Bob Hunter ® strictly personal ® THERE WAS an interesting article in the 100th anniver- sary issue of Saturday Night magazine, written by Sandra Gwyn, a Newfoundiander who now lives in London with her husband, Richard, a columnist. Interesting to me, that is, because I happened to have lived in London for a year or so back in the early '60s, a little after the time when Mrs, Gwyn also spent part of her youth there. Both of us returned to Canada. In her case, she has recently re- emigrated to London to live there again — and reports that things have changed dramatically in the British capital so far as Cana- dians are concerned. It used to be that we were okay. In fact, far better than Yanks or Aussies or Kiwis. We still had residual Right Pornmie- type Stuff left over from the war, Teachers want smaller classes, more money even from the Victorian Era, when Canucks lived in a country considered the i¢y diamond in the crown of empire. Gwyn reports being ‘“‘hurt and furious’? to discover that Cana- dians are now treated in London with about as much respect as Newfoundlanders are in the rest of Canada. That is, Canadians have become a Newfie joke to the Brits. She quotes a couple of rude comments she picked up recently. Upon being told she was a writer from Canada, a BBC type came over to her and said: ‘‘Frankly, I WHEN: PLANNING the 1987/88 operating budget, North Vancouver School Board should remember that student services are declining and local staff is demoraliz- ed, according to a North Vancouver. Teachers’ Association report. Teachers’ association president Andrew -.Krawezyk told North Vancouver School Board Tuesday that according to the report, class . Sizes must be reduced, non-instruc- tional time for teachers (for plann- ing and marking) and staff support services must be increased, and wage increases must be considered in the 1987/88 budget. “The situation is critical,’’ Krawezyk said. “I don’t think you can separate the personal needs (of teachers) from classroom quality.”’ The North Vancouver Teachers’ Association compiled the report with North Vancouver School District 44, B.C. Teachers’ Federa- tion and locally gathered statistics. The report shows that although North Vancouver enrolment fig- ures were dropping int the early 1980s those figures have levelled off since 1984. The report says that staff levels have dropped 13.8 per cent since 1981 but enrolment Jevels have dropped only 9.3 per cent. Krawczyk added.the provin- cial government's restraint pro- gram had largely been responsible for dropping services in North Vancouver schools. School superintendent Leo Mar- shall said he wanted more infor- mation on-some of the report’s statistics. He said he wanted the full par- ticulars on a recent survey of | NortheceYanepuyerczteachers nee atta RENEE, wasn't aware there were any writers in Canada.”* Somebody else remarked: “Such a boring game, Trivial Pursuit. You might know it was invented by Canadians.’’ Gwyn makes a nice essay out of the idea that the British no longer come to Canada when they come to North America. They go to the States. British culture, she says, has become Anglo-American, and the boring nice-guy Canadians just don’t factor in any more. It is easy to sec, from a Cana- dian point of view, how that could have come to pass. From patriating the constitution to the internal wrangling over Quebec to trade obsession with America and the Pacific Rim, we haven't exactly been’ paying a helluva lot of attention te the United Kingdon lately. At Commonwealth meetings, our guys, usually French, almost inevitably end up on the opposite side of the fence from the British, But none of these minor items are the real reasons the Brits no longer find us the least bit inter- esting, Gwyn reports. The real reason is that we have produced nothing that can be added to British culture, or, for that mat- ter, English-speaking culture as @ whole. It is, rather, the Aussies and Kiwis who are the new cultural heroes, along with the ubiquitous Yanks. They have what the Brits call ‘‘fizz.’" They stand out. They bend to no man. Not easy to like. But impossible not to notice. Canadians, it appears, are pale also-rans in the post-colonial cul- tural sweepstakes. Gwyn comes to a novel con- clusion. The people with whom Canadians are most easily iden- tified nowadays are the Danes and Norwegians and Swedes. In other words, we are viewed as a kind of extension of Scan- dinavia. We aren't particulary liked, because it is known abroad that we have it very, very easy indeed. We are one of those safe, bland welfare states where hothing ever happens and it is mostly always winter. By contrast, Australia has emerged as a culdural leader, hav. ing produced such dlock buster material as Colleen) Mce- Cullough's The Thorn Birds, movies like Gallipoli, Breaker Morant and, yes, Paul Hogan's Crocodile Dundee, plus radical thinkers like Germaine Greer and Helen Caldicott. Canadians, by the way, tend to be secretly rather arrogant about the Aussies. A typical comment from a Canadian who has visited Down Under is that they are 10 years behind us in cultural development. I have, blush, been known to say something to that effect myself. How to account, therefore, for their artistic renaissance, especially while Canada is fast fading from view? Sure, Margaret Atwood and Robertson Davies won top liter- ary prizes in the U.K. this year — but this came as a surprise to the Brits, as well as to us. Besides, it was all very tweedy. Nobody argued about it in the pubs. ! have some theories about why Canadians are turning in- visible out there in the English- speaking global community. Tune in next column. PREVIEW ON CHANNEL 27 A %, MOVIES! : GO".MAJOR PRIZES... a