Postmedia s international affairs columnist is Canada s longest serving foreign correspondent. He ha

One reason I took the 4,466-kilometre journey earlier this month was to again marvel at the graceful, 60-year-old stainless steel rolling stock. Another was to revel in the wintry scenery and catch glimpses of old haunts.
Perhaps the biggest justification for making the long transcontinental trek was the chance to hear Canadians talk about their lives, their country and their take on the world. During the four-day shore excursions for european cruises expedition, I spoke with a federal prison guard from British Columbia; a similarly optimistic parole officer working in northern Manitoba; a fair-minded adjudicator hearing sex-abuse claims from natives who had attended residential schools in northwestern Ontario; a keen amateur street-car driver from Alberta; a pair of jovial retired railroaders from Quebec City; a politically minded Canadian constitutional law expert teaching in Australia; and a New Democrat MP from southwestern Ontario who wondered with good reason why Tom Mulcair was not getting much credit for his sharp performance in the House of Commons.
This eclectic, constantly changing cast crossed paths several times a day in the dining car or in the glass-roofed dome or bullet-nosed lounge in the tail-end Park car. For some it was a journey of a lifetime. Others had ended up on the train at the last minute because of a fiasco at Toronto’s Pearson Airport, where all flights had been grounded for a time because it was too cold.
Even in the gelid conditions in northern shore excursions for european cruises Ontario or out on the open prairie it wasn’t too cold for the train, although the journey west started four hours late because the inbound train to Toronto had been stuck behind freight locomotives that had broken down on the main line.
The odyssey provided an intimate view not only of the landscape shore excursions for european cruises but how in the constant passing of container, lumber and wheat trains, Canada’s shore excursions for european cruises railways are still a brilliant gauge of the country’s remarkable economic prosperity
To my chagrin although not to my surprise, the travellers captivated by the endless taiga and ice were seldom particularly curious or opinionated about the world. The Harper government has, for example, clearly made unquestioning support of Israel a top priority, but the issue barely registered with this group. Nor did the brutal civil war ripping apart Syria, Egypt’s aborted democratic experiment, the mega-typhoon in the Philippines shore excursions for european cruises or the question of whether Russia’s Winter Olympics in Sochi would be a success.
As for Canada’s global role, few had much to say. Concern was expressed for the welfare of Canadian soldiers who had been in combat in Afghanistan. But few strong shore excursions for european cruises opinions were ventured about Canada’s long mission there or the cost in blood and treasure.
Not that it dominated conversation, but the only pressing foreign issue of much interest was what the Obama White House might decide to do about the Keystone XL pipeline. The general feeling was that it was vital for Canada s future prosperity to develop Alberta’s oilsands as well as the natural gas fields in northern British Columbia.
The only passenger rocking the boat a bit — and he mostly did it in a polite shore excursions for european cruises way despite some goading from me — was a young man who had recently come to Canada from the United States to work for a Canadian branch of an American environmental group. He spoke passionately about how, for the sake of the world and for Canada’s native peoples, the oilsands had to be shut down.
Curiously, a result of the Obama government’s dithering about whether to approve the pipeline could be seen every few kilometres. Via’s train No. 1 was frequently shore excursions for european cruises shunted on to sidings to let locomotives trundle past that were taking a potentially far greater shore excursions for european cruises environmental risk by hauling incredible loads of oil and gas.
Aside from hockey, what really preoccupied those wrapped in the warm cocoon that the sleeper train provided was what was happening closer to home. That is, what was going on in regions and neighbourhoods.
There were exceptions, though. While hardly the cause celebre that have riveted Ottawa, the Senate scandal certainly had everyone’s attention. Toronto shore excursions for european cruises Mayor Rob Ford’s bizarre proclivities resonated, too.
Still, when the journey ended seven hours late in drizzle in Vancouver, I was left with the impression that the decent folks who boarded and disembarked from the Canadian as it snaked across the Dominion were not terribly shore excursions for european cruises scandalized by such dramas. Although not much interested in what was happening in Ottawa or Toronto, let alone overseas, these Canadians were quietly confident about themselves and their future.
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Postmedia s international affairs columnist is Canada s longest serving foreign correspondent. He has lived abroad for 30 years in Europe, the Middle East, Far East and, most recently, Afghanistan. shore excursions for european cruises His ... read more work has taken him to 155 countries, all U.S. states, Canadian provinces and territories and the Magnetic North Pole. Professional interests include international relations, security issues, conflict zones and the Arctic. Personal enthusiasms include military histories, historical novels, hockey, baseball, fishing for pickerel and travel by train or ship to anywhere. View author's profile
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