… And Not on the Other Side of the Canada-U.S. Border Where All Hell is Running Loose
A Brief Thanksgiving Note from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper
Posted October 11th, 2020 on Niagara At Large
This note might come across to at least some as sounding a bit too patriotic or ‘Pollyanna’, but I am prepared to live with that.
In my more than six decades of life on the Canadian side of the Canada-U.S. border, I have hardly ever felt more relieved and happy to be a Canadian rather than a citizens of a country that unabashedly sold itself to the rest of us as “the greatest democracy on earth.”
Well, something akin to our good friend Toto has pulled the curtains open to expose that illusion.
We now know that all it takes is a reality TV con man with a reptilian genius for stirring the latent anger, racism and love of guns and violence in far too many millions of Americans to see that so-called great democracy fall like a house of cards.
There may have been a time when, as the legendary Canadian rock group The Guess Who once sang in a song called ‘American Woman’, “shining lights can hypnotize,” but the scales have fallen off this Canadian’s eyes as they have, I believe, for so many others here and around the world.
We are watching a United States of America quickly descend in to a country more like Nazi Germany during the 1930s, under the leadership of a man who rules it like a fascist dictator with a cultish following numbering in the tens of millions.
Here are some of what Trump calls “good people” that Democratic governors should “negotiate” with … These heavily armed and self-appointed militia and ‘warriors for America’ are seen here, standing on the steps of the Michigan state legislature this past spring in opposition to rules the Governor brought in to control the spread of COVID-19. Earlier this October, some of the same rangers were arrested by the FBI in an alleged plot to abduct the Michigan governor and possibly put her on trial and execute her. This all unfolding just a few hours drive from the Canadian border.
So let’s give thanks on this Canadian Thanksgiving Day that we live on the Canadian side of the border, and the border is still closed to tens-of-millions of Americans who think the COVID-19 virus is some kind of left-wing conspiracy or hoax to restrict their individual rights, and to a sub-group of them who belonged to armed militias, white-supremacist and neo-Nazi groups, and are even in to abducting and possibly executing U.S. governors under the hateful umbrella of Trump.
To paraphrase the late British leader Winston Churchill, Canada’s system of democracy and its current leadership, may be far from perfect, but it is one hell of a lot better than the alternative south of the border.
I wish for all of us in Canada a warm and safe Thanksgiving.
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Doug Draper, Niagara At Large
I hope that the wonderful Canadian newspaper cartoonist Graeme MacKay doesn’t mind if I post this cartoon here, which appeared in The Toronto Star and affiliated newspapers, including The St. Catharines Standard, earlier this Thanksgiving weekend. This cartoon does a great job of summing up the reason why we have to keep our Canadian border secure. Always watch for Graeme MacKay’s cartoons. He continues to do a spot-on job of depicting the madness in Trumpland.
NIAGARA AT LARGE Encourages You To Join The Conversation By Sharing Your Views On This Post In The Space Following The Bernie Sanders Quote Below.
Niagara At Large 
Doug, in the past few weeks I have been watching old movies on a US TV channel, all from the 1930s, 40s, 50s, and 60s. They all sold the American dream and it has become so very clear to me that Hollywood always sold propaganda. The whole world fell for it, but with the arrival of the 60s, and now Trump, it is only too clear that it was and is just a dream. Thank God that we live on the other side of the border. Canada may not be without faults, but it is a hell of a lot better place to live in than the USA. Can anyone here imagine what it must be like surviving Covid-19 and a lengthy hospital stay and then being presented with a bill in the 10th of thousands? Only in America. So, so sad.
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I totally agree with these thoughts and feelings. I am lucky not to be a USer.
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My only disagreement is that the cartoon should show Trump as a peacock but of course that doesn’t represent Thanksgiving.
I saw a documentary on the BBC today in which a man infiltrated an alt right group in the US and its branches in Europe. It was terrifying. They said they have “contacts” and influence in the Trump administration (Miller and Bannon perhaps?) and are preparing for race wars that will destroy everyone who was not white and Christian, including by nuclear weapons. All are armed to the teeth and they are very well organized. They are also terribly antagonistic to women and would dehumanize them and deny them education and the vote. Sounds like a bunch of incels.
Shades of the 1930’s.
I must remind Edila that a medical bill in the US for Covid care, especially prolonged and requiring ventilation and ICU would easily be seven figures.
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Our family is very thankful we live in Canada. Even so, living beside the ‘elephant’ next door is uncomfortable to say the least. My concern over what is going on in the United States prompted me to write feverishly this summer. My new book, “The Mean-ing of America” is finally finished.
Donald Trump, as disturbing as he is, is but a metaphor for the character the U.S. is taking on. The nation is seriously divided. Trumpettes are doing what they can to distort, even sabotage a fair election. Trump, not the Democrats, will be the cause of any “hoax” that occurs. If he is re-elected America will only grow meaner!
How good to live in Canada where we have been wise enough to close the border. Even so, we need to be vigilant. Our leadership has proven not so trustworthy and prone to unethical behavior. Be careful and watchful so we do not become mean-er, too!
Happy Thanksgiving Canada.
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