Blog off

At least me and scribbles will understand that title. And a few others, although I am sure that there are few of you reading this now. But, here I am, a bean counter in Britain, and suddenly posting any future stories into my Canadian diary here seem a bit wrong. I may open up another blog - one thing i did discover is that this blogging thing is highly addicitive, and to those of you who passed by, and especially to anyone who made themselves known and made comments, thank you, it made keeping up the blog just that bit more fun, knowing that there might just be someone somewhere on the other end of it...

But this was a blog about Canada, started in May last year when I knew next to nothing about the place, and finishes here in January when i know i would tell anyone, any time, to go and visit the country, any part of it, and prepare to learn. Learn about generosity. I lost all rational measures of generosity as, more and more often, people amazed me with what they were willing to do, both for you as individuals, and in reflecting their country. I think of little things like being given tea bags in an electrical shop on my first full day in Canada, i think of being invited to a cottage having only met its owner twice, I think of my final client work, and the staff there inviting me snowmobiling if i could make it back. My friend Sharon in the office used to print me lists of all the things going on in Toronto at the weekend, and everyone was good enough to tell you what you would enjoy. Invites to other towns, to sports events, to bars, to parades, and a bus driver giving a full detailed history of parts of the rockies on his lunch break...

I'll miss little things too. Push button access for wheelchairs for so many public access doorways and buildings puts our country to shame, and if you have had to negotiate life in, or with, a wheelchair, the people of the UK know how hard that can be. Canada, you have done some things very well. I'll miss the way the shopping is routinely packed for you, i'll miss the 'have a nice days' that staff use, and often want to say. Silence is golden over here, but sometimes silence is just a little bit unfriendly, unwelcoming and gives probably the wrong impression unintentionally.

I wont miss the high rise buildings, which i was never convinced were really built with evacuations in mind if there was a problem, and actually I wont miss 80 or 90c gas charges. We have a different set of social arguments in place at home, and whilst on the face of it it pains people paying $2 a litre for gas in the UK, this is a relative pain, based on the prices elsewhere in the world. However, i know that $1.40 (70p) would feel very cheap, and I also know that there would be a tax hole that would need filling elsewhere. We havent necessarily got it right or wrong. And recognising that someone has to pay for the roads somehow, it is just one answer. Of course, I might change my mind on this, since up until this year my work has paid for all my fuel, and from now on will not cover the same costs. Maybe I am about to enter my 30s and learn what growing into a whinging Englishman is all about!

There is no doubt that there are problems in Canada. The background to the collapse of the government in November indicates that there is exactly the same scope for good and bad in the corridors of power there as anywhere else - similarly, a record number of gun related killings in Toronto in 2005 show that this is not some heavenly Utopia free from all the ills of society. Canada, after all, has a very prominent near neighbour to the south, and it would be a blind man not to believe that some level of influence permeates across the border from below.

But who would I be to criticise that in any way? Just in September there were race riots in my home town, as well as other parts of the UK and Europe as a whole. The government is still heavily implicated in decisions to go to war, in the deaths of people who apparently opposed it, and even this week, ministers are having to defend the policies adopted by certain education authorities in their recruitment policies. No place is perfect, and we can all learn something from everywhere new we go. When things are different, it is usually for a reason.

So what did i learn? I learned that Canada has a mix of people just as diverse as ours, and, whilst it may not openly treat them any differently, better or worse, their existence is accepted better than it is at home. I hope I bring that back. Canada has a short yet proud history, with many people who have done many things to improve the lifestyles and quality of lives of all people, Canadian or otherwise. From their input into inventions of simple everyday gadgets like the radio, telephone, television, the keeping of time, and medical jumps like the discovery of insulin, these 30m people today can be proud that their forefathers made jumps that we are all in some way thankful for or benefitting from. Its a clean country, a modern country, and has a respect for its environment and its potential uses that i think all of us in the 'old world' could learn from. No doubt Canada doesnt always get it right, but there were very few people and places able to claim that.

And i learned of a huge country that i was only able to see the smallest part of. The best thing about Canada, I would imagine, is that, no matter how many times you see it, it might always leave you wanting more. For all the good things i saw, the rockies, Niagara falls, the CN tower, Montreal, Vancouver, Algonquin Park and besides, there are so many more things left to discover. I never once got out East, and i only had the smallest experience of the west. Not to mention the north... (and who wants to go south?!!). Possibly the most unbelievable thing is that I arrived in Canada with a very limited knowledge of the country, its history, its people and its places, but a reasonable length 'to do' list. I didnt accomplish that list, but many things did get accomplished, many of which would never have been foreseen. After a 6 month stay, the weirdest thing is that, if I was to make another 'to do' list tomorrow, it would be longer than the list i could manage from 2005. And it would all be different.

To Canada, thank you for the experiences. To the blogosphere, thank you for sharing.

Random Canadian factoid 7 - The group of seven.

Picture: Algonquin park image, by Tom Thomson.

Ok. So this is a post for Cressman, who has agreed to do me a 3 figure Cressman original (is that 3 figures Canadian Dave?!) and also f0r Kim.

For the eagle eyed amongst you, who may have noticed (but probably didnt!) that there was never a 7th random factoid, there was a reason for this, and this was the reason. I never actually got round to posting about the Group of Seven, so here goes. Cressman was looking in need of inspiration this morning, so this is for him.

In 1920, J.E.H. MacDonald, Lawren Harris, A.Y. Jackson, Arthur Lismer, Franklin Carmichael, F.H. Varley and Frank Johnston officially formed this now famous group. These were painters bitten by the Canadian north who, for the first time, took on the task of painting the great power, scenery and spirit of their land.

This truly Canadian art movement was started, not by professional painters, but by a loose association of acquaintances who travelled north from Toronto on their vacations to paint and relax. The modern Canadian so-called "school", was inspired as the result of a direct contact with nature itself.

Before 1910, a Canadian art movement, inspired by the Canadian landscape, was not considered possible.

The public and artists themselves preferred the softer, mistier and tamer landscapes of the old world. Most Canadian artists studied abroad and continued their work here, usually after the manner of the Barbizon and Dutch schools. They painted scenes of cows and trees in the best academic tradition with lots of detail and dark brown colouring. Horatio Walker and Homer Watson both painted in this style, often referred to as the "cow school". 'In Europe, tradition'- that powerful despot- seemed to mould or curb artistic expression, at least for a time.

As an "outpost" of culture, Canadians followed the rules of the European art world. Canadian art authorities did not believe that our rough landscape was fit subject matter for art. "It's bad enough to live in this country," an old lady once told A.Y. Jackson, "without having pictures of it in your home." This, and the attitude that pine trees were unpaintable, slowly began to change.

Since Canadian confederation in 1867, we were involved in an era of re-evaluation in art, science, religion and life itself. This evaluation was slow, but necessary to develop a "concept of self" for this young nation.

Members of the Group of Seven consciously expressed this nationalistic philosophy in their paintings and many written articles. Arthur Lismer once stated that "It is necessary that as Canadians we should believe we are capable of producing great art as we believe we are capable of doing great deeds."

The men who would later form the Group of Seven, with the exception of Harris and Jackson, were employed in Toronto as commercial artists at Grip Ltd. Tom Thomson, a co-worker and friend of these men, was also employed there.

Thomson was not an official member of the Group as he died in Algonquin Park two and a half years before it formed. However, he was influenced by and in turn had influence upon his contemporaries, and became perhaps more famous than the group itself.

The group paved the way for Canadian artists to develop a unique style of recording the many incredible views of the country in which they lived.