Where you live is who you are: Erin O'Toole and the new culture war
December 4, 2020 11:40 AM Subscribe
CBC journalist Aaron Wherry looks at Canadian politics through the lens of Somewheres and Anywheres.
“According to [David] Goodhart, the typical Anywhere is a well-educated professional living in a large city away from where they grew up. They generally vote for left-of-centre parties. They are mobile, embrace change and take ‘egalitarian and meritocratic attitudes on race, sexuality and gender and think that we need to push on further.’… The average Somewhere, he says, is less well-educated, earns a lower income, comes from a small town or a suburb and is more grounded in a specific place. ‘They do not generally welcome change and older Somewheres are nostalgic for a lost Britain,’ Goodhart writes. ‘They place a high value on security and familiarity and have strong group attachments, local and national.’ They tend to vote for conservative parties.”
“According to [David] Goodhart, the typical Anywhere is a well-educated professional living in a large city away from where they grew up. They generally vote for left-of-centre parties. They are mobile, embrace change and take ‘egalitarian and meritocratic attitudes on race, sexuality and gender and think that we need to push on further.’… The average Somewhere, he says, is less well-educated, earns a lower income, comes from a small town or a suburb and is more grounded in a specific place. ‘They do not generally welcome change and older Somewheres are nostalgic for a lost Britain,’ Goodhart writes. ‘They place a high value on security and familiarity and have strong group attachments, local and national.’ They tend to vote for conservative parties.”
"...older Somewheres are nostalgic for a lost Britain,"
That's a cute way of saying they're (almost certainly) White. A word that does not appear anywhere else in the article, amusingly enough.
posted by Secret Sparrow at 11:53 AM on December 4, 2020 [29 favorites]
That's a cute way of saying they're (almost certainly) White. A word that does not appear anywhere else in the article, amusingly enough.
posted by Secret Sparrow at 11:53 AM on December 4, 2020 [29 favorites]
Patrick Wyman's article on the American Gentry that came up in the Bros thread is highly relevant here. It's just a different set of elites that the Conservatives are snuggling up to.
posted by Space Coyote at 11:55 AM on December 4, 2020 [4 favorites]
posted by Space Coyote at 11:55 AM on December 4, 2020 [4 favorites]
"The Anywheres, Goodhart argues, have been dominant in culture and society and must now be more conscious of how their fellow citizens from Somewhere are feeling."
Oh please. Somewhere voters, being rural voters, have outsize influence in their representation in the House of Commons, Provincial Legislatures, and in the concept of Provinces themselves. That outsize influence is baked into the Constitution. A Somewhere voter has more electoral power than an Anywhere voter, and always has had that greater power.
Granted, this Anywhere voice may dominate the cultural landscape, but in terms of having power where it actually counts -- the Somewheres are doing just fine.
posted by Capt. Renault at 11:57 AM on December 4, 2020 [35 favorites]
Oh please. Somewhere voters, being rural voters, have outsize influence in their representation in the House of Commons, Provincial Legislatures, and in the concept of Provinces themselves. That outsize influence is baked into the Constitution. A Somewhere voter has more electoral power than an Anywhere voter, and always has had that greater power.
Granted, this Anywhere voice may dominate the cultural landscape, but in terms of having power where it actually counts -- the Somewheres are doing just fine.
posted by Capt. Renault at 11:57 AM on December 4, 2020 [35 favorites]
be more conscious of how their fellow citizens from Somewhere are feeling
Sure. Or.... just maybe now.... those Somewheres could pull their heads out of their statistically-more-likely-to-be-racist asses and start paying attention to the world around them.
...yeah, that'd work too. We'd all be pretty happy with that outcome.
posted by aramaic at 12:09 PM on December 4, 2020 [14 favorites]
Sure. Or.... just maybe now.... those Somewheres could pull their heads out of their statistically-more-likely-to-be-racist asses and start paying attention to the world around them.
...yeah, that'd work too. We'd all be pretty happy with that outcome.
posted by aramaic at 12:09 PM on December 4, 2020 [14 favorites]
I posted this because I find it useful to see where political slogans and catchphrases are coming from. If O'Toole pushes this language (and I can't say I've heard this from him yet--all I seem to hear is him going on about promised vaccine delivery dates) and it sticks in our lexicon (long-term or short-term), I appreciate knowing who to blame.
posted by sardonyx at 12:18 PM on December 4, 2020 [7 favorites]
posted by sardonyx at 12:18 PM on December 4, 2020 [7 favorites]
Oh please. Somewhere voters, being rural voters, have outsize influence in their representation in the House of Commons, Provincial Legislatures, and in the concept of Provinces themselves. That outsize influence is baked into the Constitution. A Somewhere voter has more electoral power than an Anywhere voter, and always has had that greater power.
Yeah my local riding has almost the same population as PEI. Can we get 4 senators and 4 MPs? My city councilor has to represent more people by himself than all but the top 10 cities in Ontario full councils would have to represent because our Provincial government thought that there were too many city councilors in Toronto making it hard to get things done and decided to change things in the middle of a municipal election.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 12:28 PM on December 4, 2020 [10 favorites]
Yeah my local riding has almost the same population as PEI. Can we get 4 senators and 4 MPs? My city councilor has to represent more people by himself than all but the top 10 cities in Ontario full councils would have to represent because our Provincial government thought that there were too many city councilors in Toronto making it hard to get things done and decided to change things in the middle of a municipal election.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 12:28 PM on December 4, 2020 [10 favorites]
I grew up in a Canadian logging town and now I'm educated and live in the city and this pretty much rings true (I saw the article this morning and figured it'd end up here).
I had a long comment here about how Trudeau leads his base (in the sense that he is one of them) and O'Toole merely strip-mines his (he is not one of them) and various other notes regarding this asymmetry and the fact that most elements of the Somewhere mythos should be interpreted negatively -- in particular that the economically-inflexible Somewhere mindset is ready-made to be exploited by capital, which is flexible, mobile and primarily comprised of Anywheres. But it was too much and too prejudicial, so it'll suffice to point out that:
Indigenous people are very much Somewheres, but don't really fit into this rubric at all. Politically, they tend to be laser-focused on their own interests and have a much more holistic relationship to place that doesn't (though sometimes does) revolve primarily around capitalist exploitation.
posted by klanawa at 12:54 PM on December 4, 2020 [16 favorites]
I had a long comment here about how Trudeau leads his base (in the sense that he is one of them) and O'Toole merely strip-mines his (he is not one of them) and various other notes regarding this asymmetry and the fact that most elements of the Somewhere mythos should be interpreted negatively -- in particular that the economically-inflexible Somewhere mindset is ready-made to be exploited by capital, which is flexible, mobile and primarily comprised of Anywheres. But it was too much and too prejudicial, so it'll suffice to point out that:
Indigenous people are very much Somewheres, but don't really fit into this rubric at all. Politically, they tend to be laser-focused on their own interests and have a much more holistic relationship to place that doesn't (though sometimes does) revolve primarily around capitalist exploitation.
posted by klanawa at 12:54 PM on December 4, 2020 [16 favorites]
because our Provincial government thought that there were too many city councilors in Toronto making it hard to get things done and decided to change things in the middle of a municipal election.
A conservative Provincial government of course that has also stripped away environmental laws, cancelled a basic income program that was helping people improve their lives, demonizes any mention of decriminalization of drugs, and lets condo developers run over the entire city like they own it and no one else is relevant, and of course, have royally fucked up handling the pandemic. Conservatives and the right wing are a blight on society and culture world wide and the idea that they are not the dominant influence in politics is absurd.
posted by juiceCake at 1:04 PM on December 4, 2020 [8 favorites]
A conservative Provincial government of course that has also stripped away environmental laws, cancelled a basic income program that was helping people improve their lives, demonizes any mention of decriminalization of drugs, and lets condo developers run over the entire city like they own it and no one else is relevant, and of course, have royally fucked up handling the pandemic. Conservatives and the right wing are a blight on society and culture world wide and the idea that they are not the dominant influence in politics is absurd.
posted by juiceCake at 1:04 PM on December 4, 2020 [8 favorites]
"those who love their trade, their pursuit, and are loyal to local businesses, versus those whom the government wants to flock to a trendy job that is no way connected to the community or the betterment of our country."
The person who wrote this sentence was a corporate lawyer before going into politics.
posted by mhoye at 1:11 PM on December 4, 2020 [11 favorites]
The person who wrote this sentence was a corporate lawyer before going into politics.
posted by mhoye at 1:11 PM on December 4, 2020 [11 favorites]
O'Toole certainly lives up to his name.
posted by Ahmad Khani at 1:14 PM on December 4, 2020 [8 favorites]
posted by Ahmad Khani at 1:14 PM on December 4, 2020 [8 favorites]
You may make immature jokes about O'Toole, but he will take it on the chins.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 1:17 PM on December 4, 2020 [5 favorites]
posted by ricochet biscuit at 1:17 PM on December 4, 2020 [5 favorites]
This... feels like a very leaky abstraction.
That being said as a (usually) pretty white mixed-race person who's adoption in the 70s would no longer be legal (let alone the indigenous erasure 'best practice') who now lives with fluctuating disability, can't drive, doesn't particularly enjoy cities but can't live without them, and has a vary particular set of professional skills that (while rare) are not generally well compensated... <breath> where do I sign-up for Team Nowhere?
posted by mce at 1:22 PM on December 4, 2020 [10 favorites]
That being said as a (usually) pretty white mixed-race person who's adoption in the 70s would no longer be legal (let alone the indigenous erasure 'best practice') who now lives with fluctuating disability, can't drive, doesn't particularly enjoy cities but can't live without them, and has a vary particular set of professional skills that (while rare) are not generally well compensated... <breath> where do I sign-up for Team Nowhere?
posted by mce at 1:22 PM on December 4, 2020 [10 favorites]
So is "Anywheres" the new cryptofascist dogwhistle term for Globalists, or, y'know, Jews?
posted by heatherlogan at 1:53 PM on December 4, 2020 [21 favorites]
posted by heatherlogan at 1:53 PM on December 4, 2020 [21 favorites]
You know I've been queer in the abstract for most my life, but only recently had the experience of socializing among a group of friends, all non-straight in various ways, with my partner, and feeling just how liberating that is to actually be something like "normal" in a group and not having to hold back a part of yourself and just habitually bite your tongue to keep the peace in light of Great Aunt Miriam's views about sinfulness and tax policies.
Most of us Anywheres are refugees from Somewhere, with all the angst that comes from being kicked out of your community and having your roots cut off. And it hurts to be told we have to yet again think of the feelings of those who spent decades actively rejecting ours.
posted by traveler_ at 1:54 PM on December 4, 2020 [51 favorites]
Most of us Anywheres are refugees from Somewhere, with all the angst that comes from being kicked out of your community and having your roots cut off. And it hurts to be told we have to yet again think of the feelings of those who spent decades actively rejecting ours.
posted by traveler_ at 1:54 PM on December 4, 2020 [51 favorites]
Erin O'Toole's attempt to tack to the right of his long-standing positions worked in that it helped him distinguish himself from Peter Mackay in this year's CPC leadership race, but it is a road to nowhere in terms of expanding that party's base. At best he might win back some of the 1.6% of the population who voted for Maxime Bernier and his merry band of bigots (though if Canadian ultra-right Twitter is anything to go by, most of the PPC crowd won't support anyone not openly calling for the suspension of Charter rights).
More broadly, O'Toole's witless regurgitation of Harper's smug Prager Institute faux intellectual posturing , down to the "somewhere/anywhere" dichotomy, is a sign of how bereft of ideas the Canadian right has become. It's also the inevitable consequence of Harper's iron rule of the party, which ensured that the CPC was utterly loyal to him personally but prevented the internal rise of any talent over the past generation. The result is a Harper-shaped hole in the party that is essentially impossible to fill. Until the CPC gets over their Harper syndrome and retools to address new challenges, they aren't bringing anything to the table for Canada, and will at best have to wait until Trudeau and the Liberals gaffe themselves out of office before they can hope to get into power again. Frankly, when I see the likes of Candace Malcolm and Shuv Majumdar ludicrously posturing as the brains trust in waiting, I'm not holding my breath for any real change in that party.
posted by senor biggles at 2:05 PM on December 4, 2020 [8 favorites]
More broadly, O'Toole's witless regurgitation of Harper's smug Prager Institute faux intellectual posturing , down to the "somewhere/anywhere" dichotomy, is a sign of how bereft of ideas the Canadian right has become. It's also the inevitable consequence of Harper's iron rule of the party, which ensured that the CPC was utterly loyal to him personally but prevented the internal rise of any talent over the past generation. The result is a Harper-shaped hole in the party that is essentially impossible to fill. Until the CPC gets over their Harper syndrome and retools to address new challenges, they aren't bringing anything to the table for Canada, and will at best have to wait until Trudeau and the Liberals gaffe themselves out of office before they can hope to get into power again. Frankly, when I see the likes of Candace Malcolm and Shuv Majumdar ludicrously posturing as the brains trust in waiting, I'm not holding my breath for any real change in that party.
posted by senor biggles at 2:05 PM on December 4, 2020 [8 favorites]
As someone who served in the military, O'Toole should know better than anyone that for many where you live is a matter of circumstances often outside of their own control. Refugees and immigrants are automatically excluded from being Somewheres, as is anyone whose parents served in the military or any government position that involved travel. O'Toole is just polishing the same old us vs them turd.
It's a dog whistle when you don't hear them say it but it's still understood loud and clear, right?
posted by furtive at 2:07 PM on December 4, 2020 [13 favorites]
It's a dog whistle when you don't hear them say it but it's still understood loud and clear, right?
posted by furtive at 2:07 PM on December 4, 2020 [13 favorites]
O'Toole's slogan has potential to stoke fear, division
Another cynical take on O'Toole's rhetoric
O'Toole has a history of palling around with white supremacists / alt right
posted by eviemath at 2:16 PM on December 4, 2020 [3 favorites]
Another cynical take on O'Toole's rhetoric
O'Toole has a history of palling around with white supremacists / alt right
posted by eviemath at 2:16 PM on December 4, 2020 [3 favorites]
"As someone who served in the military, O'Toole should know better than anyone that for many where you live is a matter of circumstances often outside of their own control."
O'Toole spent a total of 5 years in the Air Command (not counting his 4 years at Royal Military College, where he was a full-time undergrad) before checking out and starting law school. Unless I missed it in his bios, he never deployed overseas. While I know he puffs himself up with his talk about being a veteran, he spent almost twice as much time articling and working for corporate law firms in Toronto (including venerable Laurentian Elite outfits like Stikeman Elliott and Heenan Blaikie) as he did puttering around in a beat-up old Sea King. So he comes by his lack of empathy for refugees and the working poor "honestly".
posted by senor biggles at 2:19 PM on December 4, 2020 [8 favorites]
O'Toole spent a total of 5 years in the Air Command (not counting his 4 years at Royal Military College, where he was a full-time undergrad) before checking out and starting law school. Unless I missed it in his bios, he never deployed overseas. While I know he puffs himself up with his talk about being a veteran, he spent almost twice as much time articling and working for corporate law firms in Toronto (including venerable Laurentian Elite outfits like Stikeman Elliott and Heenan Blaikie) as he did puttering around in a beat-up old Sea King. So he comes by his lack of empathy for refugees and the working poor "honestly".
posted by senor biggles at 2:19 PM on December 4, 2020 [8 favorites]
there are a lot of born-and-raised so-called Somewheres around me who happily drive the 1.5 hr trip to the nearest Costco to, you know, do anything but support their local merchants. Needless to say there's plenty of action for Amazon deliveries around here, also.
Fuck this bullshit and anyone who buys into it.
posted by elkevelvet at 2:19 PM on December 4, 2020 [9 favorites]
Fuck this bullshit and anyone who buys into it.
posted by elkevelvet at 2:19 PM on December 4, 2020 [9 favorites]
As someone who served in the military, O'Toole should know better than anyone that for many where you live is a matter of circumstances often outside of their own control.
Add to this category the significant proportion of working age men from Newfoundland or other Atlantic provinces who work in the Alberta tar sands.
posted by eviemath at 2:20 PM on December 4, 2020 [6 favorites]
Add to this category the significant proportion of working age men from Newfoundland or other Atlantic provinces who work in the Alberta tar sands.
posted by eviemath at 2:20 PM on December 4, 2020 [6 favorites]
Yeah I don't think this is correct in an analytical sense, it's more just a Richard-Florida-esque word salad to make Canadian Conservatives seem less racist.I don't think any of the examples are helpful towards building policy or understanding trends in any meaningful way. And it's clearly a weak play on the "Two Solitudes" analysis of 70's politics in Canada, which just makes it all the more sad.
The "traditions" that Conservatives hold so dear are largely the traditions of being British, white, straight and cis, so they can get an F on this as it wouldn't cut it as an undergrad polysci paper.
posted by GuyZero at 2:24 PM on December 4, 2020 [9 favorites]
The "traditions" that Conservatives hold so dear are largely the traditions of being British, white, straight and cis, so they can get an F on this as it wouldn't cut it as an undergrad polysci paper.
posted by GuyZero at 2:24 PM on December 4, 2020 [9 favorites]
Add to this category the significant proportion of working age men from Newfoundland or other Atlantic provinces who work in the Alberta tar sands.
I think the Conservatives both hate and need migrant workers so they have a tough time coming up with anything cogent to say about them.
posted by GuyZero at 2:25 PM on December 4, 2020 [6 favorites]
I think the Conservatives both hate and need migrant workers so they have a tough time coming up with anything cogent to say about them.
posted by GuyZero at 2:25 PM on December 4, 2020 [6 favorites]
O'Toole has a history of palling around with white supremacists / alt right
(not so) fun fact: A year or two ago, one of the interns in O'Toole's constituency office was a guy called Marek Viezner, who is the brother in law of Faith Goldy. (Goldy has another brother in law who works for an Ontario PC minister).
posted by senor biggles at 2:27 PM on December 4, 2020 [4 favorites]
(not so) fun fact: A year or two ago, one of the interns in O'Toole's constituency office was a guy called Marek Viezner, who is the brother in law of Faith Goldy. (Goldy has another brother in law who works for an Ontario PC minister).
posted by senor biggles at 2:27 PM on December 4, 2020 [4 favorites]
a Richard-Florida-esque word salad to make Canadian Conservatives seem less racist
I didn't know until now that this is the phrase I've desperately needed to encapsulate this. Thank you.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 2:42 PM on December 4, 2020 [6 favorites]
I didn't know until now that this is the phrase I've desperately needed to encapsulate this. Thank you.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 2:42 PM on December 4, 2020 [6 favorites]
Indigenous people are very much Somewheres
Some are and some aren't. First nations people are complicated. More than half of them live off rez.
posted by srboisvert at 2:51 PM on December 4, 2020 [4 favorites]
Some are and some aren't. First nations people are complicated. More than half of them live off rez.
posted by srboisvert at 2:51 PM on December 4, 2020 [4 favorites]
huh? I've always said that the Conservative party (or almost any party, relatively) could eat Canada for lunch if they were only smart enough to move a few baby steps to the moderate centre with a not-anti-charisma candidate. O'Toole started off with the opportunity to leave some of his old baggage behind, but then he turned back to pick up those dumb dog-whistles. This is a Conservative policy-wonk fail (which is good for us because I hate Conservative governments).
posted by ovvl at 2:56 PM on December 4, 2020 [6 favorites]
posted by ovvl at 2:56 PM on December 4, 2020 [6 favorites]
Thus O'Toole divides Canada between the communities he panders to and the communities he pretends do not exist.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 3:03 PM on December 4, 2020 [6 favorites]
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 3:03 PM on December 4, 2020 [6 favorites]
Based on the pullquote in the FPP I was imagining a much different article and reversed definitions. I was surprised to see that O’Toole et al had the opposite idea in mind.
In my imagination, the distinction was that there are people who live Somewhere, a location with a well-known name that people want to be associated with; and there are people who live Anywhere, which I took to mean that in this modern homogenous era a
suburb in North Carolina is roughly the same as a suburb in northern California or Minnesota or Ontario.
This idea was really interesting to me, because the Internet and (until recently) cheap travel made it easy for Anywheres like me to engage in much of Somewhere culture without the cost-of-living penalty, and I’d like to read more of a discussion around the pros and cons of that cultural flattening.
But alas, that’s not what this article was about, and I probably shouldn’t jam up this conversation more than I already have with reflections on my incorrect assumption about it.
posted by Ian A.T. at 3:07 PM on December 4, 2020 [5 favorites]
In my imagination, the distinction was that there are people who live Somewhere, a location with a well-known name that people want to be associated with; and there are people who live Anywhere, which I took to mean that in this modern homogenous era a
suburb in North Carolina is roughly the same as a suburb in northern California or Minnesota or Ontario.
This idea was really interesting to me, because the Internet and (until recently) cheap travel made it easy for Anywheres like me to engage in much of Somewhere culture without the cost-of-living penalty, and I’d like to read more of a discussion around the pros and cons of that cultural flattening.
But alas, that’s not what this article was about, and I probably shouldn’t jam up this conversation more than I already have with reflections on my incorrect assumption about it.
posted by Ian A.T. at 3:07 PM on December 4, 2020 [5 favorites]
the distinction isn't a terribly accurate one for Canadians
The Newf tradesperson who spends more time in Fort Mac and lately has been trying to get on with Exxon to go out to the Sahkalins.
The university prof who is proud of being in the same town as his parents, both scientists in their own rights, and who is proud to see his children take their places in the hospitals and public health offices in the same centre.
The vulture capitalist who moved every five years in their career and who has their children a half-day drive or more away from their current home, newly bought for their own retirement.
These neat rules only work if you don't examine the lives of real Canadians and the choices they have to make. They aren't true even for the most conservative farm families. The whole hypothesis is a just-so story.
posted by bonehead at 3:11 PM on December 4, 2020 [11 favorites]
The Newf tradesperson who spends more time in Fort Mac and lately has been trying to get on with Exxon to go out to the Sahkalins.
The university prof who is proud of being in the same town as his parents, both scientists in their own rights, and who is proud to see his children take their places in the hospitals and public health offices in the same centre.
The vulture capitalist who moved every five years in their career and who has their children a half-day drive or more away from their current home, newly bought for their own retirement.
These neat rules only work if you don't examine the lives of real Canadians and the choices they have to make. They aren't true even for the most conservative farm families. The whole hypothesis is a just-so story.
posted by bonehead at 3:11 PM on December 4, 2020 [11 favorites]
The CBC as an institution is in the enviable position of being paid handsomly by the government to continuously legitimize settler/colonial mindsets under the rubric of Canadiana a.k.a. maintaining the status quo. Which is ironic, because little-c conservatives love to hate the CBC for not being conservative enough, and would dearly love to defund it completely. As a wingnut lefty, I also come at it from a point of loathing, but getting rid of it would also mean getting rid of the occasional bits of progressivism they also let slip.
posted by seanmpuckett at 3:25 PM on December 4, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by seanmpuckett at 3:25 PM on December 4, 2020 [2 favorites]
^ it's hilarious how the cons hate the CBC, they give them plenty of air-time for their blather...
As far as newsprint, Canada is pretty right-wing for sure. At least we don't have Rupert...
posted by ovvl at 3:55 PM on December 4, 2020 [3 favorites]
As far as newsprint, Canada is pretty right-wing for sure. At least we don't have Rupert...
posted by ovvl at 3:55 PM on December 4, 2020 [3 favorites]
"...older Somewheres are nostalgic for a lost Britain,"
That's a cute way of saying they're (almost certainly) White.
And also Anglo and Protestant. So not much different then the "old stock" rhetoric of Harper. And the Tories hope to be something more than a Prairie Bloq party?
posted by Ashwagandha at 4:06 PM on December 4, 2020 [5 favorites]
That's a cute way of saying they're (almost certainly) White.
And also Anglo and Protestant. So not much different then the "old stock" rhetoric of Harper. And the Tories hope to be something more than a Prairie Bloq party?
posted by Ashwagandha at 4:06 PM on December 4, 2020 [5 favorites]
It seems slightly odd to look at Canada through the lens of an analysis based on Brexit. Are Canadian cultural, social, and political institutions under attack by Russia, the way that this country financed and provided logistic support for Brexit-focused campaigns in the UK?
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 4:30 PM on December 4, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 4:30 PM on December 4, 2020 [1 favorite]
Russia isn't trying to dissolve Canada's geographic treaty partnerships to ensure more natural gas sales.
posted by GuyZero at 4:49 PM on December 4, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by GuyZero at 4:49 PM on December 4, 2020 [1 favorite]
Canadian cultural, social, and political institutions come under attack from two fronts: one, the USA, all day, every day, as they commodify cultural products and two, from Canada. From Quebec (and who cam blame them) and First Nations (and who cam blame them) and ignorant Canadians who think we should just be the US (and they can lick rust).
posted by GuyZero at 4:52 PM on December 4, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by GuyZero at 4:52 PM on December 4, 2020 [2 favorites]
They aren't true even for the most conservative farm families. The whole hypothesis is a just-so story.
The dichotomy is a parody of cultural analysis.
posted by GuyZero at 4:53 PM on December 4, 2020 [2 favorites]
The dichotomy is a parody of cultural analysis.
posted by GuyZero at 4:53 PM on December 4, 2020 [2 favorites]
"...O'Toole should know better than anyone that for many where you live is a matter of circumstances often outside of their own control. "
This is my current O'Toole bugbear -- his demanding to know specific dates for vaccine release. Dude, we don't know. No-one knows. Everyone wants this as quickly as possible, they're working as hard as they can, and you get it when you get it. If you have specific knowledge of the government dragging its feet, then out with it. Right now you are not helping.
I am no supporter of Trudeau, but this is an unprecedented crisis and everyone is figuring it out as they go along. There will be plenty of time for examination later. Repeatedly asking what time they'll finish building the lifeboats is not going to get the lifeboats in the water a minute faster. Quite the contrary.
posted by Capt. Renault at 4:53 PM on December 4, 2020 [9 favorites]
This is my current O'Toole bugbear -- his demanding to know specific dates for vaccine release. Dude, we don't know. No-one knows. Everyone wants this as quickly as possible, they're working as hard as they can, and you get it when you get it. If you have specific knowledge of the government dragging its feet, then out with it. Right now you are not helping.
I am no supporter of Trudeau, but this is an unprecedented crisis and everyone is figuring it out as they go along. There will be plenty of time for examination later. Repeatedly asking what time they'll finish building the lifeboats is not going to get the lifeboats in the water a minute faster. Quite the contrary.
posted by Capt. Renault at 4:53 PM on December 4, 2020 [9 favorites]
That's a cute way of saying they're (almost certainly) White.
And also Anglo and Protestant.
Also true every time O'Toole references "middle class Canadians" which the CBC put in quotes but didn't interrogate much.
posted by joannemerriam at 4:59 PM on December 4, 2020 [5 favorites]
And also Anglo and Protestant.
Also true every time O'Toole references "middle class Canadians" which the CBC put in quotes but didn't interrogate much.
posted by joannemerriam at 4:59 PM on December 4, 2020 [5 favorites]
So is "Anywheres" the new cryptofascist dogwhistle term for Globalists, or, y'know, Jews?
It's like the euphemism treadmill, a new foundation for regionalism (nationalism's tadpole) has to be built occasionally, when the old one(s) gets hackneyed and exposed for the racist BS it always is.
I have a theory that this kind of thing is why people are "encouraged" to follow team sports. Those too are othering practices that keep a low grade dehumanizing hate simmering at the surface. "I'm a die-hard (Hutu/Croat/Cubs fan/battery-thrower), and everybody else can (suck it/be decapitated/have their arm(s) chopped off/wait until next year)."
I'm pathologically triggered by this, a political hypervigilance if you will, or maybe just a sixth sense, but any time someone purports to invoke anything resembling "there's two kinds of people...", my lizard brain gets its tongue flickering.
posted by rhizome at 5:26 PM on December 4, 2020 [10 favorites]
It's like the euphemism treadmill, a new foundation for regionalism (nationalism's tadpole) has to be built occasionally, when the old one(s) gets hackneyed and exposed for the racist BS it always is.
I have a theory that this kind of thing is why people are "encouraged" to follow team sports. Those too are othering practices that keep a low grade dehumanizing hate simmering at the surface. "I'm a die-hard (Hutu/Croat/Cubs fan/battery-thrower), and everybody else can (suck it/be decapitated/have their arm(s) chopped off/wait until next year)."
I'm pathologically triggered by this, a political hypervigilance if you will, or maybe just a sixth sense, but any time someone purports to invoke anything resembling "there's two kinds of people...", my lizard brain gets its tongue flickering.
posted by rhizome at 5:26 PM on December 4, 2020 [10 favorites]
How many "somewheres" would be "anywheres" or, even more likely, "anywhere-elses" given the resources and opportunity?
posted by thatwhichfalls at 5:59 PM on December 4, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by thatwhichfalls at 5:59 PM on December 4, 2020 [1 favorite]
I grew up in an immigrant community in the GTA, so I have a very specific perspective, but it's so weird to me when people attempt to call on nation in Canada. The national myth of Canada is that it doesn't have a national myth*. There is much hand-wringing about this - are we just watered-down Americans? If there's an American Dream, then what's the Canadian Dream (judging from our celebrities, it's going down south to make it big)? Americans have the Founding Fathers; we have John A., who was an alcoholic or something (ask a random Canadian and that's probably the most they remember about him from history class). This kind of jingoism feels awfully... American**.
*Which is not true, which is why it's a myth.
**Canada is still racist, but the flavour is different.
posted by airmail at 6:52 PM on December 4, 2020 [15 favorites]
*Which is not true, which is why it's a myth.
**Canada is still racist, but the flavour is different.
posted by airmail at 6:52 PM on December 4, 2020 [15 favorites]
Most of us Anywheres are refugees from Somewhere, with all the angst that comes from being kicked out of your community and having your roots cut off.
Sincerely no offense intended in my quibble with this obviously personal comment but - I think it is unlikely that this is the story of most of the “anywheres.” A whole lot of people just moved for work!
It does how ever provide an example of why the basic framing is bullshit. Because in my experience, say, old-time queer San Franciscans have a pretty strong (found) regional identity!
posted by atoxyl at 6:58 PM on December 4, 2020 [2 favorites]
Sincerely no offense intended in my quibble with this obviously personal comment but - I think it is unlikely that this is the story of most of the “anywheres.” A whole lot of people just moved for work!
It does how ever provide an example of why the basic framing is bullshit. Because in my experience, say, old-time queer San Franciscans have a pretty strong (found) regional identity!
posted by atoxyl at 6:58 PM on December 4, 2020 [2 favorites]
^ well, there's also The National Dream. Canadians are polite racists, and don't like to be reminded.
posted by ovvl at 7:08 PM on December 4, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by ovvl at 7:08 PM on December 4, 2020 [2 favorites]
But then, how many people are actually well-educated professional[s] living in a large city away from where they grew up, anyway? Probably not enough to win an election! Any time I think of this kind of thing I think of New Yorkers’ attitudes about New York City and the extent to which a big city can be a world unto itself. Obviously the divide between urban transplants and natives is a whole thing, and the latter may even tend to be more personally conservative in some sense than the former, but there are a lot of people who are very rooted in one place who are literally completely ignored by the analysis quoted by the OP.
posted by atoxyl at 7:16 PM on December 4, 2020
posted by atoxyl at 7:16 PM on December 4, 2020
Recent arrival to Montreal here, US-raised with a Nova-Scotian french-lineage mother. As such, I’m in a constant state of figuring-it-out these days wrt Canadian identities (my mom’s background, it seems, is its own maritime thing: that reference point doesn’t seem to translate to other parts of Canada very often).
Is this piece just ignoring the francophone dimension? I don’t see Quebec urbanites typically fitting into this, as (it seems to me) they’re often fairly rooted in region/place as urbanites go. So which Canadians are being parsed as possible “Anywheres”? Anglophones from Ontario westward?
posted by marlys at 7:31 PM on December 4, 2020 [4 favorites]
Is this piece just ignoring the francophone dimension? I don’t see Quebec urbanites typically fitting into this, as (it seems to me) they’re often fairly rooted in region/place as urbanites go. So which Canadians are being parsed as possible “Anywheres”? Anglophones from Ontario westward?
posted by marlys at 7:31 PM on December 4, 2020 [4 favorites]
A pathetic attempt to hijack class struggle into the service of right-wing greivance stoking culture war, which will probably be depressingly effective.
posted by Reyturner at 8:11 PM on December 4, 2020 [6 favorites]
posted by Reyturner at 8:11 PM on December 4, 2020 [6 favorites]
those who love their trade, their pursuit, and are loyal to local businesses
I've seen a lot more shopping at local businesses in Toronto, and a lot more shopping at Walmart in rural Alberta, FWIW.
airmail: The national myth of Canada is that it doesn't have a national myth*.
Multiculturalism is the nicest version of a national myth that we have - a sort of anti-nationalist nationalism, in the terms of the doomed post-WWI dream of giving every ethnicity a nation.
posted by clawsoon at 8:42 PM on December 4, 2020 [8 favorites]
I've seen a lot more shopping at local businesses in Toronto, and a lot more shopping at Walmart in rural Alberta, FWIW.
airmail: The national myth of Canada is that it doesn't have a national myth*.
Multiculturalism is the nicest version of a national myth that we have - a sort of anti-nationalist nationalism, in the terms of the doomed post-WWI dream of giving every ethnicity a nation.
posted by clawsoon at 8:42 PM on December 4, 2020 [8 favorites]
This and the American Gentry article definitely resemble the family who own the town of Newbury in SW Ontario. Gas station, farm supply, hardware store, mini liquor store... Plus of course the town council. And now one made it to provincial politics.
Driving to Costco like most of the people I know around makes sense by comparison.
posted by anthill at 1:02 AM on December 5, 2020 [1 favorite]
Driving to Costco like most of the people I know around makes sense by comparison.
posted by anthill at 1:02 AM on December 5, 2020 [1 favorite]
And now one made it to provincial politics.
As a complete aside, his Wikipedia entry is basically lifted from his CPC website, and much is made of the fact that he was educated at Ivey, though it seems like he went to a career college and just did some continuing education courses at Ivey. Somewhere pretending to be anywhere?
posted by greatgefilte at 6:46 AM on December 5, 2020 [1 favorite]
As a complete aside, his Wikipedia entry is basically lifted from his CPC website, and much is made of the fact that he was educated at Ivey, though it seems like he went to a career college and just did some continuing education courses at Ivey. Somewhere pretending to be anywhere?
posted by greatgefilte at 6:46 AM on December 5, 2020 [1 favorite]
My great-great grandmother owned a boarding house right downtown in Canada's biggest city. My parents met in that city, having grown up just blocks away from each other. My uncle still lives in the old neighbourhood and brought us fish and chips from the place run by my mom's friend.
And that's just the gentile side. Jewish friends of mine are also two or three generations here, with families rooted in Kensington market and Harbord and they still live south of Eglinton.
Screw you, O'Toole. There are plenty of Torontonians who are so rooted here we're ripping up the sidewalk.
You wanna know what nowhere looks like? Exurbs with nothing but subdivisions and big box stores. You know, all of the places that voted for you.
posted by jb at 10:46 PM on December 5, 2020 [3 favorites]
And that's just the gentile side. Jewish friends of mine are also two or three generations here, with families rooted in Kensington market and Harbord and they still live south of Eglinton.
Screw you, O'Toole. There are plenty of Torontonians who are so rooted here we're ripping up the sidewalk.
You wanna know what nowhere looks like? Exurbs with nothing but subdivisions and big box stores. You know, all of the places that voted for you.
posted by jb at 10:46 PM on December 5, 2020 [3 favorites]
I would like to see Canadians vigorously oppose trying to divide people into Us and Them, or any two categories. I like having at least 3 healthy national parties and First Nations systems of governance and justice and as much as I deeply despite Quebec’s approach to “secularism” I am also a believer in the notwithstanding clause to some degree. So boo on this reductionist bucket.
posted by warriorqueen at 5:26 AM on December 6, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by warriorqueen at 5:26 AM on December 6, 2020 [2 favorites]
My point was that Torontonians and other large city dwellers - whether recently arrived or been here for generations - choose to live in places where we have way less space, but also have lots of small, independent businesses and diversity that we value. It's in cities where they thrive - not on Bay St where O'Toole might have spent time, but in our neighbourhoods.
posted by jb at 7:57 AM on December 6, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by jb at 7:57 AM on December 6, 2020 [1 favorite]
Sure, I grew up in the Beaches, Toronto’s best small town. My mum’s business partner refused to go west of Coxwell or east of Vic Park for anything other than an emergency or the Simpsons holiday windows. :)
But still, let’s resist reductionist thinking.
posted by warriorqueen at 9:23 AM on December 6, 2020 [1 favorite]
But still, let’s resist reductionist thinking.
posted by warriorqueen at 9:23 AM on December 6, 2020 [1 favorite]
Well, that's just what an Eastender would say! :) /I'm from the Humber Valley originally
posted by jb at 7:35 AM on December 7, 2020
posted by jb at 7:35 AM on December 7, 2020
More seriously: I react so badly to this particular analogy, because I have watched Conservative politicians (at the municipal and provincial level) actively support pro-car and pro-developer policies. These are the policies that break up neighbourhoods, hurt small businesses*, and promote the creation of cookie cutter, truly "anywhere" places. I don't say this as someone currently living in a cute, walkable, downtown neighbourhood, but as someone who grew up in our north-west inner suburbs (near York-Weston) where I watched the local main street be gutted by a mix of big box store development, poverty and lack of public transit. Two so-called "Smart Centres" were created within a couple of km of my house, even though that was against the city's own planning guidelines at the time by worsening the walkability of the area - and nothing was done to support the growing numbers of people in poverty and dependent on the overcrowded public transit.**
Hearing a conservative politician then turn that language on their opponents - well, it's classic mirror-imaging, accusing others of doing what you are doing, like hearing the Republicans go on and on about "voter fraud" when they are the ones undermining democracy, and just as frustrating.
It's not reductionist to call a spade a spade - or to point out that Conservative politicians are hypocrites to sing paeans to "Somewhere" places while doing nothing to support them (increasing the minimum wage so people can afford to shop at independent stores, offering actual rent relief, breaking down the dominance of developers and commercial landlords), while themselves vilifying others with dog-whistles.
*Independent businesses thrive off of walking and cycling traffic - when was the last time you saw an independent business in one of those box-store and parking lot monstrosities that keep popping up?
**6 of 15 crowded bus lines being monitored are in the north-west. Jane was supposed to have rapid light transit (like King Street) before Transit City was killed.
posted by jb at 8:16 AM on December 7, 2020 [5 favorites]
Hearing a conservative politician then turn that language on their opponents - well, it's classic mirror-imaging, accusing others of doing what you are doing, like hearing the Republicans go on and on about "voter fraud" when they are the ones undermining democracy, and just as frustrating.
It's not reductionist to call a spade a spade - or to point out that Conservative politicians are hypocrites to sing paeans to "Somewhere" places while doing nothing to support them (increasing the minimum wage so people can afford to shop at independent stores, offering actual rent relief, breaking down the dominance of developers and commercial landlords), while themselves vilifying others with dog-whistles.
*Independent businesses thrive off of walking and cycling traffic - when was the last time you saw an independent business in one of those box-store and parking lot monstrosities that keep popping up?
**6 of 15 crowded bus lines being monitored are in the north-west. Jane was supposed to have rapid light transit (like King Street) before Transit City was killed.
posted by jb at 8:16 AM on December 7, 2020 [5 favorites]
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posted by jacquilynne at 11:47 AM on December 4, 2020 [32 favorites]