Former Governor General brings Massey Lectures to Dal
On the evening of Tuesday, Oct. 14, Canada’s former Governor General took to the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium stage to share her thoughts about Grindr, Canadian society and the lifelong struggle to belong.
Over the course of nearly two hours, Adrienne Clarkson captivated the audience in the second instalment of her Massey Lecture series, titled *Belonging: The Paradox of Citizenship*.
The five-part series have become an annual Canadian tradition since being broadcast in 1961 by CBC Radio. Clarkson joined the ranks of Martin Luther King Jr., Margaret Atwood and Noam Chomsky – all former Massey lecturers.
The Halifax instalment of Clarkson’s series, the second of five, was called “The Glory that was Greece.”
Clarkson com- pared her childhood in Ottawa to the ideals of Greek democracy, spoke on Pericles, the famed Greek general and statesman, and explored the idea of Canadian-ness.
“Democracy is frequently a messy, ugly business,” said Clarkson. “In our time, it is fashionable to decry the verbal slugfest that is question period in Parliament, the unseemly brawling that passes for discourse.”
While recognizing many Canadians may be unhappy with today’s government, Clarkson reflected on democracy’s ideals and the impact each citizen can have upon the democratic process.
“Athenian democracy understood that the behaviour of ordinary citizens could be understood to embody the wisdom of the masses,” she said.
Clarkson emphasized citizens should vote every opportunity they get and make democracy their own. The audience greeted Clarkson’s comments with roaring applause.
Clarkson went more offhand at the question period after the lecture.
She gave her take on Grindr, Canadian culture and the Internet as the audience switched between applause and uproarious laughter.
She maintained political change ought to be accomplished in person – the internet should never take precedence over becoming active in one’s own community.
Online dating served as a prime example of Canadian culture for Clarkson, who used to avidly read the dating pages of former Toronto paper The Grid. She described typical interests of subscribers to the paper’s dating service as “liking hot yoga, strawberry milk- shakes and being a vegan.”
After couples were paired up and met through the service, they published ratings of how their date had been, with no indication of the couple’s race, age or gender until seeing a photo.
Adding great depth to a seemingly simple anecdote, the former Governor General soon switched a tale of online dating to a meaning of what it means to be Canadian.
“You look at the picture and it’s com- pletely different than you though,” she said. “In no other country would you see something so diverse, so mixed. Only in Canada.”
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