Even Winnipeg, Saskatoon and — dare I say it — Edmonton fall shy of the mark. Not even Calgary makes the list (which is OK because Ottawa doesn’t get on it either).
Canadians have built three of the world’s great cities. Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal are different from anywhere else in the country, and they’re very, very different from the farm.
So take a week this summer and visit one of these three. Choose one that you’ve never spent time in before. Or, if you’ve been to all three, choose the one that makes you the most uncomfortable. Take the family too, especially if they’re also uncomfortable. It’s unconscionable today to raise kids who haven’t spent enough time in such cities to at least understand why other kids are so addicted to them.
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Tonight, talk to your spouse and set a date. In the first place, you’ll have a great vacation, which is a good thing. You’ve earned it. In the second place, if you’re like most people in rural Canada, you’ll find that most of our preconceptions about big cities are actually dead wrong.
Of course you should also see the great also see the big food markets. Each city has several. My personal favourite is Toronto’s St. Lawrence Market, which is guaranteed to be memorable.
But don’t make your trip only about food. Use your business eyes too. It’s amazing to watch the city’s entrepreneurial energy. Ride the subways. Sit in coffee shops and street-side cafés. The city is crammed with people preening their hair before they head into an office, and with others who are pounding out last-minute numbers on a calculator, or talking into their cellphone about their rock-bottom price. Our great cities aren’t made up of people who are cogs in someone else’s machines. They’re cities that hustle, and then celebrate when they win.
So sometimes just look at the city as a place where millions of people cluster because life is so good. (Doesn’t that sound like what you say about the farm?) Check out the energy, the sights, the noises, and the bus fumes that in the right nose smell as wonderful as fresh-plowed soil.
And while you’re at it, do some serious people-watching. There are only two choices. Either your home town and your regional city will use the big cities as a pattern for their own future growth, or your home town and your regional city will stagnate.
Of course it’s true that much of Canada’s agriculture is export based. The people you’ll meet aren’t always your customers. Maybe they’ll never buy what comes off your farm. But they’re Canadian. You share a country with them.
The disconnect between farm and city is at least as much the fault of the farm as it is the city. If consumers take farmers for granted, farmers take cities for granted too.
So take the trip this summer. And when you get home, let me know if this column has got it right. As always, I want to hear from you, on this or any other topic. I’m at [email protected], or you can reach me at 519-674-1449. Enjoy!
