Joanne Smale

“I shucked oysters on a fishing boat in P.E.I.”

I came to Canada from Miami in the early 1970s. Prime Minister Trudeau sent out the challenge to the world to come visit Canada. He also implored Canadians to pick up travellers and offer them hospitality. I’d just graduated from the University of Miami, so I rose to the challenge. I hitchhiked through the U.S. and Canada. It took about a year. I got rides in cars, trucks, trains and buses. I shucked oysters on a fishing boat in P.E.I.; picked apples in the Annapolis Valley; swept the floors of a yoga retreat north of Montreal. My ride from Kingston worked in the music industry. I landed in Toronto at a recording studio, listening to a London-based band, Thundermug, who were produced by Fergus Hambleton’s brother, Greg. I met the owner of BBR Music Booking Agency, Brian Courtis, who extended a job offer in London, where I started my own music-booking agency and eventually a public relations agency and consulting firm on Spadina, right beside the El Mocambo. Canada offered me a lifestyle that has woven me into the person I am today.

My friends back home can’t believe what their country has gone through in the past 1,300-plus days. They’re troubled by what tomorrow might bring. The end of the constitution means the end of democracy. They’ll vote for the presidency, but also for Congress and judges, and I’m optimistic that voting will make a difference. But I also have an eye open to the borders in the Niagara region. I’m presently involved in trying to reach some of the 600,000-plus U.S. and dual citizens living in Canada to register with votefromabroad.org. If Trump gets four more years, I’ll be among those who will aid American citizens crossing the border and making Canada home, just as they did in the ’60s when the draft dodgers came.