The North

The North

I grew up in the town of Kapuskasing in northern Ontario. Kapuskasing prided itself in the hockey players it produced and how cold it was. I can remember the temperature getting down to minus forty-seven. I’m not sure if that was Fahrenheit or Celcius, but at temperatures that low it doesn’t make much difference.

When my family visited our relatives in southern Ontario everyone understood that we were from the north. There was something different about us. We were frontier people who lived away from the luxuries of the more sophisticated south.

As much as my cousins would tease me for being an uncultured northerner, I think all of us in Canada are creatures of the north.

A few years ago, before the mess in Ukraine, my wife and I travelled through Siberia. We have been fortunate enough to have visited many countries around the world, but none of them felt as much like home as Siberia.

We visited a small village far from the large cities where we were treated to entertainment by a local women’s group and then enjoyed a feast of local cuisine. We felt that other than the clothing and language, what we experienced could have happened in our home village. There was something about the attitude of the people and their treatment of visitors that was familiar.

I believe the cause of that familiarity was that we were all people of the north.

Living in a cold climate has profound effects on people. In the north you need to work hard just to survive. It isn’t possible to live in the woods or on the streets without shelter. The climate of the north will make away with anyone who isn’t prepared.

When I have been to tropical countries it has occurred to me that there is a different threshold of poverty. In warm climates it is possible to survive with almost nothing. In harsher areas it is not possible to exist without some way of keeping warm.

In the tropics the land and vegetation can provide enough to eat throughout the year. There are very few places in Canada where food can be gathered from the wild in the winter.

This reality of the effort needed for survival has many consequences.

As individuals we must work hard enough to provide enough shelter, fuel, and food to last through the winter. The north nurtures an attitude about life that puts a high priority on labour. The Protestant work ethic is a product of harsh conditions. It’s hard to imagine this obsession with filling our time with efficient production ever coming out of a culture with warmth and plentiful food available throughout the year.

Perhaps the north also nurtures a sense of community. As northern people we are aware that our neighbours may need help to survive. The implications of a poor person losing their shelter is far more serious in the north.

People of the north know that they need to work together to succeed. The presence of socialist societies in Scandinavian countries is evidence that northerners realize they must help each other.

It seems that writers of the north also tell different kinds of stories. We can’t help but being affected by the long and dark winter nights.

Stories from the north has a reputation of being dark. It should be no surprise that authors who spend half of their writing year bundled up against the cold would feature hardships in their writing.

But as well as the gloom of northern stories there is often the element of hope from the assistance of others. As northerners we know that we need to help each other to survive.