Good post, Spoons. As a lifelong resident of the prairies, I have often experienced people who have moved out here and had an epiphany; “Hey, there’s a whole country out here, and it’s not like Toronto!” (and the people here don’t much like Toronto). I like the idea of much more dialogue, but I don’t know how to go about it, either.
So would have I. Problem was, that the way the program was presented back in the 70s, it didn’t sit straight with my Toronto parents, who were convinced that it was somehow communistical/socialistical, and thus not suited for their son.
Agreeed. But it has to overcome the problems specified above. As well as the waves of immigrants who believe that the way to success is through nonstop studying at U of T and York, rather than traipsing through Canada during a Katimavik year.
What I like about Canada, is the women.
Declan
That’s what I like about Lower Canada in particular.
In the 70s I think that nonstop studying at U of T and York was the way to get ahead for brown immigrants. Toronto society was white society, and Toronto money was white money. The doors were closed, so the immigrants simply by-passed the powers that be, effectively forcing the powers that be to change their tune. In that respect, I think the city has changed for the better since then, and is continuing to change, but unfortunately, it did nothing to help Toronto look outside itself.
There is something in that.
There is however another side to it - the Canadian habit of, as it were, wishing to enforce equality by hammering down anyone standing too tall.
Toronto-bashing is a reaction against Toronto-arrogance - partly real and partly perceived. Most of all, it is a reaction against anything or anyone seen as “too big for their britches”, with all that attitude implies.
I love Canada, and many of the good things about it have already been mentioned. One of the bad things about this great country - the dark side of our self-effacing habits as it were - is narrow parocialism and envy of exceptional achievement. As someone once put it, the perfect Canadian job would be an ‘associate professor of sociology’ - safe, uncontroversial, vaguely progressive, having a nice pension plan and tenure. If someone has ambitions to be more than that, they are likely to attract envy and dislike, moreso than(say) south of the border.
Ooh that was well said, Spoons. It appears law-school failed in its endeavour to quash readable, eloquent writing, at least in your case. 
I have come to agree with what you say. Travelling to Newfoundland and the prairies, living outside Quebec for the first time, all were totally surprising experiences for me. I fell in love with the people of Alberta for some traits and attitudes that were completely opposite of the misconceptions I had when I came here.
I think we all could benefit from exposure like this, and that without them, we all tend to assume that the other parts of the country are just like us, or should be . It’s just that there are more people in Toronto making that assumption than anywhere else, parked right on top of many big decision makers to boot. Thus the effects of this assumption made in Toronto ripple out to the rest of the country, making the rest of us grumble.
Wait, did I just defend Toronto? There must be some mistake…
I try so hard to keep my mind out of the gutter , I really really do lol.
Declan
I read Spoons’ excellent post and immediately thought ‘Katimavik’ as well. The wretched thing was, I never heard of it until I got to university and met people who’d been through it.
We do need a mixing program so people won’t get stuck in their own silos eating the same old stuff over and over again. Gut knowledge that other people can be very different, and experience in dealing with those kinds of differences without causing a riot, helps to make society stronger and more flexible.
Kinda the opposite of my uncle in BC, who believed that the French were evil incarnate and went araound the air base at Comox and painted out the French on the signs. All the rest of us were ashamed of this. And the last time I saw him, I’d travelled from Banff, Alberta by bus, where I’d met a very cute Québecoise named Nancy at the youth hostel. I thought of her and looked at my uncle and wondered, “How can you believe the French are evil?”
Wow … thanks, Sunspace. And thank you also, trupa and Cat Whisperer!
Katimavik’s intentions are good, and it is indeed the kind of program that would address the concerns we’ve been discussing. But the problem with the program lies not so much in what it does, as in how it is presented. As I implied above, the idea that you work for a year, earning next to nothing, doesn’t go over well with many parents; especially if there is a concern over being able to afford higher education and a hope that the child will somehow contribute through job earnings.
If Katimavik is to induce more participation from the people it could most help (those who rarely, if ever, leave their home city/province to travel to and through other parts of Canada), I’d suggest the following. Note that I’m basing my remarks on what I heard about the program when I was in high school thirty years ago; things may have changed since:
– Communicate directly with parents. I’d guess few parents want to hear “you take a year off school and work in different parts of Canada, and they pay you nothing until you finish and then you get a thousand bucks,” from their children. Don’t trust the kids to pass on an accurate message; Katimavik should be informing parents directly of the benefits of the program, in other words–which shouldn’t include “taking a year off school.”
– Similar to the above, stress the educational aspects of the program. They’re there, and we’ve been discussing them: at all levels (the individual participant’s and nationally), a better understanding of the internal challenges that Canada and its people face. It’s not necessarily a year off school, if it is thought of as a year in a different kind of school.
– Pay participants more money. Looking back, it really was a pittance for a year’s work–as I recall things, I made approximately three times as much working a summer job for three or four months. Katimavik’s pay scale practically guarantees it will only attract participants from well-off families, who don’t need the money; or dirt-poor kids, who can get need-based school grants and loans. I’d guess that those in between simply cannot afford to consider Katimavik.
Whoa! Really digressing from the OP’s original question, aren’t we? Well … one of the things that make Canada great is that it has a program called “Katimavik,” even though that program has room for improvement.
How’s that for trying to return to the OP? 
My father was francophobe to the point that he honestly believed that the Bosnian war was a “preview” of Canadian history.
He would probably spin in his grave if he knew that I married a Québécoise, and that the only one of his grandchildren that carries on his name will be raised bilingually. I hope against hope that there is some sort of afterlife, just so that he might know this.
Having lived in the Toronto area for some time no,w I’m struck by how far your impression is from, well, reality.
I’ve never, not once, got the sense that “Torontonians” think they know what’s best for the rest of the country; that’s just silly. Most people in general don’t think such things, and in Toronto, specifically, half the population’s not even from Canada anyway.
The Toronto MEDIA can be very navel-gazing, but what’s insular about them is not that they think Toronto knows what’s best for BC, but that they’re only concerned about matters in Toronto. If you write for the Toronto Star, you write solely about Toronto, and maybe the suburbs (and if you write about the suburbs it has to be really negative.) It’s not that Toronto knows what’s best for BC, it’s that it doesn’t matter; issues outside Toronto aren’t issues of importance to the Toronto media.
This is, of course, common to all very large cities, not just Toronto, but that doesn’t make it any less irritating. But “Torontonians knows what’s best for the rest of Canada” is just fantasy. They don’t care. Why should they? Do people in Kimberley or Red Deer give a shit about TTC fare hikes? I sure hope not.
Yah, those stupid immigrants… oh, wait. They’re right. An education IS a better route to success than schlepping around doing menial work for a year in an old hippie program.
No offense, but which do you think looks better on a resume? I’ve never seen a want ad that said “Katimavik experience required.” Maybe those immigrants aren’t quite as stupid as you think.
I don’t have a problem with Toronto media being Toronto-centric; it’s the federal media being Toronto-centric that I have a problem with.
To the extent that’s true, it hardly seems a good reason to dislike Toronto or Torontonians.
(What exactly is “federal media”?)
The national stuff - the Weather Channel, TSN, CBC, CTV, etc. If you live in Toronto I’m sure you don’t notice the near-constant Toronto slant/Toronto bias, but the rest of us do.
Really? Of all of those I use the Weather Channel most frequently (not being a sports fan or much of a TV watcher), and it covers the whole country.
Of course, we may be getting the whole-country version, and for some obscure reason they broadcast the Toronto-only version to you. 
http://www.theweathernetwork.com/?ref=topnav_weather_homepage
Federal media? Perhaps the CBC with its cuts to local radio – I don’t think most folks in large cities can comprehend how important the CBC is to smaller communities.
OK, quick poll: who dislikes Malthus?
Let’s face it, pretty much everyone likes Malthus, and the few who don’t are best patted on the head and ignored anyway.
Now how about Sunspace? Same thing.
Or RickJay? Despite his being a Burlingtonian (correct me if I am mistaken), it’s hard to find someone who dislikes him.
The simple fact is that no matter how much we try to dislike Torontonians, we can’t come up with any individuals whom we actually dislike.
That’s one of the things that makes Canada great – terrific people wherever you go. (Except Pickle Lake.)
Except that we occasionally get the supposed imbalance in the Weather Channel’s reporting on cold fronts over Etobicoke held up as evidence for why we should be “disliked” en masse.
Cold front in Etobicoke? That’s just the snow making equipment in use on the garbage pile.