Windows on Westmount Ville Marie

Couchiching Report 1998

from
Margaret Lefebvre

This was an outstanding year at the Couchiching Summer Conference. The Hon. Paul Martin started off the roster of outstanding speakers before a packed house of delegates from across the country. The Conference was oversold, creating some interesting ad hoc alliances amoung those scrambling for an extra bed.

This summer we have truly launched our new web site, Couchiching On-Line at www.couch.ca. Please drop by for a complete outline of the program and list of speakers.

We heard from politicians, economists, academics, youth, editorialists, the former Ambassador to Canada, James Blanchard, and from the artistic community. Carol Shields fell under the spell of Couch and wants to come back next year.

James Blanchard warned us that unless we Canadians stop worrying about our identity, we run the risk of ending up like Michael Jackson: neither black, nor white, male nor female, young or old, neither here nor there.

For me, the most memorable panel discussion was one titled "The Canadian Essence - What Will it Mean to be a Canadian in the 21st Century?"

To set the stage, imagine that you are sitting in an auditorium facing a background of very large Canadian flags, arranged in patterns of flying chevrons, with the "whole monty" at center stage. This patriotic display came to us not as a present form Sheila Copps, but rather as an inspiration from the stage hand who had been told to prepare the stage with the usual Couch lattice work, painted white. It appears he became bored with painting, and, seeing a store called Flags Unlimited across the street, he talked them out of their excess maple leafs and strung them up for all the world to see.

The result was startling, to say the least. Speakers found themselves adorned with flying wedges of red and white spilling out behind their ears, while sitting panelist seemed to be weighed down by a maple leaf growing directly over each head.

It was only towards the very end of the Conference that we were challenged from the podium with the question, "Do you realize what you are playing at, with this excessive nationalism?" This is the stuff of dangerous passions, stirred into a thoughtless frenzy, deaf to reason and blind to consequences.

These words came from René-Daniel Duubois, a Quebec playwright who gave an impassioned speech about the futility of nationalism and the rigorous self examination required to break free from ideas absorbed through a type of societal osmosis into a level of considered opinion.

Senator Oliver warned that Canada was not ready to deal with the problems of visible minorities. Toronto will be majority visible minority within 18 months, and still we do not have the tools to deal with this reality effectively.

A young Inuit leader, 21 years old, Qujaaq (pronounced kayak) Ellsworth held the audience spellbound with his vision of a Canada devastated by ecological disaster, disrespect for the land, for each other, and for life itself. He brought us face to face with the reality of adolescent suicide and asked how important we would rate this problem, if he were not a native Canadian?

Conclusion:

1. Globalization will lead to loss of sovereignty for all nations.
   
   
2. Canada will be particularly hard hit as it loses its rank in the G7
   
   
3. There will be increasing pressure to devolve power upward, to global institutions such as the OECD and downwards, directly to the community, bypassing the traditional levels of government.
   
   

One aspect of Globalization generated a great deal of discussion. With Globalization comes interdependence and, by extension, greater vulnerability. For example: Only 6% of the microchips in the whole world are in computers, the rest are in everything from watches to instruments to appliances, telephones, etc. 94% of microchips are in secondary usage, and yet they could all be wiped out simultaneously as a result of one high atmosphere magnetic surge such as a nuclear bomb. All microchips, world-wide would fail at once. How would we survive?

The challenges for the future have a great deal to do with our sense of cultural identity, our ability to preserve the values of our close communities and our ability to adapt to potentially chaotic changes, including new benefits and new dangers brought about by the explosion in late 20th century technology.

by Margaret Lefebvre

Next year, Couchiching will tackle the question of Human Destiny as we approach the millennium. Thoughts or comments would be highly appreciated and can be sent to Whitehallk@citenet.net

Also Margaret Lefebvre
• & MAI
• Davos

From Wednesday Night Files

Is the falling Canadian Dollar a national tragedy?

We have paid the price and are poised to reap the benefits. We have stopped borrowing and have started to pay off our debt at an increasing rate. This phenomenon explains why the dollar is doing so poorly. If Canada publicizes our situation, we will emerge as a safe haven. please see our Dollar

Is the bull market dead?

Where is the money coming from? Savings are rising, especially in Asia. These savings are being invested in the United, States, Germany and Holland. The key is the yen. The Japanese are unlikely to do anything to correct the situation, but the market predicts that they will. Prudent investors will invest in domestic issues. As was the case in the sixties, Canada is poised on the brink of a domestic boom. We are taking a breather until we find out what is happening in commodities.

Did the Japanese not know ahead of time what would happen?

The Wednesday Night view is that bonds are a better investment than stocks; the stock market is expensive and offers high risks. Baby boomers are driving prices up. Companies cannot deliver equivalency of equity costs. Is the equity market the only place for returns? Earnings are beyond deliverables. The bubble may burst, but when? Templeton has suggested there will be a 40% correction….

(Editor's Note: "Asia can't fall much more, Templeton manager says. Nevertheless, Mobius is in no rush to buy stocks from region" - Globe and Mail, Tuesday July 21st)

If the yen collapses suddenly however, it will spur another devastating currency crisis. Even this would is not be a major setback unless there is a concurrent collapse of the ruble. This appears unlikely at this time. Russians have some two hundred billion United States dollars invested in foreign assets all over the world.

What about Canada's future prospects?

A Letter from Kuala Lumpur: A former Wednesday Night "Regular", a European diplomat, born in Indonesia and now serving in Malaysia, has recently sent a long analysis of the current events in Indonesia, paying particular attention to the historical context. This letter is now on the westweb site and all are encouraged to read it and comment on it.

The CRTC is out to get you CCC Clean Cdn Culture

Reported by Herbert Bercovitz and Michael Judson
Edited by Diana Thébaud Nicholson

Hong Kong