10 Comments
User's avatar
Tannis Hugill's avatar

Thank you Carole for this revelation of Canadian - and your - history!🩷

Expand full comment
Dave Cunningham's avatar

Thanks for reminding us that Free Trade, was not necessarily the sweet deal we hoped for. There are advantages to be sure. The North American Automobile industry could not function without it. But it is not an agreement forged among equals, witness the endless attacks on softwood lumber, the bargain basement basement giveaway that is our oil export arrangement, and as you mention the loss of a considerable amount of cultural autonomy and artistic determination. Free Trade has always come at a cost.

Expand full comment
Carole Harmon's avatar

have we awoken from the magic sleep? I hope so.

Expand full comment
Katherine Govier's avatar

Hi Carole, yes the 70's in Toronto ! And yes, we didn't know that it would never be repeated. And yes we were all against free trade and keeping 'culture off the table'. But somehow....This is the time to remember and recreate those days. Thanks for this.

Expand full comment
Carole Harmon's avatar

I've occasionally thought about the serendipitous occasions which bring people together in solidarity, how seemingly accidental it seems at the time and how purposeful in retrospect. This is one of those times, I believe.

Expand full comment
Carole Harmon's avatar

thanks, David. You were there too, before we met at the Globe Theatre. How unlikely, a Saskatchewan farm boy attends Natioal Theatre school in Montreal, itself new, then. acts in Creeps, by David Freeman which won siomany awards I can"t list them.

Expand full comment
Carole Harmon's avatar

A cost indeed, and one most of us seldom think about.

Expand full comment
Carole Harmon's avatar

Yes, time to reclaim and preserve. Time to feed the hungry.

Expand full comment
David G. Miller's avatar

Thank you Carole. What a rich piece of writing — a timeless record of a specific time. You show how history can be mined for the valuable commodities of insight and perspective.

Expand full comment
Medwyn McConachy's avatar

Thanks Carole I really enjoyed reading the perspective you present in this issue, a good reminder at a time when it seems our sovereignty is at risk and much of our culture has been allowed to leak away into foreign hands.

Expand full comment