Brave New World, Part I

So much has changed in the last few weeks that I'm only now beginning to get a handle on things. I'm still processing and unsure about so much that I'm going to do something that I have resisted doing since joining the blogosphere three and half years ago. I'm going to share some personal thoughts about who I am and where I call home.

First, there's the issue of my relationship to government.

I was born a Canadian and except for 22 months in the late 1980s, spent my life in Canada, before moving to western North Carolina in the spring of 2005. As a Canadian, I grew up assuming that Canada was the best place in the world to grow up. Granted, we weren't as exciting as our American cousins, but we had (practically) free health care that was second to none in quality and a relatively inexpensive post-secondary education system that could stand up to what all but the very top U.S. schools had to offer. We didn't invade other countries for no good reason, we lived longer, weighed less, and we produced more than our proportional share of scientists, artists and comedians. We weren't as patriotic as Americans, because we thought patriotism a bit uncouth, but few of us doubted that Canada was a more civilized and decent place to be.

Most of that is still true. Canadians still tends to be more progressive politically and it still has an infinitely superior (if underfunded) health care system than what Americans are forced to deal with. And until now I've always felt a tinge of regret that I no longer lived there. Then, just a few weeks ago, both Canada and the U.S. held federal elections. I stayed where I was, but now I am once again living in the country with the more progressive leadership. How did that happen?

Canada has been run for several years now by a right-wing government that shows little respect for those things that most Canadians believe set it apart from America. This is possible thanks to a multi-party political system that allows a prime minister to govern with just 37% of the popular vote, which is what the Conservatives under Stephen Harper attracted last month when he won another non-mandate in an election that attracted just 59% of eligible voters, a historic low.

The U.S., meanwhile, is about to hand power to someone who is decidedly to the left of his Canadian counterpart, after an election that drew a historically high share of the electorate. That's surprising, but it's not what gets me baffled. It's climate policy. While Harper only recently agreed that climate change is something to worry about and continues to refuse to set serious greenhouse gas emissions reductions targets, Barack Obama wants to see cuts of 80% below 1990 levels by 2050.

How did that happen?

It's wonderful to know that America is moving in a direction that I can feel good about. And what America does is in many ways more important than what goes on in Canada. But my pleasure is tempered with the disappointment I feel about what Canadians are allowing to happen up north. Canadians can no longer talk with pride about their environmental heritage. They'll be pariahs of the planet if they don't get with the program soon.

Consider that Canadians emit about 23 tonnes of carbon dioxide per person annually and each of them uses about 16,000 kWh of electricity, which puts them at the top of both lists. Over in Alberta, they're cranking out three times as much CO2 per capita, thanks to the tar sands, which represent just about the dirtiest way to extract a fossil fuel from the ground. (Shale oil extraction is worse, no such operations are in play, yet.) If Canada has any hope of bringing its emissions down even a little bit, the tar sands will have to be shut down. Unfortunately, the tar sands are also the only thing keeping Canada's economy in the black these days.

As Harper is an Albertan, and his politics are grounded in Albertan sensibilities (think Texas, only with free health care), there's zero chance he'll find the courage to do what needs to be done with the tar sands. Contrast that with Obama, who has given some very hopeful signals that he's serious about energy reform. On 60 Minutes the other night he spoke of breaking the "shock to trance" pattern that Americans typically exhibit when it comes to their reliance on oil. And in his acceptance speech on Nov. 4 he managed to find room for a reference to a "planet in peril." I'd call those good signs.

There is no comparable evidence that Harper is similarly enlightened. Sure, he said he wants to negotiate a climate deal with Obama, but that's only because he's worried about the U.S. making good on a legal obligation to make sure any alternative fuel imports are no worse in terms of GHG emissions than conventional supplies. And Obama's aides have reportedly, and accurately, called tar sands oil "dirty."

Canada bad, America good. The world is upside down. How did that happen? Canadians have been living under many illusions about their environmental record for decades now, but this is the first time I can recall that the future looked brighter south of the 49th parallel.

So in a few months I become eligible to apply for U.S. citizenship. Since moving here I've insisted I intended to get my U.S. citizenship. But my motive was always simply to be able to vote. No point living somewhere if you can't vote. Now, however, I find I am actually looking forward to the day I am a full citizen down here. It's no longer a bureaucratic inconvenience, but something that I welcome ;;;; joining a community of people, the majority of whom rose to the challenge a couple of weeks ago and pointed this country in the proper direction.

Of course, I intend to keep my Canadian citizenship. No point in giving that up if I don't have to. But I wonder how long it will be that I continue to feel that way?