Roseanne Cash – You’re One of Us

A friend called to tell me about a powerful moment during Roseanne Cash’s recent show in Ottawa. At the beginning of the concert, Roseanne tried to reassure her audience that she was on our side.

“Buy Canadian,” she said.

As she moved into her set, the crowd began giving her ovation after ovation. She stopped and almost whispered into the microphone, “I didn’t know if you would want to see us now.”

She received a thunderous ovation. People had tears in their eyes. And then Roseanne said, “Maybe you’ll let us stay for the coming four years.”

Roseanne Cash is a righteous woman who comes from a righteous family — as if anyone would ever hold her responsible for the disgusting behaviour of the MAGA Proud Boys who are destroying American democracy.

But this is what it has come to.

The convicted predator has succeeded by spreading the poison of lies and division. It is supposed to make us mistrust and blame each other.

We can’t let that happen.

But let’s be honest. Before January 6th, it was happening in our country. Pierre Poilievre and his right-wing influencer machine were driving a message of rage and division. And they were succeeding.

The message that “Canada is broken” was a relentless drumbeat of MAGA MAPLE. It was backed up by vicious attacks on the government, other parties, journalists, and even medical doctors who called out the falsehoods of the MAGA messaging.

It was working. People were cranky. They were getting cynical.

Last August, while still on the X platform, I made this statement:

“I’m tired of the 4S’s driving down political discourse: Snark, Stupidity, Snide and ‘Synicism.’ We need politics that remind Canadians we can take on any challenge.”

When I wrote those words, I had a deep fear that Canada’s strong sense of social solidarity was fraying. It seemed as if we were turning on each other.

And then Donald Trump was elected.

We were jolted out of complacency. Canadians saw how the politics of blame and division were tearing apart the United States. This ugliness had no place in our country. It was a wake-up call. Canada is not just a nation; we are a family. We are bound together by values of decency and inclusivity.

As Canadian solidarity strengthens, the MAPLE MAGA crowd are looking increasingly lost. Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre built his career on meanness and gotcha moments. But it’s not working anymore.

As Poilievre’s poll numbers began to tank, even Trump had to intervene by publicly claiming that Pierre Poilievre wasn’t really MAGA at all.

Sure, Donald. As if Canadians believe anything you say.

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Nourishing the Spirit

Canadians are focused on the fight ahead. It will be a fight to defend our values of community and solidarity.

This is why Ottawa embraced Roseanne Cash. She’s real. She’s an artist helping to nourish our parched spirits. In 1968, her father proposed to June Carter on stage at a concert in Canada. That’s got to make us some kind of kin, right?

In the music world, Roseanne’s music is listed as “Americana.” But that term was created to describe the music of four Canadian kids led by an Indigenous guitarist from Six Nations Reserve who joined up with a drummer from Arkansas.

The beauty of the Americana sound created by The Band is that you could never disentangle the American from the Canadian. That’s what made the Americana sound so unique.

My band, Grievous Angels, has toured Canada for many decades. Our name comes from a song by the great Americana outlaw Gram Parsons, who said he was trying to create something called “cosmic American music.”

We have never performed any of his songs. We just liked his spirit.

I was recently interviewed on a British show focused on Americana. The host asked why our band’s sound didn’t quite sound like more traditional Americana groups.

“Well,” I replied, “We put a little more of the Canadiana into this thing called Americana.” Meaning francophone fiddle, maritime accordion, and a sound honed from playing in northern country bars.

All of which is to say, our culture — like our people — is a complex mix of influences, ideas, roots. It doesn’t make us weak. It makes us strong.

The fight ahead is going to be hard and long. But now and then, we’ll need to pause and drink from the deep well of our shared cultural stories.

Roseanne is one of us, as are so many around the United States and the world who refuse to bow to hate and division. They stand with us - not just in politics but in the deeper struggle for truth and humanity. Because the fight is bigger than elections; it’s about who we are and who we refuse to become.

Canada will fight but we will not lose our soul. Together, we will kick at the darkness until it bleeds daylight.

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