America (and the world) needs a bit more of Maine these days…
After a rather wild and unpredictable few years, including a global pandemic and two rather stressful presidential election cycles, I cannot help but reflect on our friend and neighbour to the south. Quite frankly, it is refreshing to not feel that I must check in every day (or even every hour) with CNN, MSNBC or POTUS on SiriusXM Radio to get the pulse of what is happening in Washington or all points south. For awhile, I was unsure if Canada’s ‘special’ relationship with the United States was even going to survive… I still think it will be forever changed.
I need to admit up-front that my family and I have had an extraordinarily special and close relationship with the United States. I grew up in a small community south of Montreal right on the New York State border and spent many summers and falls enjoying ‘Sitting Ducks Camp’ on beautiful Lower Chateaugay Lake in the Adirondack Park. My Mom and Dad’s small business built a loyal following of customers in Upstate New York and Vermont, and crossing the border on daily basis, sometimes multiple times a day, was the norm. We had friends and family on both sides of the border, and I even commuted every day to the State University of New York College in Plattsburgh, N.Y. as an alternative to attending CEJEP in Quebec.
I love sharing the story about a warm summer night when a volunteer firefighter woke us up by knocking on our door – “Mr. and Mrs. Jacobsen – just wanted to let you know that your neighbour’s barn is on fire – we have a pumper truck on standby to keep an eye on your house, the flower shop and greenhouses”. The volunteer firefighter was in fact from Rouses Point, N.Y. and personally knew my parents – part of a unique cross-border mutual aid fire response system in Clinton County that has been in existence for decades.
I have been fortunate to continue to build some incredible cross-border ties and friendships in the 30+ years that I have called New Brunswick home – I was part of a cross-border economic development team that helped shape the vision for a new international border crossing at Calais – St. Stephen and a trade corridor linking Saint John to Bangor (our sister City). The ‘Access Atlantica’ initiative won a trade innovation award from Maine Governor Baldacci. In my days with the New Brunswick Department of Energy I was also exposed to the high level of cooperation that exists between Eastern Canada and New England through the New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers Conference and serving as a New Brunswick representative on their Northeast International Committee on Energy (NICE).
I was also nominated by the US Consulate in Halifax and selected by the US State Department as one of three Canadian participants on a 10-day International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) to Washington, Houston, and Denver in 2013 focusing on US-Canada energy policy issues. I had the privilege of interacting with American public sector, private sector, and academic energy leaders from across the United States.
I have spent a lifetime holding the United States of America in high regard and respect. America has been a true friend and neighbour, and, at its finest, fulfills its role as the leader of the free world with strength, resolve and dignity.
However, recent events have me deeply concerned with respect to our friend and neighbour to the south. While it is easy to point to the Trump era as a potential anomaly in American history, I think there is a much deeper-rooted polarization and fragmentation in the country, representative by the growing divisions between Republicans and Democrats and further complicated by geography, economic disparities, and race. There appear to be deeply polarized views of America, its future, and its values, and even a genuine lack of trust in its democratic principles, institutions, and systems.
In better times, I have had the absolute privilege and honour of visiting and walking the halls of Capital Hill – of standing in the Capital rotunda. What happened this past January is a horrible symbol of an increasingly politically fragmented country. I was truly shaken by the storming of Capital Hill on January 6th, as well as the subsequent fortification and militarization of Washington, a City I have enjoyed exploring by foot.
What does give me hope through these difficult times is our next-door neighbour and the beautiful State of Maine. Maine has a way of producing some of the most gifted, grounded, and bipartisan political leaders to have ever served in the U.S. Congress. From Republicans (Margaret Chase Smith, Olympia Snowe, and Susan Collins) to Democrats (Edmund Muskie and George Mitchell) and Independents (Angus King and William Cohen, who served as a Republican Senator and Secretary of Defence for Bill Clinton), Mainers continue to lead by example – finding middle ground and respecting opposing views and their political adversaries. Their influence extends well beyond a small, rural State with a population of approximately 1.35 million. Plain and simple, America (and the world) needs more of Maine right now…
I am not sure America, or the world, can handle on-going adversarial two or four-year cycles of Republicans undoing everything the Democrats have done, and Democrats undoing everything the Republicans have done. In a time of increasingly rapid economic, social, and environmental change, sound policies that will stand the test of time require political compromise, consensus and at least some form of reasonableness and common ground on the issues that really matter. Canadians can also benefit from these same principles, particularly as we shape a challenging pandemic recovery process and address the increasing urgency of climate change.