Back on topic, I try and close my eyes and think back to a decade ago me, pretending that I suddenly was time warped to 2023 Canada without context. I mean, even the most isolated of expatriates would have had some context as to what happened globally in the meantime, so I'll try and imagine.
Hmmm...
Canada's an angrier, less clean place than in 2013. Problems that were formerly confined to large cities now have made their way to smaller places, that's for certain. Whereas homelessness was previously an urban problem, smaller cities/suburbs now have people standing at traffic lights panhandling. Tents dot places that they didn't before.
The relative apolitical populace is mostly still there, but the angry folks sure are much more brazen.
F*** Harper was not really a bumper sticker in '13, but like the "Calvin" (unlicensed knockoff of course) urinating stickers that suddenly appeared one day, they're suddenly here. They also seem to be protesting a lot more than I remember.
Some of the stuff long promised seems closer to fruition, if kind of kludgy in execution. Thinking back to Ottawa of 2010, I recall diesel buses idling at the Rideau Centre and bunching up down Albert and Slater. In a decade and a bit, a whole new transit system, plus some. Maybe not so dramatic a change in most cities, but the Champlain Bridge/transit (REM)/Turcot Interchange look way better in Montreal than they did then. Some cities made leaps in their skylines - certainly higher and glassier than I remember.
Dammit, there's a lot of marijuana stores. Like, I always suspected there were enough high-functioning stoners, but geez.
The loonie in my pocket seems a lot less valuable than it did before, notably so. You want what insane number for rent in podunksville Canada? Like, for a one- or two-bedroom, not a house? A Honda Civic of '12
MSRP (4 door, LX model, automatic) was $18,690. Today, another 5 digit sum is on the price.
Man, even our smaller cities are changing quickly demographically. As in from zero demographic change to a significant differences in a decade.
Parts of cities left for dead previously now have hipster restaurants and the kids have moved in. Even in podunksville. It is good to see previously written-off neighbourhoods reinvigorated, but worried that the motivation behind this may result in unintended consequences long-term.
It's still my Canada, certainly. I get off the airplane in most Canadian cities and Customs doesn't give me a second glance. The cops don't either. It feels like that diner that I loved and maybe too fondly remembered is a little dingier, less great tasting, and busier than I remember, but is trying some interesting fusion dishes to keep relevant.