Sharing A Strong Sense Of Belonging

Yesterday, in a taxi cab in Toronto, I experienced a moment of
belonging. My cab was held back by traffic jams (why, on a Sunday
afternoon, my driver wondered). He was youngish, black hair, bronze-
skinned, heavy accent, and he said things like, when he stopped to pick
me up and I thanked him: "It is my great pleasure, my lady."

As we waited at one stoplight after another, we began to realize that
Portugal had just won their soccer game at the World Cup. Portugese
flags were appearing all around us. Horns began honking.

Tapping the steering wheel, the driver said, "Crazy, crazy. They win,
they go crazy. They lose, they go crazy." We laughed quietly, then I said,
"At least, these countries play soccer, they don't go to war against each
other."

Suddenly he twisted around in his seat so that he could look at me
squarely as he said, with passion, "My lady, you have just spoken the
greatest words! That is so true, what you said: No war! No war! That is
the greatest thing!"

There seemed nothing more to say, after that. We continued on our way
with a sense of belonging ... to at least a Canadian ideal of peace, even
knowing that wars raged all over the planet.

Three years ago, on 1 July, I watched two other immigrants demonstrate
a sense of belonging as they solemnly wished one another, "Happy
Canada Day!" and shook hands as if it had been the greatest wish they
could bestow. And isn't that the truth, too.

Exactly couldn't agree more! New immigrants today express the same joy as the first immigrants that left behind tyrants and oppression, we should all rejoice in that success....

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If I stand for my country today...will my country be here to stand for me tomorrow?

I had to leave my home country one step ahead of deportation to Siberia. Although, my family were poor, by the time I was a student I had it made, and was looking forward to a very prosperous future, even fame and fortune, in the arts, all that was lost forever.

Emigration for me was not by choice, but by force, followed by many years of extreme hardship and poverty. Although I received citizenship and new identity from the British government for my services, I was dreaming of vast forest and lakes, ever since I was a child, secenes that never existed in my native land.

We came to Canada, as British citizens in 1955. Wanting to see the country and meet the people, we crossed from Montreal to Vancouver by motorcycle in 4 weeks, before the Trans Canada Hwy was built and loved every minute of it. As British subjects, we received full Canadian citizenship rights a year later.

Having settled in Vancouver, I first saw the Cariboo county of Central BC on a car rally in 1960, or '61. When we passed Clinton, an overwhelming feeling came over me that I came home and never wanted to leave.

Brought my wife and family up to the Cariboo on a camping trip in 1963 and my wife felt the same. We bought our first
lakeshore property in 1969 and built a cabin, but from there all we could think of was how to move up here permanently. We bought our small ranchland in 1975, finally got out of Vancouver in 1979 and never want to go anywhere again.

The last time we saw Europe was in 1948 and England in 1955.
We lived in Vancouver for 24 years, but my wife hasn't been back for 26 years and I for 17.

My wife has lived in 5 countries and I in 4, but Canada and our Cariboo means for us the roots and home we never want to leave even for short periods. After we moved here, we didn't get paid for our business we sold in Vancouver. We were flat broke and lived in 3 small cabins, with our son, totalling 300 sq.ft. without electricity, phone, running water, surviving by building custom furniture with a generator, for 8 1/2 years, but we wouldn't have changed back to our ultra modern house we built and left in Vancouver.

When I was young, I never dreamt of leaving my country and home, and was quite happy with my future where I was and with what I had.

But now, if I could have the choice between the fame and fortune in the country of my birth, or all the hardships and poverty we had to endure to be where we are now, the choice would still be Canada and the Cariboo.

A lot of people we know just "have to go home" every year, or they would die. We feel sorry for them. What the hell are they doing here? Although we had offers to go back on fully paid visits and vacations, we refused them all and frankly, Europe means nothing to us any more.

Or, as some of our friends say, we're the "audible minority, fierce Canadian nationalist patriots".

And this is why I shall be fighting against deep integration, globaization, NAFTA, foreign investment and all these criminal gimmicks depriving people of their nationalities, homes and freedoms, until my last breath.

Ed Deak, Big Lake, BC.