Hey, don’t get me wrong, it’s not all sunshine and roses up here in the north.

Lol, I know, I have Canadian friends. There is no such thing as paradise, and we haven’t even talked about your flying insects yet. But Canadians are not looking at the prospect of Donald Trump for a second term, staring oncoming fascism directly in the face, and watching the ongoing garage sale style piece-by-piece dismantling of the entire government and judicial system, either.

At least you still have something that works, for now, however imperfectly. Right now, here, it’s all broken to the point that when one person here or there actually does what they signed up to do in spite of partisanship – like Pence actually certifying the vote as VP, or Raffensberger in Georgia refusing to “find” fraudulent votes for Trump – that individual person’s correct, honorable act, what might be considered their bare minimum duty in times past, turns out to be the ONLY thing between that particular government function and chaos. And even then, just for doing their job with integrity, they suffer public doxxing, criticism, accusations, and even death threats. This is across the board and affects every level of government, from local government to state functions to the presidential election and seating the Supreme Court.

I do understand your concerns about the conservatives coming in; there as well as here that’s often the “two steps backward” after having had some tiny steps forward by non-business-owned governments, and, well, you already know what I could say about their counterparts here. But at least Canadians are still getting what are basically free and fair elections that are based in a solid and time tested process, one not readily subverted by bad actors, and not waking up to news of even more chaos at every level. Your civic foundations are, as far as I can see, still solid. Ours are proving to be anything but, eroded by decades of neglect, public assumptions (including my own as a citizen) and active efforts by bad actors to weaken all the guardrails.

Just so we’re clear. I don’t worship Canada, but I do admit to having often wished I’d been born a bit farther north, and today it’s because I actively envy the banal solidity of your public institutions. I know, it should be the poutine, maple syrup, and Second City (yeah, I’m that old lol) instead of your civics, but maybe one day again.