Way back in the mid 1960’s, I briefly became involved in the American anti war movement. I had brought posters home about a rally in Vancouver and was planning on placing them all over the town of Oliver.
When Wally discovered my intentions he put a stop to my actions. My enthusiasm evaporated for a few years until the American draft dodgers and deserters started showing up in our town.
I befriended a couple of brothers from Michigan named Peter and David. One was a deserter, the other a draft dodger.They were scouting out the land with the intention of bring their wives out to join them. They felt there were many opportunities to make a living in the Okanagan Valley.
I told them they had my support and I would do all I could to help them. Wally and Auntie Kay were not pleased with my involvement with the Americans, but I insisted on doing what I thought was right.
The wives came and brought some extended family, and they settled down in hippie fashion to live off the land and pick fruit. It was a hard time chopping wood, cooking on a wood stove, and living a spartan life.
I helped them for two or three years then something else gained my attention and we parted company.
Speed up to 1988. My wife and I moved to the United States Of America, Walla Walla Washington to be exact. The Americans welcomed us with open arms, as if we were family, and really we were family, same language but a different culture.
We had to learn everything over again. Even something as small as buying milk. In Canada we knew skim milk hadn’t any butter fat. Not so in the U.S. of A. Skim milk still had butter fat. If you wanted no butter fat you had to buy non fat milk.
All the clothing labels were different, the shoe manufacturers were different, even the taste of some foods was different. For example, there were two kinds of beef and chicken available.
You could buy grain fed beef and chicken at Safeway or corn fed beef and chicken at Albertson’s food store. The difference was in taste,smell and sight. I found that corn fed beef and chicken both tasted and smelled bad and the fat of both meats was yellowish in color.
We spent 6.5 years in the U.S. then returned to Canada.
Now, speed up to 2016, election year for President of the United States.
Some Americans have said that if Trump gets elected President, they will move to Canada.
The first time I heard that I laughed and sincerely doubted if that would ever happen! Today, on a CBC radio program, I heard an American University professor say it again. It was in the context of using the move as a form of protest against the current American policy both at home and abroad.
There were two guests on that CBC show, both Americans. The other guest said that Mr. Trump is an example of the rot in the American way of life today. For the American way of life to survive, it needs to change. The guest went on to say that even Ms. Clinton’s election as President wouldn’t change anything for the positive.
That change may not happen until America awakens to a brain and financial drain by its residents moving to Canada, Mexico, or elsewhere.
What would Canada do if five million Americans decided to move into our nation or even one million? These people wouldn’t just be fruit pickers as were the American draft dodgers and deserters, these would be professionals, people willing to do whatever it takes to make a positive change in a nation’s life.
I know that many of the draft dodgers and deserters who have remained in Canada after the war ended, have contributed to the success of our nation.
I have moved many times in my life. As I get older, moving becomes less and less attractive. It takes a great deal more sacrifice to move today than when I was younger. Will we be ready to welcome our older American brothers and sisters if they choose to move to Canada to hasten change in America?
I’m not sure I’ll be ready for that kind of change either. The draft dodgers and deserters started with a trickle and then before we knew it there were 30,000 to 40,000 in Canada. Will the U.S. Presidential election this year spur Americans to move to other countries?
I don’t have any answers, only observations and I can see history heading in the direction of repeating itself.
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