Canoe love

Notable Canadian author Pierre Berton once wrote—although he later said the credit belongs to someone else—that a true Canadian can make love in a canoe without tipping the boat.

The Canadian love affair with the canoe is reflected in Canadian artwork. The history of the settlement of Canada is strongly tied to the canoe as a vehicle for the fur trade. And as a rugged and inexpensive way to travel about the Canadian wilderness, canoes are in no danger of losing their relevance in Canadian culture (full disclosure: I own two).

Even our current Prime Minister has declared his love for the watercraft, and he appeared recently in Scarborough’s Rouge River in one with his wife and daughter to help promote one of the GTA’s large, wild parks.

It’s hard to define what it means to be Canadian. As Canada’s First Nations are struggling to work with a nation built on half-honoured treaties, immigrants and refugees from every corner of the planet are finding their own cultures and new ones here, and long-established families will pride themselves on their own Canadianness.

Despite its many lakes and rivers and its vast land mass, most Canadians are city-dwellers. To them, the Canadian wilderness is a getaway, not a daily reality.

And yet, whether it’s in us or not to love the outdoors, we can all appreciate the iconic wilderness that has inspired some of Canada’s most famous artists and poets, along with the watercraft that, despite not being a Canadian invention, has become a mainstay of Canadian symbolism.

As the young and adventurous people living in the U.K. are finding their tiny island feeling a little more isolated this past week, with travel restrictions up in the air, it’s worth appreciating the freedom that comes with living in this huge, sparsely populated country.

Without crossing any borders, we can explore so many different wilderness landscapes, from lakes and rivers and forests to prairies and arctic tundras to rainforests and mountains to intense, rugged shorelines.

And while most of us will never see all those landscapes in person, much less by canoe, it just allows for a certain joy to be a part of this country, despite its size, despite its citizens and residents having little in common with each other.

Of course, there is no shame in not knowing how to paddle a canoe, or feeling any desire to do so. There certainly isn’t anything wrong with not being able to make love in a canoe without tipping the boat. I doubt Berton ever tried it.

I think what can make us Canadian is recognizing that line for what it is: a humorous and sentimental love for that image of the Canadian as a rough outdoorsman, appreciating all the pleasure our wilderness has to offer.

mihal@mihalzada.com