How we got here
They came on foot, by ship, by air. Some boast families that have been in this country for generations. Others arrived recently, forging what they hope is a better life for their children. Bruce Deachman asked a half-dozen Ottawans how they became Canadia
TOM VAN EGAN
“I’m a landed immigrant from New Zealand. I came to Canada like most young Kiwi guys, wanting to look at the world and travel. Almost all New Zealanders, and Australians to a lesser degree, go travelling. I had some family in North America, and I also had a passion for elk farming, and North America was the place to go to see where elk came from. We were raising them in New Zealand, with my father, and Canada was just starting, and we wanted some genetic material. So I bought a Volkswagen Kombi van and started in B.C., zigzagging through the States and Canada, just stopping off at elk farms. That was in 1989.
“I did that for a good year, and stumbled upon my wife one evening at a party at the Lieutenant’s Pump on Elgin Street. One thing led to another and the centre of the universe became Ottawa. I stayed as long as I could, until it got too cold — my Volkswagen didn’t have a heater — and continued my travels east and southeast.
But we were married within a year. I didn’t have a lot of family in New Zealand; we were immigrants from the Netherlands. And my wife was fifth-generation in the Ottawa Valley, going back to the mid-1800s, so we decided to raise our family here.”
Q As someone from away, you have a different perspective than those who grew up here. What have you seen that makes Canadians unique?
A “In many ways, Canada has so many freedoms and possibilities that they’re taken for granted. I see that as a beautiful thing on one hand, but it’s also a danger in that there are so many things going on in the world that we see on TVs and radios, that it barely seems to have an effect on us. We have little experience with adversity in our lives here, and I feel a little adversity would create some character, in our schoolchildren, in my own children. It’s not that I want to be mean-hearted, but it’s such a great, rich world here and we don’t seem to grasp how lucky we are. I’m not sure how we do that, though. We’re floating a bit.”
Q How do you think Canadians should celebrate their 150th birthday?
A “There are many legs to that question, from the obvious — extravagant fireworks, which people enjoy — to something that more touches people: that they don’t work for a day and their employers make an effort in some way to give them time to reflect on what they have here — the bounty of Canada.
Our family likes to celebrate these milestones by getting together with our own family, as opposed to being in a bigger herd, and just stopping and thinking of how fortunate we are to have these resources, these people, and the new people that come to this country. It’s a mixing pond, not so well-defined as other countries, but that’s really a reflection of who we all are.”