Oh, Canada

This morning I received a comment to a post I did Nov. 24, 2024.  You can read the post, and at the end is the comment from Geoff.

Before Geoff’s comment came in, I was thinking through in my mind how to respond to the latest outrage from King Donald: the tariff war resumed, this time against Canada.  There have been several pundit entries here in the states, and I offer these for starters, especially for those I know who are Canadian, most of whom are “Canadien”, as in French-Canadians.  Three posts:  Robert Reich;  Paul Krugman; Heather Delaney Reese (I subscribe to these sub stacks, and all three are shares from me and likely no paywall.)

First, I think I qualify as Canadian/Canadien.  DNA says I’m 50% French-Canadian (compliments of my Dad, Henry Bernard RIP 1997).  I’m lifelong U.S. and regretfully speak only English.  Just a few days ago, my sister Mary was here and asked for a copy of a document that helps to verify our roots in Canada.  (pdf of full document here: Henry Bernard birth certificate)

Dad was born at home, like many of his generation.  Josephine Collette, his mother, was born in Dakota Territory, but both of her parents were Canadien, born in Quebec and Ontario respectively.

I emphasize at the beginning that, while this is mostly about French-Canadian, I know a great many Canadians other than only French migrated to the U.S., and others from the U.S. to Canada.  One relative is a citizen of both the United States and Canada.  North America is primarily three good neighbors: Mexico, U.S., Canada.  The relationship is presently greatly strained.

An early and humiliating experience for my father was having to repeat first grade in Grafton ND.  He only knew French….  I knew him as very educated man with a Master’s Degree, and also a certified Librarian, so I can understand the humiliation.

There were consequences.  In 1925, his parents took a trip back to the home country in Quebec, which Grandpa (given first name Honore) had left St. Sylvestre Quebec sometime in the 1880s or 1890s, to be a lumberjack in New Hampshire, and then to North Dakota to join his brother.  In later years Dad told of Grandpa and Grandma being met in Quebec by Henry’s brother, who Henry greeted in French.  His brother commented, in French, “This man cannot be my brother, he does not speak French”.  One can only speculate, but Dad’s humiliation in First Grade (about 1914) was followed by a renunciation of French in the home (assimilation), and by 1925, Grandpa’s French was a salad of French and English, 30 years after he returned home.

Fast forward to 1937 when Mom and Dad married in the midst of the Depression.  They did a small honeymoon trip, sleeping in their car.  The trip included a drive-through at Winnipeg, where family lived, thence to Grafton ND, but stops were not recalled by Dad in his memoirs.  Again, I can only speculate: the memory of the dilemma with French likely impacted.  Mom was German ancestry, so this further complicated the mindset.  All the Canadian relatives were French-Canadian, likely French as the first language.

About the time I graduated from high school (1958) our family made a quick trip to Winnipeg.  I recall the first trip up an escalator at the Hudson’s Bay department store; and viewing people playing an odd game  ‘Cricket”, at Assinoboia Park, But nothing else.

Both Mom and Dad are long deceased, as are the people they would have met, so all I can rely on is speculation.

Fast forward came infrequent but always rich trips.  The first I recall is about 1975 to Folklarama in Winnipeg, the first of several visits.

Then four jaunts to Quebec, in 1982, 84, 87 and 1992; reunions with the Manitoba French relatives in 1991 and 1992.  Etc.  The connections with Canada and the Canadiens has always been very uplifting and positive.

For seventeen years, from 1985-2002, I did a “kitchen Table” kind of newsletter for Twin Cities French-Canadians.   All of the newsletters, paginated and indexed by topic, are available online here for anyone interested.  They were a simple documentation of a wonderful heritage.  In this phase of my life I got to know two Canada Consuls in Minnesota, one of them, Robert Dery, was French-Canadian.

We are one of many ethnic groups in the United States.  But as recently as 1980 census, 8% of Minnesotans said they had French-Canadian ancestry, and that is a lot of folks.

What is ahead for those of us in North America and the World?

Of course, I don’t know.  Rest assured, Canadians, there are great numbers of us down here in the states who are outraged, and trying to do our parts to reverse the insanity swirling around.

COMMENTS

from David:  Nice piece on Sean Duffy from William Kristol, exiled Republican columnist [Bulwark, True North. Strong and Free]. Duffy, a former professional lumberjack, was my [Wi] state senator for quite some time before being anointed as transportation secretary. He was born in Hayward, WI and, as everyone knows, Hayward is the hotbed of Wisconsin’s transportation issues. They now have two streetlights and a new access road to the World’s Largest Muskie.