Canada needs a new leader

For a long time over the decades when the word Canada was mentioned it conjured up images of a paradise.

- NITIN MEHTA

A bigger version of Switzerland. A vast first world country with a small population. A welfare state with plenty of jobs and a place with a very good future for children. The Prairies where wheat, barley and other crops grow in abundance. The beautiful Savannah is the largest intact track of native grassland.

The legendary Canadian Mounties on their horses added to the image of a nation at peace with itself. The only thing that tainted this rosy picture was the killing of baby seals for their skin.

They were bludgeoned to death. Sooner or later Karma would strike Canada for such gross cruelty.

While its brash neighbour the United States seemed to be fighting perpetual battles and toppling regimes that were perceived as enemies who might come in its way as a world power, Canada seemed to quietly carry on as a peaceful nation with no enemies.

However, we need to understand how the country came into existence to fully comprehend the enigma of the place. Between 1534 and 1542, Jacques Cartier made two voyages to North America and claimed the land for King Francis 1 of France.

The original inhabitants of Canada were the Indian tribes also known as First Nations People. Like in the US, the Indian tribes were mercilessly subjugated and their land usurped. For all its liberal policies, the Indian tribes still face discrimination in Canada. The conditions of the reservations they live in are very bad, where there is a high rate of suicide, alcohol and drug abuse.