Canada’s Hot Girl Antagonist Era

In my second foray into listening to the echoes, we look at section 1 of Mr. Fleming’s “The Resources of the Canadas”, the current resource I’m using for my investigation into the continuum of history. We’re looking at our tense past to help understand our present. Some things have changed, but some things remain the same.

1 - The powerful protection of Great Britain, —her inexhaustible means of carrying on a defensive war in the Canadas, and retaliating, on the coast of the United States, any enormities committed by that enemy here.

Welp, sure, we’re part of the Commonwealth, but I think we can agree England isn’t helping us with this one. I mean, the King did give us a ceremonial sword, and planted a maple tree on his side of the pond, but it’s not quite the same as the backing of the entire British Navy and 10 000 infantry promised in the last one.

Mr. Fleming writes at length about the strength and greatness of the British naval and military organizations, and how “the very name of Briton is a kind of title to respect, in every quarter of the globe,” (4). The term ‘jingoist’ did not yet exist when Mr. Fleming wrote these words, and I don’t know the guy that well so I’m not sure if he was one, but I can’t help but point out that he wrote practically in awe about a nation that committed horrific crimes against most of the world because it believed it to be naturally superior, as a reason to believe we’ll win against an opponent who also thought it would win because it believed itself to be naturally superior, and which shortly thereafter promoted manifest destiny to commit the same kinds of imperialistic atrocities (and by some accounts, still do). Modern update: We’re not going to win with superior arms this time, and somehow we’re still talking about imperialism.

How is this comforting? It’s not. That is to say, Canada may not be perfect but it works for us—we really like democracy—but we’re objectively militarily inferior compared to the neighbours that threaten us again, however, we do have friends, and we’re pretty good at making more. Thus, if Mr. Fleming was writing this chapbook today, it would likely be a much longer section promoting variable geography middle-power trade deals, the pros and cons of becoming associated with the EU, and how it will all work out because Canada is in its ‘hot girl era’. Although, according to the Urban Dictionary, we might actually be in our hot girl antagonist era, meaning a ‘life stage when people-pleasers begin to take care of themselves and consider it rebellion’. Basically we’ve started ditching toxic losers. 

A couple quotes of note. First, he talks about American hypocrisy, “They [Americans] have arrayed themselves against a power [England], that can sweep their commerce from the ocean; while they talk of supporting the contest by a revenue chiefly to be drawn from trade.”(Italics mine) (5) 

Yeah I don’t really need to comment on the echoes of trade and hypocrisy with that one. 

One more for fun, and imagine this one in a local tavern in York, everyone with a mug of ale in their hands, cheering for glory, 

“But we have too much at stake, to allow us to spend time in reprobating the folly and criticising the conduct of our opponents; weak and impolitic as they are, there is still a chance of their doing us infinite mischief, if we are not upon our guard; and if we can but manfully ward off the impending blow, we shall serve ourselves better, than by any revenge which we might eventually obtain.” (Bold mine) (5)

Huzaa!!!

This still works today: Let’s ignore their nonsense, and focus on building. 

He then quotes a galvanizing line from Ye Mariners of England by Thomas Campbell, ‘Whose march is o’er the mountain wave.’ This would have brought the house down. I don’t get it, but I feel the vibe. They might have concluded the evening with bets on several rounds of bareknuckle boxing that illegally went down in back rooms, if this rousing speech occurred before American soldiers blew it all up. 

I’ll conclude this comparison by saying if we’re going to find cohesion, we need more sea shanties, because that one was a banger. I nominate Angine de Poitrine to invigorate us into action.