PastPresentFuture

Almost a century ago, Canadians faced a crucial choice. Would it be “the State or the United States”? On this anniversary of Confederation, I want to dispense with the usual glowing-hearts routine and tell the story of “the State or the United States.” The reason is simple: I believe this history is, if not repeating in the present, at least rhyming. But unlike that era, few Canadians recognize what is happening; even fewer are demanding a serious response. We are not meeting the moment.

As assiduous readers will know, I’m currently writing a popular history of technology with the intention of crushing the pervasive-yet-seldom-discussed idea of technological determinism like a Mark V tank rolling over an army of pingpong balls. (It will be published globally by Crown, an imprint of Penguin Random House, sometime in 2028, provided the world is still intact and books are still published in 2028.) It is not an unambitious book.

In (most) of Canada, today is Victoria Day. Named in honour of Queen Victoria, the holiday was originally fixed to May 24th, Victoria’s birthday. The date was much later set on the Monday closest to the 24th, to ensure Canadians would have a spring long weekend they could celebrate the traditional ways — shivering in tents, drinking beer, and blowing off fingertips with fireworks. The beer and whatnot will be familiar to most Canadians.

Fatih Birol is the long-serving and globally respected head of the International Energy Agency. In today’s Globe and Mail, there’s an excellent article about Birol’s views on the current energy crisis and what it means for Canada. From the article: Oil and gas aren’t the only two commodities now missing from world markets, Dr. Birol said, so are “trust and predictability.” That is so spectacularly right.

Today in Washington DC, King Charles III begins an official visit as the United Kingdom’s head of state. It will include an address to Congress. At any other time since the Second World War, this visit would have been welcomed by most or all of the American political spectrum. The UK and the UK are old allies, after all. And 2026 is the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

I recently visited Portsmouth, England, with Son #2. Lovers of rum and Patrick O’Brian novels will know Portsmouth is the home of the Royal Navy, but it is also is home to excellent museums and an array of gobsmacking historical exhibits. A Cold War submarine. A small warship that survived the First World War Battle of Gallipoli. The remains of the Mary Rose, Henry VIII’s favourite warship, sunk in battle in 1545. And most famously, HMS Victory, Admiral Nelson’s flagship.

I’m a history obsessive who has logged far too many air miles. I’ve seen places steeped in history. I’ve seen beautiful places. I’ve seen places that are both. And at the top of that last category’s short list I would place Arlington National Cemetery — one view in particular. On a high bluff, you stand in front of Arlington mansion, once owned by Robert E. Lee. All the land around you was Lee’s, land worked by slaves, until the Civil War.

On a long and growing list of issues, the Kremlin and the White House are aligned and acting in mutual support. The latest is Hungary. For slightly more than a decade and a half, Hungary has been in the grip of Viktor Orban, an authoritarian who dissolved the lines between the government, the judiciary, and the media to create a corrupt society in which having a friend in Orban’s network of family and cronies is the only way to advance.

In June, 1950, the army of Communist North Korea raced across the border, at the 38th parallel, and quickly pushed South Korean forces into a small pocket near Pusan. North Korea was on the cusp of reunifying the peninsula under the North’s Stalinist government.

Today in the United States, millions of Americans will stand up and oppose the Trump administration by marching in “No Kings” rallies. I’m Canadian, so no marching for me, but I can’t clap hard enough for my American friends and neighbours. (For the record, we loyal subjects of His Majesty King Charles III, King of Canada, prefer “no tyrants,” because a constitutional monarch without real political power works just fine in a free country. But we get what you mean.