Canada is at our door. Is Maine listening?

Your interesting March 14 editorial, “Grow, Canada,” raises several salient points about the fate of Atlantic Canada and Quebec province. Standing out among those points are the remarks that population shifts “from places where economies based upon natural resources can no longer provide to places where modern, technology-based economies can”; that economic megalopolis Toronto is “close to Maine as the crow flies, remote when it comes to other modes of transportation”; and that “Maine’s substandard east-west transportation clearly is an impediment, harmful to itself and to its neighbors.”

Of blossoming importance in the past decade is the “information highway,” and the wealth of benefit that that “technology-based” service can bring. As outmoded as our east-west highway, and as distant as the megalopolis is other than by crow-flight, is the dearth of information being shared between Maine and Atlantic Canada and Quebec province.

Oh, they’re getting our news, but we’re getting none (or precious little) of theirs. We’re also not receiving any insight into their societal or governmental commonalities or differences, or of their commercial or recreational practices or opportunities, or any other information or data which would tie us together as an economic and political force with our respective federal governments and the world market.

For about two months now, a group of concerned citizens in this area has been attempting to make programs of the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. (CBC) available via cable in as many homes as possible. The Bangor City Council, the citizens, interested organizations and officials of Adelphia cable met at Bangor City Hall to discuss our concerns and the importance of the service. Adelphia officials felt no strong interest had ever been expressed, so the burden is upon the subscribers to have that desire known.

If you feel strongly about knowing what’s going on in communities on either side of yours, please make those feelings known to your cable provider. It can be in the form of a telephone call, but better if expressed in writing; via e-mail, c-mail (that’s as in “civic,” “commercial,” “conventional,” or, if you’re Canadian, “CanadaPost”), or even just by boldly writing “Please provide CBC” or “I want CBC” on your monthly bill when you send it in with payment.

The editorial states that there is “serious public-policy discussion” on what Canada should do – whether to reverse current population trends or just “go with the flow” and invest where the money is. The piece ends with the admonition, “[The discussion] is one Maine should listen to closely.” How can we “listen” when the signal stops within miles of the border? Canada is at our door. Are you listening? Do you “speak the language”?

Michael P. Gleason lives in Bangor.