Many people claim their country or area as 'God's country.' I have travelled much of the world and have seen majestic vistas north, south, east and west, but none, in my opinion, has claimed the title of 'God's country' more or better than Canada. Canada is a country so diverse - and darned large, to boot - that within its borders [north, Arctic Ocean; west, Pacific Ocean; east, Atlantic Ocean; and south United States of America] are deserts, forests, mountains, rivers, lakes, large and small cities, prairies, vast areas of snow and ice, lush, green meadows, plus a host of other joys of Nature; and all this in a landmass that covers 3,849,674 square miles. Canada is large enough to hold the United States of America or Australia or India and have space left over. To most Canadians, regardless of where they live in this vast country, Canada qualifies as God's country; but perhaps others in other countries might not agree.
When I travel and speak to residents of other countries, I often discover that they know little of Canada and certainly have no idea of its immense size. After Russia, Canada is the world's second largest country.
What has all this got to do with anything?
Toward the middle of September, 2006, I noticed an article in a newspaper that reported that His Majesty King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV of Tonga had died at age 88 years. Tonga is a small [289 square miles] country made up of about 150 "palm-fringed, coral-decked Polynesian islands" situated approximately one thousand miles north-east of New Zealand. About four decades ago, I had the pleasure of spending a few days in the country's capital city of Nuka'alofa. While there, I supped and drank with one of the king's sons. The prince was, like his father and grandmother, a large but most jovial person. His bulk would have qualified him to play as an offensive lineman for any one of the several Canadian Football League teams.
Some might recall Tonga's Queen Salote - a large, regal woman - during the 1953 Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in London. Then, despite a downpour, Queen Salote rode majestically in an open carriage and endeared herself to Londoners and thousands of others elsewhere. I certainly recall her regal ride [I saw it on black and white television] and when I visited Tonga a decade or so later, I recalled the event. Interestingly, when King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV died he tipped the scales at 223 kg. [just under 500 pounds]. In Tonga, it seems, size does matter.
Since Queen Salote, Tonga's monarchs have insisted on a high level of education of the country's population. Sports, too, are high on Tonga's list of 'must do.' During my visit - courtesy of the Royal Canadian Navy - our ship's company managed to gather together a sufficient number of crew to muster a reasonable soccer [football] team. We played the local Tonga team. The game was over almost before it had begun. There we were decked out in our ship's colours uniforms complete with soccer boots and shin pads. Opposite us were the locals with a modicum of uniformity in their dress, no boots and certainly no shin pads. They trounced our fellows rather handily. The Tongans were tough, spirited and courteous players. They ran circles around our sailors. After the game, we retired to an appropriate spot to discuss the finer aspects of the match and to sooth bruised egos with a wee dram of liquid spirits. Soon, the game was forgotten and friendships formed.
I recall that later, when the aforementioned prince visited our ship and sat with us in our mess, his spirits of choice was Scotch. As we had plenty of the golden elixir on board, it was easy to keep his glass full. A merry time was had by all. Sadly, a revisit was not in the works; however, I understand that some travel agencies book flights to the South Pacific island country. My recommendation is to visit Tonga and see one of the places that are high on a list of 'God's country.' To the citizens of Tonga, it is God's country.
From memories of a Tonga visit we shift to memories of a recent motoring trip in Western Canada with a side trip through northwestern USA.
On a bright July Monday, my wife and I set our compass for Washington State and headed south to take in the splendours of the Skagit River. The river has its headwaters in British Columbia and is a prime source of water for Seattle, WA.
After taking the obligatory pictures of the Skagit River and its power plant, we headed east across the neck of Idaho and into Montana. During our trek we overnighted in Winthrop, Washington and Libby, Montana. Our desire was to revisit the famous "Road to the Sun" highway in Montana's Waterton Park. Unfortunately, when we arrived at the park's gate, we were informed that a 25,000-acre forest fire was raging and that the highway was closed. We turned around and travelled south and east of the park before turning north to the Alberta border.
Once we cleared Canadian Customs, we drove to High River, Alberta to visit with one of our several grandchildren. We stayed two days and during our visit we visited Drumheller, Alberta, the home of the world famous Dinosaur museum. If anyone wants to learn about these relics of the past, Drumheller is the place - perhaps the best place on the planet - to be educated.
Red Deer, Alberta was our next stop; one of our daughters and her family call RD home. A few days after our arrival, we went to Saskatchewan, the province of my birth. We stayed one night in Clavet, a small town just to the east of Saskatoon before moving on to Plunkett, an even smaller hamlet of about 90 people. In the 1930s, I lived there with my maternal grandparents but when WWII broke out in 1939, my mother and father and I moved to BC. My father was in the Royal Canadian Navy Volunteer Reserve [RCNVR]. Victoria, BC, with its naval base, became my home for the next few years.
From Plunkett, we went to LeRoy and visited several of my cousins. Two days later, we were away to Nipawin and another cousin. One night later, we turned west and headed back to Red Deer.
All in all, by the time we returned home five weeks after our sojourn began, we had travelled four thousand miles over some good and some not-so-good roads. The country varied from lush, green valleys with tumbling rivers to rugged, snow-capped mountains to vast, open, grain-covered prairie to quaint towns and hamlets sited amid the debris of long-ago communities that were once filled with the hustle and bustle of busy farmers. Time and evolution changed the manmade climate but not that of Nature.
Canada, a large, lovely country that has just about all one might wish for in what we call God's Country.
Tonga, a small, lovely country that has the appeal of the South Pacific and gentle giants.
Both are a "must visit" to God's Country of choice.
Bob Orrick is a retired private tutor of English grammar, literature, poetry and Canadian history to off-shore youngsters. His pupils hail from such places as Taiwan, China, Japan, Hong Kong, Korea and Venezuela. He was previously in international marketing, was a ministerial assistant to a provincial cabinet minister, spent a few years as a reporter then editor of a community newspaper and enjoyed a career in the Royal Canadian Navy.
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