Dear Canada,
As America’s nightmare began to dawn last Wednesday morning, I kept thinking of you. Our great northern sibling with whom we share so much, and with whom we have such stark differences.
I thought about the election of Prime Minister Trudeau on Oct. 15 of last year, how your votes signaled a victory for advocates of multiculturalism, youth, immigrants and responsible citizenship, while our votes last week semaphored fear, anger and resentment of women, minorities and progress – Oh, Canada… what must you think of us?
I had the great pleasure of living in Squamish for three years while my husband studied and worked at Quest University. I am proud to say my son was born in Squamish, and for this reason I have a permanent and intimate connection to those dewy emerald forests, Orca waters and kind-hearted people of Garibaldi Highlands, whom I am fortunate to call friends.
And it is because of this connection that I feel I must write: I can feel your disappointment in my country, I can see you shaking your heads – please believe that for so many of us over here, we are humiliated and humbled, disheartened and depressed, and deeply concerned what this will mean for our democracy, the environment and the world, for years to come.
Like Canada, America celebrates the individual – we share a vision of humanity that is inclusive, free and equal. But while your country so often succeeds in manifesting these values into social policy, we often fall short of living up to our own grand vision.
Like a child, we stomp around the neighborhood wearing boots too big to fill, and our young democracy has yet to be truly tested, until now. Since Wednesday morning, many of us have felt paralyzed – our American muscles of strength and optimism are locked in adolescent spasm, growing pains of the worst variety.
We need your friendship more than ever, like a sibling that has made an awful decision, one that has dishonored the family and perhaps even hurt their own future, do not lose faith in our potential to rise stronger, wiser and more able. I beg of you, do not abandon us in this difficult and dark season – we will need you in the days, months and years to come.
We will need you to model Canadian strength and inclusion, not by offering us refuge, but by supporting our efforts to remain vigilant, awake and determined to reverse the reversal of progress. The dance of democracy is not choreographed to be elegant, so while we stumble through these next steps, give us your hand. Stronger Together.
Keya Guimarães
Washington, D.C.
Former Squamish resident
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