by Mary Wakefield Buxton –
NAPLES, Fla. — One can’t help but wonder while spending a winter in Florida what would tourist revenues be like without Canadians. They come by droves each winter, either as dual state citizens that own property here or as tourists otherwise known as “snowbirds.” They fly in almost as Canada geese as soon as the weather up north turns cold and who can blame them?
The borders are open this year after a long period of closure, but Canadians still have a difficult time as they must show a negative COVID-19 test within 72 hours of flying and it wasn’t easy to find convenient testing centers. They also complained costs of tests were exorbitant. One told me she was charged $140 per person in her family. Then, Florida was cold the week her family was here making the required testing that much more irritating.
I met Canadians daily at the pool and they were easily identified by their sheet white skin and, of course, their accent. It’s similar to the old Tidewater, Virginia accent, which has mostly disappeared now with the arrival of so many Northerners with various territorial accents that are now mulched into one “potpourri,” like spices stuffed into a sachet. Anglo-Saxon Canadians, like older Virginians, still pronounce “out” like “ute” and “house” like “hoose” and “about” like “aboot.”
They generally owned their own companies or held top positions at Canadian or American corporations. One couple owned a home in Vancouver, a home in Toronto, both a lakefront home and a condo in Naples, a cabin on a lake in Quebec and spend their time going from one location to another. Who knows what other properties they owned? One can only fit the mention of so many properties into a poolside conversation and as far as I knew they had only covered their North American properties.
Another couple decided to get married just before the border between the US and Canada closed last year due to COVID-19. He had become an American citizen and held dual citizenship between the two countries and she had a green card and intended to become a U.S. citizen as soon as possible.
I feel at home with Canadians because after college I worked briefly in corporate reservations for Air Canada (then called Trans Canada Airlines), which served U.S., Canadian and European cities out of Cleveland, Ohio. Before I started work, I was sent to Montreal for a three-week crash course on the history of Canada. It was there that I first experienced Canadians and 20 degrees below zero weather. I remember walking down a street in that freezing temperature and wearing sunglasses to protect my eyes and not being able to speak because my teeth ached when exposed to the frigid air. I thought then and still do that surviving in that kind of extreme weather creates a super rugged people.
A real estate agent from Toronto said the same housing boom we were seeing in the U.S. is happening in Canada. “Same rate of inflation, too,” she added. “It’s estimated it will cost Canadians $1,200 more in the next year to live in the same lifestyle as last year.” (When I wrote this column U.S. figures warned it will be $250 more a month for Americans to keep up with last year’s expenses.)
She spoke of rising crime, homelessness and racial strife, as we have seen in the U.S. “Plus, we have the French Canadians that want to secede from the country and go off on their own,” she added.
Sigh. It was the same old story. I was first exposed to the tragic antagonism between French and Anglo-Saxon Canadians when I worked for the airlines almost 60 years ago. It’s sad but everywhere one goes in the world there are cultural clashes between one ethnic group and another and it never seems to improve. I wonder if the human family will ever find a way to get along and appreciate the differences in each other?
And yes, she spoke of the same irritation with government officials that closed cities, schools, businesses, even churches, enforced mask mandates and canceled events over COVID-19, just like here. She was particularly incensed about public sector shutting down private business.” They got their paychecks but what about the private sector?”
There were complaints over the truckers protest in Ottawa. Some were outraged the city had been shut down. Others were outraged at the government’s continuing COVID-19 mandates. More discouraging déjà vu. Everyone was upset about Russia attacking Ukraine.
It’s always the same old story. No matter where we live or who we are in the world we share similar problems. If only we could learn to compromise to solve our problems instead of insisting others do things our way.
(This is the fourth in a special series of columns.)
© 2022.
