Mapping Canada
by James O'Regan
We all remember Canada, don't we? It's the greenish blob. The one you can't quite see the top of. The one above the detailed map of every state in the United States that we see every night on Canadian network television weather maps. Oh I don't mean the the TV club house over at MITV, I mean real TV stations. Just look deeply next time you watch the weather - there, smack dab in the middle 60 percent of the screen, from knees to chin on the weatherperson, sprawls the United States - where we don't live.
There we are, decapitated on the weather maps and live satellite pictures. They say it's the fault of the GOES (Geostationary Orbiting Earth Satellite) which must stay over the equator or it'll just fall down and go boom. And, well, you know, the camera just doesn't go that far up to include all of Canada. But, they can show Panama down at the bottom of the screen. Has Panama that important an effect on our weather? I'm not buying it. Next time the shuttle goes up, let's use the old [made in] Canadarm to throw a wide angle lense on the GOES - a little cultural rescue mission.
Why must we put up with a fractional image of our own country? Just ask who makes and sells the software - our American cousins. The software is simply American biased. Just like the infernal American computer dictionaries that call c-o-l-o-u-r a misspelling.
America still has a manifest problem. Talk about country envy. The sheer grandiose size of the US portion of the map might make anyone who has never seen a real atlas nor taken elementary geography - who knows who takes what these days with educational electives - think that the US occupies the greater portion of the continent. Or, that it's not only the most powerful nation on earth but the largest to boot. But not so, it ranks a mere third after Canada and Russia - we recently traded places in the standings, eh?
I say we readjust our weather maps for our own good and for our bilateral relations. What about our famous Arctic front that US border stations always rant about? Let's be proud and show them just where it comes from and how much force it can build up on its long chilling trip to greet our southern cousins. Then they may understand that this country in its size alone is something to ponder - if only as extra space to fill with clouds of American cultural pollution. Right now, we and they barely see the Arctic Circle. Let's show it all in our true icy colour.
Maybe we have the problem. Perhaps this maladjustment goes deeper into our psyche. Look at the pattern. Canadians send the weather. Americans process the raw phenomenon, manufacture the information into software and ship it back as a weather map. Another case of selling off our natural resources - where would Lake Placid be without our weather!
Must Canadians shy away from anything but a resource-based economy? Does we not got the brains?
This resource sell-off is the most insidious. They manufacture and ship us back our very image as a boundried territory. It's none too pretty, squeezed up above the so-called major presence on the continent. Behold, a sublime American annexation of our self-image - take a little of the top, boys.
Why, one night, I saw a weather map with every blessed state in the union resplendent with colour while the measly portion of Canada that you could see was dressed in a sleepy green. Are we that relaxed a country? There are Canadians up north on sovereign soil - let's not forget them! Let's become alert to Alert. Let's get some hotshot Canadian software company to develop a map that shows who we really are. A mari usque ad mare is alright but what about a Alert usque ad Pelee Island, eh?
If we're too complacent to manufacture it ourselves, let's insist on American companies that want to do business in Canada offering Canadianized product. If we don't, where will it stop? Why the next thing you know, there'll be nothing in our cinemas but American movies with American TV shows on our televisions (sic).
In fact, let's turn the tables with two weather maps - a summer map showing all of Canada. And a winter map showing our de facto third territory and the corridors to get there - Florida!
From Moncton, NB, this is James O'Regan.
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