shadows

It was Fleet Week (more precisely, the Rendez-Vous Naval de Québec) in Quebec City, and we watched a presentation on Canadian Naval history.  To an American, accustomed to highly nation-centric public history, it was startling to see that the presentation was mostly about the French, the English and the Americans - and only slightly about Canadians, as such.  Canada exists - and always has existed - in the Northern shadow of great powers, and is the better for it.  It gives a cosmopolitan spine to the sprawling, rural flesh of the nation.