Some interesting points being raised and I welcome them all. If I may I shall respond in general rather than individually as I detect a rough consensus in the answers.
First I should point out that I was in Canada to get some capital together rather than on a vacation, I was also very much in redneck territory instead of the more sophisticated cities and suburbs. I was doing a semi skilled job working for a company founded and run by Mennonites all of which might of led me to an alternative view of Canadian society, or certainly one that is at odds with what it is generally thought of both abroad and, it seems, at home. I am not saying that is is a balanced and representative slice of the country, only the part of it which I experienced.
Two major criticisms are made of the sequence I posted, the first being that I mentioned the oil business but didn't show any of it and ditto the native culture.
The oil business is a world unto itself and the very fact that I didn't show any images of that trade indicates that unless you are in it it's very difficult to get close to it. All the pictures you might see in the media of the oil companies at work cheerfully extracting the stuff are very carefully vetted and controlled. What you rarely hear about and certainly kept away from are incidents like these -
http://www.vice.com/en_ca/read/oil-has-been-spilling-into-albertas-cold-lake-for-almost-nine-months-and-no-one-knows-why. What is absolutely certain is that a camera wielding foreigner would not be welcome or tolerated around the oil fields which, in the case of Cold Lake, just happen to be in the middle of a military exclusion zone. How handy is that! As I mentioned in the text, getting work on the well paid oilfields depends on various factors, none of which are written down anywhere. However, in hindsight, the secondary effects are there to be seen but I didn't realise it at the time.
With regards to the cultural aspect then I do have images but am uneasy about displaying them. They are very much more personal pictures and I was, to a certain extent, taking them on the understanding that the subjects would not be exploited. I attended a couple of treaty nights and got to know many in the first citizen community and came away deeply moved by their sincerity and dignity. Yes yes, we heard all about them being a drug addled bunch of alcoholics, almost as bad as the white man at times, but I saw a different aspect altogether, one that was far more impressive than the burger joints and pizza bars where the westernised Canadian would gather for a cold beer at a neon lit joint indistinguishable from any other and watch endless 10 second segments of sports fixtures played in a continuous loop without pause or variation.
I also referred to a racism inherent but unspoken of in the wilds, it is very real at times although many do make the effort to rise above it. And it's not just white against native, there is a stratification in the outback which may or may not exist in the urban areas, I don't know, I didn't go there, I would hope not. The classic example for me came courtesy of the company's FB page. I knew the lady who ran it and she was a fairly broad minded and easy going lass. I gave her some photos to put up, which she did and mentioned my name. Soon after that had changed and it was just a "photo taken by one of our foreign workers". Yes indeed, we were not to be referred to as anything but a necessary evil, whatever our backgrounds.
From my experience I saw a great deal of animosity simmering away in the background, Canada is not just smiley Mounties and spectacular mountains, it's a vast country with a very dispersed population and that is probably why the tension has not boiled over, but it's there alright although never mentioned by the tourist office or Wikipedia. If anything those photos simply reflect the calm upon the surface. Another factor which was pointed out to me was that Canadian tribal affiliations are based on latitude whereas as the country was subsequently divided by longitude and that, my friend suggested, has been a cause of a great deal of resentment over the years.
We all suffer in various degrees from American imperialism, just like many countries did British/Dutch/Spanish rule over the centuries. Canada and America are both young countries and to a certain extent they share the same geography, it's hardly surprising they often appear similar below the dressing of tax laws and governmental arrangements which rest on the top of society rather than define it.
Right, must get on with some work now!
