“Canada . . . the undefinable.” ~ Canadians
July 27th, 2011 | 
Author: Wednesday, July 27, 2011. I am so happy and grateful that there are those who attempt to answer the seemingly unanswerable question–“What is Canada?” English Professor B.W. Powe of York University, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, is such a one. ~ Doc Meek
[I read the English version: TOWARDS A CANADA OF LIGHT. ~ Doc]
From the book jacket:
“Towards a Canada of Light is a visionary work of political philosophy that dares to re-imagine Canada. It suggests that Canada stands out from the rest of the world as a shining example of diversity and tolerance.” – Thomas Allen Publishers
“Gloriously poetic . . . . Read aloud to anyone you love.” – Vancouver Sun
“Powe has discovered the roots of an informal Canadian democracy and shows us its poetry and wonder.” – The Toronto Star
” . . . a soaring alchemical vision. When I read the first few pages . . . I had to put the book down to catch my breath . . .” – Pico Iyer, author of Cuba and the Night, and The Global Soul
From the book itself (pages 81 & 127):
“If the leaders of mankind were more aware, when by chance they come into minor powers they might exploit others less.” – From The Gateless Gate, a collection of koans first recorded by a Chinese Zen master in A.D. 1228
“I listened to a taxi driver, in Ottawa [Ontario, Canada], who had emigrated from Mozambique [a country in southeastern Africa]. He said, ‘Canadians don’t have troubles. Not really. You only have bellyaches’.”
Thank Professor B.W. Powe for your “undefinable definition” of Canada!
Doc Meek, Date, Sherwood Park, Alberta, CANADA
P.S. A lyrical excerpt from Professor B.W. Powe’s Towards a Canada of Light (page 156):
” . . . what unfolds here [in Canada] could be original, rich, quietly audacious, full of eccentricities, respectful of the enigmas of difference. Evolution over revolution, metamorphosis over Armageddon–these could be our credos.”
“An overly formulated and detailed constitution is a recipe for fanaticism.”
“Let us sustain our native irony for all things official, absolutist, imposed and unitary.”
“Rather then look for political unity–an ultimately futile question and pursuit–let us look for harmony, the deeper arrangement and cohesiveness of contraries.”
“Let us welcome what is multiform, flexible, personalized, paradoxical, unwonted, curious and protean.”
– English Professor B.W. Powe, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
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