scanning labels at the grocery store for the coveted Product of Canada label, may I suggest you take the same approach to your cultural consumption? Whether you’re feeling feisty or funky, there’s no shortage of CanLit to satiate your literary appetite.
Small Game Hunting at the Local Coward Gun Club takes place one winter in Newfoundland. I’m not going to lie, it’s dark as all get out. But isn’t that the truth for most stories set in rural Canada? After all, the long nights bring dark tales. Come for the written Newfoundlander dialect, stay for the profound and grim story.
Lighten up a little with Letters to Amelia. Life happens in funny ways and making plans can make fools of us. While she’s tasked with cataloguing a collection of letters to Amelia from her apparent paramour, Grace is finding her way through life, love, and change in Toronto. (The Torontonians will appreciate the visceral references to several Toronto bars.)
I’ve already waxed poetic about City in Flames several times here, but I’m serious, you really should read it. When you read it, just know that I’m not exhibiting unhinged Sara behaviour from afar.
On the theme of unrest, upheaval, and resistance, Island is a short novel set on a fictional island on the edge of insurrection. Over the course of a day, the lives of two women—a rebel and a diplomat—will be changed forever. Despite the political thriller-like premise, this book is actually quite quiet and it won’t give you stress nightmares.
Such Big Dreams is a tale as old as time—girl living in India meets well-intentioned, somewhat-spoiled western saviour intent on saving her from her circumstances. Sometimes funny, always acerbic, Reema Patel winds a wonderful yarn that pokes fun at well-meaning Canadian voluntourists and celebrates carving out the path you actually want.