T U M B L E H O M E BY JAMES RAFFAN
OUR AIR FORCE ONE. PHOTO: ROBERT AGNEL
The Canoe Party A PROPOSAL TO PUT PADDLING INTO POLITICS
THERE’S A WHIFF of something fishy in the air. I think it might be a federal election. Normally, politics is right up there with rot- ten meat and broken axe handles on my list of things to avoid, but if the hustlers are heading for the hustings it might be time to explore an idea that’s been rattling around in the back of my mind. It’s difficult to differentiate among the
platforms of the main political parties. To add a little diversity to the mix, I move we launch a new political force, the Canoe Party, to run a few candidates in the next election. Te first plank in the CP hull would be a
commitment from Canoe Party members of Parliament to paddle to and from work. Canada is a nation of rivers, making it pos- sible to paddle from almost anywhere to Ottawa and likewise to paddle and portage home for talent shows and ribbon cuttings back in the home drainage basin. Te physi- cal exercise would countervail the cream sauce dinner circuit but it would set a good example for the rest of us who carp from the couch, watching re-runs of documentaries about the national parks system instead of actually getting out there for a good sweat in the great beyond. Another upshot of this movement would
be the canoes paddled by our CP represen- tatives. Every corner of this country has a canoe building tradition of some kind that tracks back to the vast constellation of Ab- originals across the land. Te Canoe Party MP from the interior of British Columbia
20 n C ANOE ROOT S summer 2008
might get his local riding committee to commission a sturgeon-nosed canoe made of elm bark for the annual trek across the mountains and down to Club Fed on the Rideau. Tere would be dugouts from the Pacific, bull boats from the Prairies and distinctive craft of bark, skin and other ma- terials from elsewhere. Incumbents from Newfoundland might even have their party faithful resurrect the wonderful musta- chioed design of the Beothuk to be seen by everybody on the way east.
members would spend in the canoes them- selves—going back and forth to Ottawa, thinking, talking and dreaming about what this country could and should be, travelling all the while through the distinct ecological regions, knowing the differences by sight and sound and smell, by the stories of the people who live there, by the animals and plants that nourish and enrich human en- terprise along the way. Tere would be the patience learned when storms stop passage. Tere would be the
Canada i s a nat ion of r iver s, making i t pos s ible to paddle f rom almos t anywhere to Ot tawa
And maybe with all these canoes remind-
ing Canadians of the fundamental contribu- tion the First Nations and Inuit have and are making to Canada, resulting public pressure would push unsettled Aboriginal issues far enough up the public agenda that they get settled once and for all. Or maybe the party in power (we couldn’t expect to form a gov- ernment right away) would take the CP lead and fund a national museum where Canadi- ans and people from around the world could come to see the beauty and majesty of canoes and the essential Aboriginal contribution to the true North, strong and free. Finally, there would be all that time CP
courage mustered when paddling conditions were risky, when comfort had to be set aside for matters of greater concern to life and limb. And there would be times when the cau-
cus would paddle together on a semi-annual voyageur canoe trip, when regional or par- tisan differences would absolutely have to give way to the occasionally uncomfortable exigencies of people paddling somewhere to- gether, all in the same boat.
JAMES RAFFAN is hoping readers take part in a canoe party of another sort, by taking a paddle on Thursday, June 26th, which he has informally dubbed National Canoe Day.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52