Why I don’t trust governments

Work in Progress/by Ivan Morgan

It’s not something I think about often, but recently I’ve been curious about how much my ancestry affects my political views. Or, for that matter, how much anyone’s background colours their political views.

I am a seventh-generation townie on my mother’s side, a Newfoundlander through and through, yet my father was half Russian – hence my name. While I may be a Newfie to my marrow, I, like us all, was influenced by those who raised me.

I was recently talking with a friend whose dad was Czech (she’s a born and raised Canadian) and she told me about how, in the late 1960s he’d lived through the Czech communist government’s attempt to modernize communism – to put a human face on it – and the violent Russian response of invading the country, killing hundreds, silencing millions. She said after that experience he didn’t trust any government, and he instilled that mistrust in her.

We talked about that inherent mistrust, taught to us by our elders. In her case, her dad. In my case, my paternal grandmother, my dad’s mom. During the Russian revolution in 1917, with the communists advancing on her town, her grandfather gave her the only train ticket her family, who were fighting the communists, had. She was sixteen. The communists overran her town and shot her entire family – including her grandfather. She got away, and here I am. I am named after her grandfather.

With three elections this year I thought this is a good time to talk about this. How much does our ancestry influence our political views? Should it?

There are people who always vote for the same political party. They have blind faith and loyalty. Consider a Newfoundland example. Smallwoodism, once a big thing in these parts, still hangs on. Once upon a time Premier Joey Smallwood could do no wrong. There are still people alive in this province who remember before Confederation when there was no money, no democracy (we were run by an appointed commission). They remember joining Canada and suddenly there was lots of money. They remember with gratitude Joseph Smallwood getting all that money for them (and taking credit for it).

Many years ago, I was in a small community covering an election. I was at a rally. This fine old gentleman told me how Joey had once visited the community in a helicopter. Decades later he was still awestruck. He walked up to me and held out his hand for me to shake, which I did.

“Now,” he said proudly, “You can tell people you shook the hand of a man who shook Premier Smallwood’s hand.”

I could write a book about how this poor man was duped by Smallwood and his lieutenants, but the old man’s respect and loyalty, however misplaced I thought it, was real. He felt government, in the form of Smallwood, saved them all. What influence did that fisherman have on his kids and grandkids? See what I’m saying?

My father’s mother – my babushka – had a very different take. She hated the communists, and was firm in her belief that they would collapse. Living in exile, she was unshakeable in her conviction that they were stupid, violent corrupt peasants and that state communism would fail.  To me at 14 in 1973 it seemed unlikely but look at Russia now. She hated government control in all its forms. She came by it honestly. She wanted a young me to understand that.

I’m a passionate democrat, but I do not believe all our problems can be solved by government. I do not believe they are going to save us. In fact, I can make a spirited argument that most of our current political problems have been caused by the government.

Lately we have seen movements in Canada that want to curb your free speech, your choice of leadership. We have seen movements that try to demonize or outlaw opposing views. I don’t like it. To my mind, suspicion of authority, dislike of government, free speech, protesting, is every bit as Canadian as hockey and the maple leaf.

I am, to some extent, my grandmother’s lad. I don’t trust governments. I don’t think they are always working in my best interests; I don’t think they should have control over what I say and think. Do you agree, or is my opinion just the legacy of my grandmother?

Ivan Morgan can be reached at ivan.morgan@gmail.com