Toronto Pearson Airport: a microcosm of eroding Canadian values?

We Canadians are a complex lot.  A rich mix of ethnicities connected through shared ideals and core values.  Values such as politeness.  “You Canadians!  You are so nice!”  Being honest with ourselves, we know that our values are laced with an underlying passive aggressiveness.  Our ‘PA nature’ if you will.  Kept in check, a little PA is all good; merely a counter-point to our politeness and friendliness, giving it a bit of spice.  Left unchecked, it is a caustic soda that eats away at the very fabric of who we are.

In my recent travels through Pearson Airport, I stepped into puddle after puddle of caustic soda, eating at the very ‘souls’ of my shoes.  Little things.  It wasn’t the lineup through security.  It was security’s complete disinterest in simply grabbing the backlog of empty X-ray trays to help travellers from tripping over each other in the pile up.

It wasn’t the brutally slow Tim Horton’s Express Line.  It was the dawn-of-the-living-dead look behind the counter as staff whacked into each other, exchanging looks of disdain rather than saying “Oops, pardon me.”

It wasn’t Air Canada apologizing for bumping passengers off a flight because they had switched to a smaller plane.  It was the look of dismay exchanged between stranded travellers, hearing their fate, trying desperately not to let their PA nature surface unchecked.

A bad day?  Maybe.  Normal day?  Maybe not.  A PA contagion from an already infected airline industry?  Perhaps.  Or could it be just a little flare up on the surface of life?  I know what I hope.  I know what I fear.

Waiting (im)patiently in the Tim Horton’s line, my PA in check, I watched a travel-weary Mom in front of me trying desperately to keep her two boys under control.  I asked the lads if they were good travellers.  An emphatic "Yes!" We exchanged smiles and two thumbs up.  I boarded the plane, wearing that smile all the way home, wiping my feet before going inside.