Geography is not my forte. I’ve been told that our Mississippi River (the one I ponder every morning) doesn’t connect with the American famous (Huckleberry Finn) Mississippi River.

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a picaresque novel by American author Mark Twain that was first published in the United Kingdom in December 1884 and in the United States in February 1885. It is commonly named among the Great American Novels, and it is among the first in major American literature to be written throughout in vernacular English, characterized by local colour regionalism.

Mississippi River in Ontario is a 200-kilometer waterway in Eastern Ontario that flows northeast through Lanark County. It drains into the Ottawa River near Fitzroy Harbour.

The famous Mississippi River in the USA flows entirely within the United States, from northern Minnesota down to the Gulf of Mexico.

And while I feel far removed from our neighbours to the south, I cannot but think of them as they celebrate their nation’s 250th birthday dating back to 1776. It was precisely then that my own ancestors were arriving in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick (very likely from the American colonies).

Thomas CHAPMAN
Suffix Major
Born Abt 1756 Hawnby, Ryedale, North Yorkshire, England

Died 5 Nov 1837 Fort Lawrence, Cumberland, Nova Scotia, Canada
Buried Point de Bute, Westmorland, New Brunswick, Canada

Family Abigail CAIN, b. Abt 1754, Hingham, Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States d. 5 Apr 1836, Fort Lawrence, Cumberland, Nova Scotia, Canada (Age ~ 82 years) Married 4 Nov 1779 Fort Lawrence, Cumberland, Nova Scotia, Canada

Father Arthur CAIN, d. Date Unknown, , , New England, United States
Mother Lydia TOWNSEND, d. Date Unknown
Married 13 Dec 1749 Hingham, Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States

Father William CHAPMAN, c. 12 Oct 1729, Hawnby, Ryedale, North Yorkshire, England d. Bef 1805 …. (Age ~ 75 years)

Mother Mary IBBITSON, b. 26 Jun 1732, Helmsley, Ryedale, North Yorkshire, England d. Bef 1788, Point de Bute, Westmorland, New Brunswick, Canada (Age < 55 years)
Married 21 Jan 1755 Hawnby, Ryedale, North Yorkshire, England

Since then both we Loyalists and the Americans have parted ways with our common ancestral colonial master. I suspect however that the Americans consider us Canadians to have preserved a good deal of the British flavour and influence. This is the same moment when America has segregated itself from the global community (and lost friends in the process) while enduring unprecedented rivalry among its own population.

Time and again I am reminded that we haven’t any guarantee of fully understanding the mind of another. The extreme differences which appear to separate masses of Americans from one another are, I have no doubt, explicable – though as frankly I confess I haven’t any idea what that explanation is nor why the only explanation given is Radical Left or Extreme Right. There is nothing but endless rhetoric and divisive commentary. From what I know of Americans they are anxious to bypass these on-going altercations; and, I am equally certain, to reunite with their allies. I feel the same about Canadians.