For years, we have been itching to make the long drive up the Saint Lawrence river, following the water all the way up North into Quebec. That drop of water that rolls down from Detroit and into our own Lake Erie, that drop which falls in our hills outside town as dense lake effect snow. Down it tumbles, past the Blackrock and mile zero of the Erie Canal, into the Niagara river, over the falls and filling Lake Ontario, the deep one that never freezes, and dumps ever more snow on the communities of the Tug Hill plateau before emptying into the Saint Lawrence river, where if flows ever east, encircling the city of Montreal, then on to Quebec city, finally spilling into rocky, lonely, maritime provinces way North, looking out to Greenland.
We took the highway and about 9 hours and a few snacks later rolled into Quebec City, in the waning days of March with the promise of many feet of fresh snow and the cross country skiing which had never materialized back home. Quebec city is a magic place, older than our towns by a hundred years. The most striking feature of the city was the massive cathedrals dotted across town. Absolutely massive granite churches with towering spires and high windows. I wondered how this came to be, and how we got to Modern Quebec, which recently passed Bill 21, mandating Quebec be a Lay, non-secular state. It must have been quite a ride
When Jacques Cartier arrived in Quebec in 1534, the first thing he did was put up a great big cross, just to let people know. He and Samuel Champlain set about converting the locals to christianity, with a charter signed in 1627 that only French Catholics would be allowed into the region. In 1738, a jewish woman named Esther Brandeau attempted to sneak in disguised as a male cabin boy with a fake name, but was later discovered and shipped back. 100 years later, there were 500 Jewish persons in Quebec, with larger waves of eastern Europeans, arriving in the 1930’s. Until the mid 1950’s, McGill University used a quota system to admit just a handful of Jewish students, requiring them to attain higher grades for admission than Catholics.
And through it all, the Catholic church remained a central force in the governmental, educational, and civic life of the province. Those great towering churches in every neighborhood were no mistake, they spoke to the power of the church over every aspect of life, the hospital where people were born and died, the schools and the government. Then a funny thing happened. By the mid 1960’s, the “quiet revolution” began to move control of things like education away from the church and under control of the state. During this time, people increasingly identified as non-practicing Christians, while other faiths continued to grow. The growing multiculturalism of Ontario has slowly, inexorably come to Quebec, sort of.
And so all this history and beauty was great, but it was time to head out to the forest. On the night that we arrived, it had snowed and the city was busy clearing the snow from the sidewalks first, scooping the snow into dump trucks to be hauled out of town to this huge mountain of gray city snow. It made me reflect on the towns near here and the seemingly impossible problem of providing pedestrian access.
On our second day, we drove up into the Jacques Cartier National Park, on the shore of Lac A Noel to Camp Mercier. And it was simply magic skiing, snow fills the pines and the tracks were deep and set just right, on trails designed for a perfect ski experience. The best I have ever seen. The lodge was bright and clean, with waxing stations for skiers with irons all plugged in for use, nice snacks and hot showers for free.
And it was all part of the national park system and paid through public money. People were able to enjoy a beautiful facility and even rent cabins right on the trail, all for a nominal fee. And it got me wondering. Wondering about a government that spends money so people can have nice things. So citizens can be happy, healthy, and maybe, smile. And I got to thinking, why do we turn away from this conception of government and call it socialism? Why can’t we have nice things?
We had every intention of going out last night, but then we didn’t on account of tiredness so we watched the new Top Gun movie on the sort of large screen TV. It was good fun, but there was this scene during the movie where the very best of the best fighter pilots were all gathered for this tense briefing and Tom Cruise announces that NO WAY could we prevail in a dogfight with the bad guys because they had fifth generation fighter planes. Just no way. So I’m always curious and looked up this type of plane that outguns the top guns and was surprised to find that we have the most in the world, by a factor of five. Like multiple hundred of billions of dollars worth. And I would not let reckless Tom Cruise fly around in one because he’d beat on it, but I’m sure we could otherwise stick up for ourselves. And I found it interesting that the movie I watched, with all the wonderful footage provided by the Navy, had this not subtle message that we were losing the 5th generation fighter race.
Which brings me ever to the conclusion of this tour up and down the Saint Lawrence. I have increasingly come to believe that my generation has been conditioned to see the world through the lens of both scarcity and fear. Fear of the Mig 29 that ruled the skies over the Baltic, and the duck and cover drill, and fallout shelters. Fear of the cities, and super predator youth, and the Central Park 5. The crack epidemic, and MSG in foo young, caravans at the border, and cities in flames. And never enough resources for us to have nice things. Never a sidewalk cleared of snow, or freight cars that didn’t spill into some town, or public transportation that doesn’t suck. And there is nothing we can seem to accomplish in our federal government, no solution for children being killed in schools, no meaningful change in immigration policy, no fixes for our ineffective health insurance system. But we have time to fret over the drag shows, and public library books, and take extra time to pour hate and cruelty on transgender children and their parents. And that’s what we get, we mail off about one fourth of our earned income every year, and we get paid back in division and stuff that breaks because someone made more money by letting it go unfixed. We don’t get nice things and get told we are socialist for even wanting the nice things. Because there’s no money. So just go back to fighting with each other over pronouns. There’s nothing to see here. Just a couple fighter planes.
Somewhat related…heather was reading about Henry VIII and we were discussing the way religion was the dominant force of England…and then it wasn’t. I postulated that they shipped all the zealots here, and that’s why we are where we are today vis a vis god guns trump
Nailed it, especially when you tied things together in the end.