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Canada's Beauty in Stillness (Part 2): In Search of the Pastoral on Prince Edward Island

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When I wrote the first installment of this set of blog posts on elements of Canadian culture that could be found in a number of places across the country, I did not expect that this second post would come over a year later. It's for a good reason - my finally getting a long-term teaching position at a music conservatory in Toronto - but this summer has been a welcome break. I suppose I'm not the only one. Many city folk, while eternally grateful for the everyday busyness of life that allows us to put food on the table, sometimes want a complete change of pace: a moment to get away from the bright lights; the noise; the traffic and air pollution; the near-daily news headlines about violent crime. And it's not just physical - many of us would love to get away from the frantic pace and intense competition of city life, and the toxicity and mental strain that it brings. Perhaps that's why, during times of mass urbanization and social and personal turmoil, people have turne
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Canada's Beauty in Stillness (Part 1): These Very Walls which Shelter Us Now (Canada Day 2022)

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Peace, order, and good government. This may not be a slogan you've heard before, but it's one that is, surprisingly, quite significant to Canadian history. Versions of it have appeared in Acts of Parliament affecting Canada's administration as a British colony since the mid-18th century and its current iteration was included in the British North America Act of 1867 (a.k.a. the Constitution Act, 1867 ) that established Canada as an independent nation - the very point in history that we now celebrate, understandably, as Canada Day. Now, in its original context, "Peace, order and good government" was an expression of political authority. It was initially a formal concession from the British government allowing colonial governments to enact their own laws, then became an authorization for the federal government to do so for the newly-independent nation as a whole. However, when I hear that statement, federal parliamentary politics...really isn't what comes to mind
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