Kindred Spirits

There's an old Cold War quip by the late American cartoonist, Charles M. Schulz (1922-2000), that reasons humanity's survival: “Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It is already tomorrow in Australia.” September the 11th happened of course, but it was already September the 12th in Australia when it did. And so it goes for all of Western history: no matter that it always happens a day later there, it usually gets commemorated a day earlier than it otherwise would. Australia and New Zealand may lie far off to the East and Down Under, but they are firmly anchored to Western time.

What an honour it must have been to have become the first Canadian prime minister to address a joint sitting of the Australian Parliament, and in the process becoming only the sixth foreign leader to be given such an honour in the country's 106-year history, and on no less a date than September 11, the sixth anniversary of 9/11. It is no secret that Harper and Howard are political soulmates (Prime Minister Howard was reciprocating the honour), but even so it's hard to believe that it took so long for two almost perfectly identical nations to come together in this way.

As usual I was looking for references to our historical commonalities as "strategic cousins", the world's "bookends" and other catchy antipodean bridge phrases, as well as any evidence of a lingering affection for our shared British Monarch. I thought it came up a little short, but you be the judge:

I believe that the warmth and closeness of our relationship today is a remarkable thing. For it was not born of proximity or necessity. We started at opposite ends of the earth. Our dreams guided by the North Star, yours by the Southern Cross. Australia was born in English, Canada in French – at Quebec City four hundred years ago next year – reflected to this day by the presence of Francophones and the “Quebecois nation” within our united country. But even after Canada came under the British Crown, for centuries our countries doggedly pursued their own destinies.

Ultimately, it was through our shared values that we discovered our true kinship. The epic struggles of the twentieth century – against imperialism, fascism and communism – pitted us against the common enemies that threatened our greater civilization. Though our troops rarely fought on the same battlefield, Canadians and Australians fought for the same ideals. And, of course, in the First World War, the spark of our national identities was lit: Ours at Vimy Ridge, yours at Gallipoli.

In these great national tests and those ever since, our familial bonds have been renewed and strengthened. We have become like cousins – “strategic cousins” in the words of your military historian John Blaxland. Today, despite the vast distance between us, Canada and Australia follow remarkably similar paths. We have built on the enduring strengths which we inherited from our European ancestors, added the common experience of multicultural, immigrant nations, and sought to achieve reconciliation with our first peoples.

Of course, Canada and Australia have also both borrowed and adapted the traditions and institutions of British government and American federalism. I can’t help but notice, however, that you have done a much better job than us with at least one of our Westminster institutions, the Upper House. As one Canadian political scientist I know likes to say, when we look at Australia, we suffer from “Senate envy.”

[...]

Ladies and gentlemen, in the course of our week-long visit to Australia, I heard a suggestion for a new metaphor to describe the relationship between our two countries. Bookends. Spaced well apart, but holding together a vast store of knowledge and experience – not just for ourselves, but for all those who aspire to share it.

But perhaps the comparison to family is still the best one. As proof, let me conclude with an amusing anecdote from one of my predecessors, Lester Pearson. In the 1940s, when he was a young diplomat in Ottawa, he one day found himself with your Prime Minister J.B. Chifley, the young Princess Elizabeth and her infant son Charles. At the time, Canada-Australia relations were, I gather, in somewhat strained condition, so when Pearson wrote of the encounter in his diary he said and I quote: “(I) hope that relations…were not further disturbed by the fact that I was able to make the baby laugh while Chifley was not.” That sounds like a family to me.

Thank you.

God bless our great nations.

It was not an altogether bad speech, I suppose, though I must confess I was somewhat miffed that he would assert that we fought an epic struggle together against imperialism, when the record shows that Australia and Canada fought for King and Empire during the Great War? In fact, it was still fashionable to talk of the British Empire as late as the Suez Crisis, so this is revisionist pap to say the least (unless, that is, he was only talking about the bad empires). There were other traces of banality and political correctness laced throughout the speech, and nothing to really sink your teeth into, but I will nonetheless give it a passing grade.

I could have really gone for a little more in the way of kindred spirits though. Where's Russell Crowe when you need him: God bless America. God save the Queen. God defend New Zealand and thank Christ for Australia!

For further reading see The true meaning of the Land of Oz. Also: Politics of Australia and Canada compared.