I checked into the Air Canada flight which was going to take me from San Francisco to New Brunswick.
I had travelled several times to other Canadian provinces but this was going to be a maiden visit to one of the Maritime Provinces.
At the San Francisco airport, the Air Canada agent looked at my passport and pronounced my name in authentic Arabic fashion. Perhaps she was of Arabic descent, one of many in northeastern Canada. I felt that my journey to the northern neighbour had begun even before I stepped onto Canadian soil.
The six hour flight featured bilingual announcements. Immigration was smooth in Montreal. When I saw the plane that was going to take me to Fredericton, the provincial capital of New Brunswick, I realised it was going to be an adventure. It was a Bombardier Q400 equipped with two propellers. The take-off was swift as was the landing. It reminded me of my first ride on a Fokker Friendship, F27, which flew from Karachi to the Bronze Age ruins of Mohenjodaro.
It was past midnight when the Bombardier 400 landed. I stepped off the plane on a short ladder. As I began walking to the small terminal, a woman passenger in shalwar kamiz approached me. I wondered if she was of Pakistani descent. She asked in Punjabi if the luggage which was coming off the plane would be picked up inside or right off the cart. My knowledge of Punjabi is poor so I told her in Urdu that it would be inside.
Somewhat hesitatingly, she followed me inside. A smile came on her face when she her relatives in the arrivals area. They wore turbans and bangles. So she was probably of Indian descent.
The taxi to the hotel drove through the downtown. The hotel lay on the bank of the St John River. The driver told me that a third of the population in the province was French-speaking and some did not know English. That surprised me. He said language was a divisive issue in provincial politics.
Over the next few days I asked a number of people who was the town named after. Everyone said after Frederic but no one knew who he was. A Google search revealed that he was the brother of the infamous King George III under whose reign the American colonies were lost.
During my brief stay, I encountered a cab driver who had arrived from India when he was nine. He asked me where I was from. I told him I was a native of Pakistan. He said his brother-in-law was from Lahore. He told me there was a surprisingly large South Asian presence in the business community of the province. I said the Indian cricket team is doing very well in the World Cup. He said because Indians have little else to do besides play cricket. The young man was clearly not a fan of the game. I have always wondered why cricket is played just about everywhere in the English speaking world except for America or Canada.
At the two-day conference at the University of New Brunswick at least one person referred to me as a Yankee. The campus sits atop a hill and you can see the spires of the Legislature Building in the distance. Also nearby is St Thomas University.
The driver told me that a third of the population in the province was French-speaking and some did not know English. That surprised me. He said language was a divisive issue in provincial politics
While paying the cashier one evening at a Chinese restaurant which served both Mandarin and Cantonese cuisine along with Szechuan and Western dishes, I happened to notice that she was wearing a small piece of jewellery on her nose. I asked her if she was a native. She said no, I am an Egyptian and I am getting a degree at the University of New Brunswick. I said As-salamu elekum and she responded. She was born and raised in Dammam, Saudi Arabia. Her parents were from Cairo. Her English had no accent and it was only when she said “Egypt” that an Arabic intonation manifested itself. She and I both agreed that the situation in the Kingdom was rotten and marked with hypocrisy, made worse after the arrival of the Crown Prince.
On the last day, as we were heading to the airport, I asked the cab driver to go past the Legislature Building. It was impressive and the construction reminded me of the Parliament building in Vancouver, British Columbia. The adjacent streets had names like King Street and Queen Street. I told the driver that my hotel had a Royal Suite where Queen Elizabeth had stayed once. He said there is a strong British influence in the province and that many people, including him, are descendants of the “Empire Loyalists” who migrated to northwards to Canada after George Washington defeated Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown.
While the Maple Leaf has replaced the Union Jack in the national flag, Canada is nominally headed by a Governor General who is the Queen’s representative. The title holder is xx, a former astronaut.
In the hotel I had noticed a few uniformed personnel in army fatigues. I asked the cab driver what was going on. He said there are preparing for Canada Day which falls on Monday and there will be shows and parades. He added that there is a “big” army base nearby with 6,000 troops.
I said what tanks are in the army’s inventory. To my surprise, he said Leopard I and II tanks from Germany.
That was impressive. How many taxi drivers can name the tanks in their army?
Maybe he had worn the uniform once. I said I am surprised Canada did not buy American equipment. He said we bought our fighters from the United States (US). Is that the Germans don’t make them, I asked? He said we could have acquired them from the French. I asked, “Why had Canada armed itself with such advanced weaponry since it had no enemies? He smiled and said, “There is Donald Trump.” During my stay, that name was hard to avoid. It was always spoken with revulsion.
That remark made me look into a bit of history going back to the War of 1812 between the US and Britain. Some say that war gave Canada its identity. New Brunswick featured in that war on the side of Britain. After the war ended, some of the British soldiers settled in the province. Though it’s often the beaten track, Fredericton is a quaint town situated in a beautiful province. It’s a short flight away from Montreal and worth visiting.
The writer can be reached at [email protected]. He Tweets at @AhmadFaruqui