A Great Trip

The week after Easter I went to Canada. I belong to a Canadian interfaith group whose annual meeting was held this year in Stratford. It's a very picturesque city, easily walkable with nice things to look at including a beautiful river, swans and ducks and cool architecture. Unfortunately, I hadn't quite figured out my new camera while I was there, so I only got one picture.

The meeting featured authors Ronald Wright and Nino Ricci. Ron Wright is a Canadian who writes about the United States. Hearing Canadians' comments about the US was really interesting. A couple of highlights:

• Fundamentalist Christianity is not a political or social factor in Canada. They think it's really strange.


• The standard medical and insurance industry scare responses to discussion of a single-payer health care system, e.g. the horror of "socialized medicine" provokes bemusement and ridicule. The question commonly asked is why, after all of the other western industrialized nations have been reasonably successful with it can anyone in the US believe they're getting away with the weird scare tactics; and more importantly, why would anyone in the US put up with the current godawful health care mess we have here.


• And, they're really envious of Barak Obama. Their guy is George W. Bush with a better command of the English language.

After my third visit there, I continue to love our neighbor to the north. My impression is that its citizens have, in general, a stronger sense of and commitment to the common good than we do in the US. They also have, in general, a stronger orientation toward civility in social and business interactions. And, they have much better public transit. I flew into Toronto and took the train to Stratford - a very comfortable journey that got me to my destination on both segments of the round trip on time and without incident. In both the cities I visited, Stratford and Toronto, bus and streetcar service was frequent, comfortable and on-time.

After my meeting ended in Stratford on Saturday afternoon, I joined friends for a farewell dinner at an Indian restaurant there. It was the best Indian food I've ever tasted. Then they put me on the train for Toronto where I stayed for three days.

I visited three churches during my stay in Toronto: St. Mary Magdalene Anglican in the "little Italy" area of the city, Holy Trinity Anglican downtown next to Eaton Center and St. Andrews Preabyterian on King Street in the financial district. I got pictures of the latter two.

I also visited the Hockey Hall of Fame, which was great and the Textile Museum of Canada, a long-awaited destination and one of the most amazing museums I've ever seen. I walked all over downtown Toronto. The weather was great except for one day which featured 40 degree temperatures a driving rain and umbrella slaughtering wind-gusts.

Memorable meals at Raja in Stratford and Nota Bene in Toronto.