Hey Sir Paul, we didn’t really mean all that about the seal hunt
Cats: Canada|Guess all is forgiven. Sir Paul MacCartney played to an audience of 50K here on Saturday night.
And it was all adoration, “We love you Paul” and local bagpipes backing up on Mull of Kintyre.
All stirring stuff that won over the hearts and minds of New Scotland.
How quickly we forget.
Remember when Sir Paul and his ex-missus Heather Mills came over a couple of years ago to protest the Canadian seal hunt? They posed on the ice with a seal pup and the picture received international coverage.
And remember a couple of months ago when the European Union banned seal pelts.
Oh boy, did that stir up and rile Canadians.
We won’t be pushed around by some seal-loving Beatle, we said. We won’t have any Euro Do Gooder tell us not to beat the devil out of the seals. We’ll keep killing those seals. It’s a our way of life here in the East. Go home Sir Paul, we said.
Politicians jumped on the bandwagon with their faux outrage. Even the Governor General hopped on board. The GG went up North to eat seal heart to show her support for the traditional hunt.
Oh no, this went straight to the heart of what it meant to be Canadian.
But then Sir Paul announced he was coming here for a big concert and everything changed. The outrage and indignation just disappeared into thin air. There wasn’t a protest at the concert, not a placard or negative comment to be found.
It was just a big Sir Paul love-in.
I have no strong feelings on the seal hunt. I think Canada’s response to the international seal hunt protest was insular, self-defeating and unsophisticated, but if that makes people feel good about being Canadian, let them have their fun.
I don’t have strong feelings on Sir Paul either. He’s a good musician and a musical legend. He put on a great show. And he was very successful in communicating his messages on the seal hunt.
One day we hate him, the next day we love him. La de daaah.
Ultimately Sir Paul showed that his star power trumps our feelings about the seals and his protest. Canadians don’t actually feel THAT strongly about the seals when you put them up against a musical legend like Sir Paul.
All that stuff we said back then? Just a nationalistic feel-good moment, spurred on by politicians who don’t really give a damn about the seals or the hunt.
In reality, most Canadians feel no connection to the seal hunt either. This is why the national outrage dissipates when the magic star dust is sprinkled upon us.
That Canadian national identity is a strange beast, innit? We’ll be chest-thumping Canadians when it suits us, but when there’s a star in town, we’ll just forget all that.
How Canadian is that.
July 13th, 2009 at 1:04 pm
Yes, Canadian national identity is a very strange beast. Other countries probably do not talk about their own identities nearly as much, its inherent. Where as we ponder and question…but the greatest part.
July 13th, 2009 at 1:05 pm
d’oh!
*that’s the greatest part.
July 13th, 2009 at 7:00 pm
Well, I certainly did not forget about the crawling on the ice snuggling seal pups photo op. I don’t have any particularly strong feelings about the seal hunt either, but I can never forgive the man for Wings.
July 14th, 2009 at 6:46 am
Allison, Canada is one of those countries that defines itself by what it is not: American.
Barbara, Paul MacCartney and Pups.
July 14th, 2009 at 12:01 pm
Who listens to celebrities anyway?
“Hi, I’m a plumber, let me tell you how you should manage your forests.”
July 14th, 2009 at 4:32 pm
I honestly thought someone would club him on the head with an artificial leg…
Quite frankly though, I thought there would have been a modicum of protest with his appearance in Halifax. In fact it kinda shocked me when there was not. But then again people were probably afraid to protest “the cute one”.
I bet there was lots of disgruntledness and muttering though. Tis the Canadian way.
s
July 15th, 2009 at 12:22 pm
Dick, you don’t that’s for sure
Sean, hahahaha, that’s good.
I was so disappointed that there wasn’t. We looked so kissy arsed not to, especially after the rhetoric spouted previously
July 15th, 2009 at 3:45 pm
You know this belly-aching about identity really struck me too, when I first arrived. And in academia it is a thousand times worse. The identity of immigrants, of aboriginals, of acadiens, of Torontonians, polar bears, etc etc. All grist to the dissertation mill. What are we feeling? What is it like, to be the wonderful me? Oh, it is all so in-te-res-ting.
That stuff about the seal hunt and PM was fascinating.
July 21st, 2009 at 10:04 am
Newcomer, I too toiled in academe and understand that.
July 25th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
Well, we were all set up, complete with trebuchet, to fling seals over Ton’y Donair and on to Surpaul’s stage. But the unexpected happened – the Newfoundland Store was sold out!! So we shot over a few groupies. One, from California, made it (they were heavier than a typical seal, so most landed well short on the stage). I hear she even got an autograph.