TWO CANADAS

When I was just a tiny tot
Knowing more than I ought
Politically
I learnt something obviously true
That Canada was split in two
By the Strait of Georgia sea

But well before my adolescence
Something new made greater sense
Provincially
I was on the western side
Of what they call the Great Divide
More than geographically

Later as a keen student
Trying hard to be prudent
Intellectually
It was learnedly revealed
The problem was the Precambrian shield
National developmentally

Then when I was a bright young man
I found that down the middle ran
Verily
“La rivière des Outaouais”
Which determines what one says
More than linguistically

But now of course I have to smile
Some draw the line at Belle Isle
Parochially
Or for national unity’s sake
On the nether shores of Meech Lake
Pseudoconstitutionally

Give me a break