I like your sentiments Camille, although I would reorder them slightly in application to my own (not at all precious I hope) world view. Yes, I find it hard to separate the good and the bad in this world, to split things into absolutes and to say that some thing or some one is past redemption—but I personally try to see the good in the bad, the beauty in the decidedly ugly—and I said try—while recognising that ugliness and evil on their own terms are better avoided than appraised.

That being said, I am more than happy to contradict my just spun philosophy, for in the spirit of Walt Whitman, one of my favourite poets:

Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)

Personally I prefer vastness and oneness over truth, and am happy to be occasionally or more often wrong to advance their twin cause. And oneness is nothing other than love, as someone far wiser than myself probably once said.

And on the topic of poets, and New Zealand still, might I recommend another of my favourites, New Zealand’s very own James K. Baxter, whom I wrote about recently here: New Zealand‘s greatest poet.

I’ve heard great things about New Zealand. I wish to go there some day. I wish to travel the world too. I am visualizing….[ohm] I’m sure I’ll find a way somehow.

If you want to see some great photos of Toronto or just get some cool info check out blogTO

I did go to Montreal, and while it is very beautiful was able to pick up—even at age 11—a decided hostility towards the non-French, which included myself. It wasn’t even subtle—shopkeepers refused to serve my (Kiwi) mother when she spoke in English, and she knew enough French to know what they were saying about her.

Ottawa I like firstly because my family is from there, and secondly because it is similar to my home-town in NZ—Wellington—a political, artistic and cultural capital, if not an economic one. Or at least that was my initial impression of the place.

Toronto I have only passed through, but I prefer cities the bigger the better, so am an easy convert to its charms.

I should point out, as one with a significant portion of Canadian ancestry (half in fact), that the“absurd” tag was a cheap shot aimed at my American cousins. Long-suffering Canadians have every right to complain about their harsher than harsh winters, not that they ever would.

I actually spent my time mostly in PEI of all places, although as an eleven year old with a severe case of country farm-house fever, would have dearly loved to have instead been in Toronto, or Ottawa, or Vancouver—anywhere else actually, but particularly those cities, which are my favourites in equal order. Even Halifax seemed pretty“bustling” compared to sleepy old PEI, although I suspect I would appreciate the sleepiness a little more these days.

As for the reference to“eh,” just a cheap Canadian joke really. For the life of me I can’t recall ever noticing anyone saying it when I was in Canada (in the 80s), which probably means I too had“drunk the maple syrup,” and was saying“eh” with the best of them…