01-01 History

It was 1947, and I was travelling to Belfast from Dublin after a day of sight-seeing. As soon as we entered Northern Ireland, customs officers entered the train and began to question the passengers. I will never forget an official taking off the shoes of the gentleman sitting next to me. He was buying something in the south of Ireland that was rationed in the North.
And although I was only 13, I could hear my father asking about all the young people on the train travelling north, and my uncle explaining that they were buying contraceptives because the Catholic Church restricted their availability in the South.
And of interest, later in 1967 while travelling with my family from Northern Ireland into the South, we were able to cross the border without any formal controls. There was just a sign that read 'Welcome to Ireland'.
Today, with Britain leaving the European Union or EU, the tough issue is the Irish border. No degree of formal controls can ever really stop the smuggling of people or goods from Ireland into the UK. You just need to travel along the Irish border areas to fully realize the difficult. It's like trying to enforce the border between Canada and the US.
The EU is a union of 28 European nations with the purpose of strengthening the social and economic well-being of their 500 million inhabitants. And as a high school history student, it was common knowledge that the creation of the EU was all about linking the nations economically and socially as a way of controlling Germany and their militaristic instincts. Even Churchill, after WW2, called for a United States of Europe.
As a Canadian growing up, I felt European. Working in the family clothing business as a teenager, we had my four uncles selling in the store and they were all from Belfast. Twenty tailors in the factory and alteration department were from Calabria in Southern Italy. Then we had two cutters in the factory born in London and Dublin.
When my father came to Canada in 1928, the large immigrant population in Toronto was from Northern Ireland. And, of course, the mayors were all Irish. Then in the 1950s after WW2, Toronto was a mecca for Italians looking for a better life. I heard their stories, talking to my father's tailors of their suffering and their low wages and shortages of food. Today Toronto is the third largest Italian city in the world.
For most Canadians, our relationship with Europe is not about trade, but more about shared values and shared history. That does not mean we do not enjoy French wine and Swiss cheese, but rather, we love to visit Europe and Europeans love to visit Canada. And the most significant share of the tourist traffic to Canada is from Britain, France and Germany.
I have participated in meetings of the Organization for Economic and Cultural Development, referred to as the OECD, and have developed a keen sense of the difficulty governing Europe with 24 official languages.
But what I learned which was of even greater interest, was just how multilingual their business community is. The business leaders that I met in the northern nations like Holland, Finland or Sweden speak fluent English and German besides one or two native languages.
It is no wonder Europeans are such strong traders because they are so comfortable working with societies with significant differences in both language and culture.
The decision by Britain in 2016 to remove itself from the EU is a tough divisive issue. I know Brits who over the years complained about all the crazy EU rules and regulations which the northern countries of Europe enforced, but the countries of the south ignored. Europe and the EU is a brotherhood of seriously bureaucratic societies.
But forget about their rules and focus on the beauty of Europe. I have been all over the world, and nothing will compete with the Bavarian Alps in Germany near the Austrian border, the hot springs of Iceland, the Jungfrau Mountains and glaciers of Switzerland, Barcelona in Spain, Vienna in Austria, or Venice in Italy. You get the picture.
The relationship between the EU and Canada is not about economics. It is a love affair.