“On behalf of the United States we’d like to apologize for our behavior.” During four days of travel across Ontario and Quebec, that was our message to Canadians last week. Two Americans temporarily escaping the pressure of a seminal election by crossing the border to a democracy that is still sturdy.
We talked to shopkeepers, a teacher, and various other people. Their responses in almost every instance: “Oh, no need,” they’d say. “We understand your pain.” Then they’d shake their heads and ask: “Why do so many Americans support your president?”We’d shake our heads and shrug our shoulders. “It’s not plain to us, that’s for sure.”
Every election matters. This one more than any other in my lifetime, I think. If it goes well, with Americans voting into office candidates that care about people, the rule of law, and policy that improves lives, then we know the core foundations of our country have held. If it goes badly and the cruelty, coarseness, and shameless corruption prevails we know America has chosen to stay on its dark path to ruin. It seems that plain to me.
Meanwhile Canadians watch their much bigger neighbor with interest and amusement. Their national life is proceeding well. From the vantage of American visitors seeking a bit of relief, Canada appears to be doing just fine. We toured Bayfield and Goderich, two small towns along Lake Huron’s southern shoreline and had breakfast at Cait’s. If you go, don’t miss this really fine coffee shop and bakery.
We traveled to Montreal, dining in the city’s busy center. And then on to gorgeous Quebec City, where the historic quarter along the St. Lawrence palisades swarmed with visitors on a blue sky day decorated by fall colors in the urban forest. In a busy sports bar we had the best ribs we’d ever eaten.
Heading south on Sunday back into the U.S. fall colors blessed the highland hills of southern Quebec. And the late afternoon setting sun and color-saturated mountains of Vermont greeted us on Interstate 91, without doubt the most beautiful highway east of the Mississippi River.
The magnificence of our country made us hopeful that in the beauty of our land also lies the courage, the strength, the intelligence of our people. The election will measure all of that.
— Keith Schneider
