Julius Ruechel

GUEST: Author Julius Ruechel

INTERVIEW FOCUS: As Trump comes courting, why are some Canadians in the mood to say “I do” and what does this broken but loveable country mean to us after a decade of Justin Trudeau.

Julius is a gifted and important author whose scholarship on the pandemic and authoritarianism more generally has been a bright light. He is a guest favourite. We don’t agree on the Israel/Gaza disaster and engage in some respectful pushback on the subject. But the primary purpose of the discussion is a nod to the olden days of Peter Gzowski and This Country in the Morning and later Morningside - an old-school, daily, CBC Radio program that actually did, at times, bring the country together. And even better, helped us figure out who we are.

Please leave your thoughts on being Canadian below. What are the issues that have divided us? Can Canada be fixed?

I booked Ruechel after reading his beautifully written response to legacy media journalist Andrew Coyne.

Here is part of Ruechels’ response:

Neither, Mr. Coyne. Canada vs Trump is a false choice fallacy.

My allegiance is to my family, my friends, and to my community to protect them from what Canada has become.

Perhaps you don't understand how deeply we have been betrayed by our country and how thoroughly the govt has obliterated the social contract between the govt and the people.

For that matter, can you even define what this thing called Canada is anymore, other than a tax and regulatory system that is plundering us at every turn? From my perspective, it looks a lot like govt for the benefit of the governors and their friends, with us as voiceless serfs.

What cultural values does Canada represent? What principles does it preserve? The border of a nation is a line where one culture stops, and another begins. Can you identify what it is about being Canadian that you value so much, other than the fact that you're "not American."

Incidentally, I notice in your Twitter profile that you have four flags in your bio. Yet, the flag of our post-national state -- Canada -- is not among them.

What exactly is still worth defending about Canada? Do you seriously think this country is reformable when our voices and concerns are NEVER represented in the debates happening inside Parliament?

Maybe you should watch a Parliamentary session and tell me whether this is a country that gives serious consideration to the real concerns of its people. A kindergarten with 338 unsupervised children would be capable of producing more meaningful discussion.

The very structure of our parliamentary system makes the kind of bottom-up reforms that are possible in the US impossible to achieve in Canada.

Before you sneer at those of us willing to seriously consider Trump's tongue-in-cheek idea, perhaps you might take a moment to try to understand why so many Canadians are receptive, and what led us to lose faith in our country. I assure you, my willingness to consider Trump's idea of the 51st State is not something taken lightly. Your simple reduction of a complex issue to "Canada vs Trump" highlights a blindness of the real issues at stake.

When you see the young people in your life desperately scouring the globe for opportunities outside of Canada because they no longer see a future for themselves here, is that a system worth upholding and a flag worth fighting for? In that equation, to whom do you owe your allegiance?

I am from an immigrant family. I know the sacrifice and pain that accompanies leaving the old country behind. Building a new future in another country is not for the faint of heart.

To see so many young people unable to envision a future in the country of their birth breaks my heart. I know full well the heartache they will face in distant lands as their ties to their homeland weaken, as they raise their children far from grandparents, as FaceTime replaces tea on a porch together, and as they are condemned to watch far-away parents suffering in old age yet be too distant to provide support in the everyday trials of old age... that is the reality of what these young people are contemplating because of what Canada has become. Our country has shredded the unwritten social contract as the torch is passed between generations — perhaps that is the biggest betrayal of all.

The piece is long but worth reading and ends this way:

This is my home. My roots are here now. I will embrace any opportunity that comes my way to defend my loved ones and my community. Flags come and go. Communities do not.

No amount of flag waving can change the fact that my home would be best served if it were part of a constitutional republic that offers my community protections and political representation that are wholly absent in Canada and that the Canadian political system has been hell-bent on resisting giving to its people throughout its 157-year history.

If Canada is willing to give me those protections by scrapping the broken parliamentary system and turning itself into a republic, great. But I'm not holding my breath. If it takes Trump threatening to annex us to acquire those things, also great. I honestly don't care which way we arrive at real rights and real political representation, as long as we get there.

I was a guest on Gzowski’s show more than once. Being beckoned by his producers to appear felt like a benediction from the Pope — a Pope who chain-smoked, as I did.

When, sadly we were all moved into a soulless highrise, the puffing while on air in the recording studios became a no-no. Peter and I did sneak-smoke the last time we were together. He was a grumpy, old school journalist whom I think would be horrified by the insanity that has taken over the CBC. Gzowski was a critical thinker who loved Canada and could interview Prime Ministers and East Coast cod fishermen with probing alacrity and when needed, relentlessness. There is no one like him working today and we are a poorer country for it. Watch the short video below and contemplate what we lost when the CBC abandoned its responsibility to the country by becoming a mouthpiece for progressives only.

Stay critical.

#truthovertribe