Connor Shaw is a Saskatchewan-based writer who is seeking practical solutions for wide-spanning issues facing the country.“The Log Drivers’ Waltz pleases girls completely,” is the last line of each chorus in the eponymous Canadian folk song. This traditional melody is emblematic of a nation which once existed in the minds of people the world over — a nation of rugged, mild-mannered loggers and mountain men, whose lives were defined by hardship, skill, and quiet competence. For decades, if you had asked anyone what they pictured when they thought of Canada, it would have been something approximating that archetype: a people shaped by the land, and in turn shaping it.But, as with everything, the times have changed people’s perception of Canada, and for good reason. Now, a large subset of the global population views Canada as effete, weak, and urban. This transition began slowly, but was significantly hastened by former prime minister Justin Trudeau’s embarrassing impression of Mr. Dressup overseas — an image that seemed to confirm the growing suspicion that Canada had lost what used to define it.It nevertheless began long before that national embarrassment. For decades, there has been a steady regression of the view of Canada from austere to indulgent. It is apparent that this regression correlates with the decline of the domestic industry in Canada. We used to have massive auto manufacturing, robust logging, and a revered oil sector, but in time, it seems that our homegrown industries have lost their lustre, along with the sense of purpose they once instilled in the people who worked within them.Out of the G7 countries, Canada now finds itself among the weakest in manufacturing capacity, and since the turn of the twenty-first century, we have seen a consistent atrophy of our domestic productive ability. Increasingly, what was once Canadian industrial output is being shipped overseas, both in its production and its profit. Where once we had a significant auto manufacturing sector, the forces of globalization and agreements such as NAFTA have ensured that a growing share of those vehicles are no longer built by Canadian hands..Traditionally, as technological development led to a decline in the sheer number required for raw resource extraction, that loss would be offset by an increase in individuals involved in the processing of those raw materials into finished products. However, as production infrastructure has been steadily decommissioned or relocated to cheaper countries such as China, fewer Canadians are directly involved in the creation of the goods they use in their daily lives. The chain between labour and reward has been lengthened to the point of invisibility.A significant but often overlooked facet of masculinity is the relationship between a man and his tool; this can be seen in part from the famous quote recited by the United States Marine Corps: “This is my rifle, there are many like it, but this one is mine.” That relationship is intimate — a shaping of the tool by the man, and the man by the tool — which fosters competence and identity.So, as Canadian men become further estranged from the tools they use in their livelihoods, from their creation and design, that relationship becomes severed. Rather than form-fitting the tool to the character of the man, the man must lessen himself to meet the mould that the tool imposes upon him. The same principle extends outward: to our cars, our clothes, and the many objects which now arrive to us fully formed, without any imprint of our own hand. By losing a say in the creation of the things we use every day, we are losing an inherent part of ourselves.In “The Log Drivers’ Waltz,” it is said that “birling down the white water” is where the log driver learns to dance and woo the girls. Further, the singer says that though she has danced with doctors, lawyers, and merchants, their isolation from struggle has made them unappealing and incapable of dance..Whether we are cognizant of it or not, the career and way of life we live deeply affect the kind of person we become and how we are perceived by others. The same is true for our nation as a whole. Our tactile industries have been supplanted by distant systems and abstracted economies, and as a result, we have become much like those emasculated white-collared figures described in the song.Canadians’ “manners are fine, but their feet are of clay. And there’s none with the style of my log driver.” Part of regaining the respect of the international community is to rehabilitate our image from the embarrassments which have preceded us.Revitalizing Canadian industry is not just a matter of reinvigorating our economy, but recapturing our national spirit. It is through work — real, tangible, demanding work — that a people comes to understand itself. Until we restore that connection between our labour and our identity, between what we produce and who we are, Canada will remain a nation only remembered fondly for what it was, not for what it is.Connor Shaw is a Saskatchewan-based writer who is seeking practical solutions for wide-spanning issues facing the country.
