West Coast Mysteries

This is a continuation of the mystery of the non-Canadian students. So, I trust we all remember two weeks ago, when I asked my seminar group to give a name of a Canadian figure that they admire, and half the class came up with nothing? This week I varied the question: name a Canadian that would be considered important in some circles, and you can't name someone who's already been named before you. (I had the girls on either side of me rock-paper-scissors for first shot and following from that direction away from me.) Everyone came up with names easily, and good names.

It took half the class for someone to name Sir John A. Macdonald (and that student is our lone Albertan). Far before him we had both Rick Hansen and Terry Fox, Michel Trudeau, Nellie McLung, several people important on just a local basis, and Wayne Gretzky. The second half of the class got really creative, with the guy who named Lester B. Pearson last time naming Roméo Dallaire this time (and I swear he's vying for the role of my new best friend), and one girl naming P.E. Trudeau because he made her hometown of Salmon Arm famous. (Scroll down to April 21, 1982.) (I was tempted to go with the previous article in the series, which references the "Salmon Arm Salute".)

I asked the students what I should make of this. We established that my suspicions were true, and while they knew about Canadian figures, they didn't necessarily admire them. I posed to them the theory that the West Coast feels itself cut off from the rest of Canada and they immediately affirmed that. I posed to them the theory that some have, that the West Coast feels more connected with the United States and they immediately protested (it's interesting that, in a recent Maclean's poll, the West Coast was found to be the most anti-American; it's also interesting that you'll find that the absolute most southern part of Saskatchewan is also the most vocally anti-American in the province).

After the class, I had a peculiar encounter with a student who had missed several of these sessions. We ended up addressing several of her questions: the point of having seminars, how to learn to care about readings (and issues) that you find boring, and how to make the transition from high school (where they were not encouraged to talk in class) to University (where you're docked marks if you don't speak out in class). Next week we'll see if I made any impact.