Light/Breezes

Light/Breezes
SUNRISE AT DEATH VALLEY-Photo by Tom Cochrun

Tuesday, September 20, 2016

KINDS OF BLUE and AMERICANADA?

     The surf fisherman is braced against a Pacific that shows off its facets of color.
   Shades of blue, into the horizon.


     Blue riding the horizon.


AMERICANADA?
    Bill Seavey is a big thinker and probably a bit of a visionary. Full disclosure here-Bill is a friend, fellow tennis player and a Cambria author.
     He asks -What do Americans know about Canadians?
Answer-Very Little.
     What do Canadians know about Americans?
Answer-Plenty.
      Seavey says "Most of us view Canadians as quasi-Americans."  He unpacks the idea in a new book about how Americans and Canadians can "understand each other-and work together-better."
       In his newest book he explores the combined potential of the two nations as a real North American superpower. Seavey says  we "have cultural and historical differences that aren't easily reconciled or fully understood."
       Seavey notes a CBS poll that indicated nearly a fifth of Americans would consider moving to Canada if either Trump or Clinton were elected.
        He says an economic union is not likely soon.  He interviews a number of Canadians who help him paint a portrait of the US as seen from north of the border. 
         It is a fascinating look at American-Canadian ties and he posits interesting considerations.  
         Bill Seavey is a journalist and does a great job of posing questions, exploring avenues and engaging thought.
         Americandada? will be published in February 2017.  A Kindle edition will be available in November.
        You can learn more about Bill and the book by linking to

         See you down the trail.

11 comments:

  1. Thanks so VERY much, Tom, for this blurb. Actually, the book IS available NOW at Amazon Books digitally, key in William L. Seavey and go to the Author Page for a hot link to a free preview. (Anyone who reviews will eventually get a signed printed edition, fyi). Several Cambria-area cognoscenti are in the process of reviewing it. P.S. I hope I'm not a FORMER journalist, ha ha. See you on the courts (considerably weakened by the above endeavor)...

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    1. Duly noted about the "former." I will make the edit. I'm in the same league, once a journalist, always, eh?
      Good luck Bill. Wishing the best to you in this endeavor.

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  2. I imagine I fall into the category of being rather ignorant about Canada.

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    1. Actually, most of us are probably in that category.

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    2. Stephen, you're exactly the kind of person I am trying to reach with my book.

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  3. My wife and I were going to move to Canada, had all the papers submitted and approved, all we had to do was appear at the border and declare landed immigrant status. We had a specific area we wanted to live (central/southern BC), I had a couple offers but the credentialing thing to get a medical license was complicated, and it just never happened.
    This was at a time Canada was offering asylum for draft resisters, as you remember. Oddly, I was post VN...
    I've always felt at home there, as much as I do here. But that's true of Europe, too.
    If patriotism as a love of one's country vs other countries, I guess I don't qualify. Nor do I believe in 'American Exceptionalism'.
    The book sounds good, I'm checking Amazon when I sign off here.
    Cheers,
    Mike

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    1. We have always enjoyed and appreciated those areas of Canada we have visited and I'm hard pressed to think of nicer people, except maybe in a couple of the Caribbean Islands.

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    2. Say, Mike, I do cover in my book the historic and recent migrations to Canada (and vice versa to the U.S.). That's a whole chapter. Sounds like you almost got there. One issue is whether Canadians even WANT us militaristic, uninformed etc. Americans. I delve into that, as well, and interview one on the subject.

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  4. Lovely photos of "the blue".

    I grew up just 50 miles south of Canada, used to listen to Canadian radio stations from Regina and Saskatoon and Winnipeg as a kid. I can still remember spending a whole day listening to the coverage, rebroadcast from the BBC, of Queen Elizabeth's coronation. Many from my home town used to spend summer vacations at a Canadian lake. (Loved those Cadbury's candy bars.) And many years later, when I was living in Mexico, I used to listen to the daily radio program, As It Happens, via short wave from the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation). So maybe, like Mike, I'm half Canadian.

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    1. Hi Catalyst, in the "olden days" there was a much more porous border, and I recount the story of one woman who actually had a home in which her rooms were on one side of the 49th parallel or the other!! Now you need a passport to cross, and a couple from Quebec (NOT French Canadians) even have drones flying over the border along their lot line to prevent smuggling etc. I think more Canadians tend to listen to U.S. broadcasts than vice versa. FYI, I have a place in Mexico, too. Canadians, like my wife who has been here 62 years (but still retains her citizenship) isn't anchored to one region, but she is definitely nostalgic about her rural roots in Ontario, Canada, and we have gone back there a couple times

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