Canada, is anyone listening?

By Rafe Mair

Canada: Is Anyone Listening? is the memoir of an outspoken Canadian nationalist, an exploration of the British Columbian psyche, and a prescription for an ailing country. In Canada: Is Anyone... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1552630005
• ISBN13: 9781552630006
• Release Date: January 1998
• Publisher: Key Porter Books
• Length: 252 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.

Customer Reviews

"A nation is much more than just a territory bounded by lines on a map."

Rafe has written a book that deserves to be read by every Canadian;although if you're not from British Columbia,you may be like me and have never heard of him.He is a very astute commentator on the political scene of Canada.He expresses views that are controversial and seldom heard anywhere east of the Rockies.Canada has been struggling with the issue of National Unity,or more appropriately named 'National Disunity',ever since Confederation;but never so much as since the 1960's and it seems to get worse every year.While most in central Canada,Ontario and Quebec,see it as only a French-English issue,Mair shows it is mugh greater than that.For instance BC has had major issues,some of them much greater than the rest of Canada realizes,and they have nothing to do with French-English relations. Rafe opens up issues the majority of Canadians haven't given the slightest thought to;in fact generally speaking, BC gets lumped with Alberta,Saskatchewan and Manitoba,and thought as the West.They never even think about BC being the third most populous province and in a couple of decades will pass Quebec and be the second.How can the fact that Quebec has 24 Senators,New Brunswick has 8,Nova Scotia has 8 and BC has 6,at the time of writing, be rationalized? Did you ever realize that BC's population is greater than New Zealands. BC feels ,and quite rightly so,that it has been given the short shift by Ontario and Quebec for much too long. He subscribes a lot of this to our political institutions and maintains that by sticking our heads in the sand and ignoring the things that are causing the problems things will continue to get worse."If we don't make radical changes to the way we govern ourselves,we won't survive as a nation.The threat of Quebec separation ebbs and flows and still remains a distinct possibility;and would have major impacts if governmental restructering does not take place. Much of Canada is not tuned into, or even interested ,as to what BC thinks or feels,and they would be well advised to "Listen." I grew up in Nova Scotia,spent 3 summers in BC,10 years in Quebec,5 years in the US and 35 here in Ontario;and from my experiences, believe that Mair is right on the mark on most of these issues;like it or not. Mair wrote this book from what he truly believes;not to become popular or even worse;politically correct. As he says,"In life you'll be forgiven for your errors but will be hated for being right.I can live with that." There seems to be only two choices: 1 Listen to him. or 2 Pray he's wrong. It's 7 years since he's written this book and there is no sign that anything is improving; if anything the issues are getting worse.