The Great Myths of Canada

New England and Canada share more than a common continent and a common language. We were both once British colonies. In 1745, before the original American colonies rebelled, 3,000 New England men helped the British throw the French out of their supposedly invulnerable fort at Louisbourg in Nova Scotia. All of us -- British soldiers, Yankees and Canadians -- were then playing for the same team. We were all citizens of the British Empire, and if you study New Hampshire history, pretty happy with the situation. A thousand men, many from this area, died at Louisbourg and their leader William Pepperrell was the first and only American-born citizen knighted by the Crown. When the British defeated the French on the Plains of Abraham in 1759, New Englanders were there too. George Washington later thought that Quebec might become part of what was to be the United States and sent Benedict Arnold to drive the British out. We lost that one.

The USA Breaks Away

Our American Revolution changed the map. Our history books tell of an inevitable rift with the "mother" country. The despised Loyalists who fled the New England coastal region became the beloved new settlers in Canada. It was the "best blood", the most royal citizens, according to Canadian history, who abandoned America. Portsmouth-born Governor John Wentworth, driven from his home town by an angry "patriot" mob, built a new governor's mansion in Halifax that is still in use today. Americans, according to Canadian history books, Daniel Francis writes, were over reactive tax evaders unwilling to pay their fair share to the Crown.

So our British history ends just as the colonization of Canada is picking up steam. The two fit together like puzzle pieces. With such an aggressive neighbor to the South, Canada played it safe and stuck with the Empire. With typical scary American violence we pushed toward the Pacific -- wiping out the Natives, buying land from the French and annexing more land from Mexico. Canadians, though largely independent at heart, stuck with Queen Victoria, whose Empire eventually encompassed India, parts of Africa, Jamaica, Australia, New Zealand and more. The idea of Imperialism was ultimately paternal, and looked not unlike, to some eyes, what the United States is doing in the conquered nation of Iraq today.

Victoria, built on Vancouver Island and named in honor of the queen, and the rest of British Columbia did not take shape until later in the 19 ^th century. Undesirables cast off by British society, many of them Scottish, rode the new railroads through the heartland of Canada to its distant shores.

Brits from Different Eras

But it is still Portsmouth, New Hampshire that looks more like my vision of an English village. Victoria has no "first period" or Georgian or even Federalist style homes as built by our British ancestors and their descendants here. Victoria has a 20 ^th century look and the suburbs -- with closely-packed stucco cottages -- looked more like Florida to me. There is the occasional Victorian mansion, however, and great lush Victorian-style gardens, some with aviaries and glass and metal greenhouses, juxtaposed against a towering redwood tree. The city center is grander, with the glinting dome of the provincial Parliament building and a stone harbor reminiscent of the Thames. Tourists take afternoon tea at the Empress Hotel, study lifelike figures of Lady Di and Queen Elizabeth at the local Madam Toussand’s Wax Museum, tour the Royal Victoria Museum, dine on fish and chips or snap photos of each other next to a manikin dressed in a Mountie uniform. Colorful totem poles by Indian artists dot the landscape. There is a small Chinatown, the oldest in Canada, lots of parks, lots of pubs. There are almost no people of color and the dialect is as flat as in Midwestern America. You can buy fresh salmon and oysters or pick up Homer Simpson Cola at the Victoria Wal-Mart.