In Canada, a storied travel writer finds a kind of homecoming

Paul Theroux’s 12th travel book, “True North: On the Road in Canada,” feels like his most timely work thanks to recent strains on the long friendship between the United States and Canada. It is also his most affable.This third volume of what Theroux calls his “North American road trip trilogy” follows “Deep South” and “On the Plain of Snakes: A Mexican Journey.” The book’s title comes from the country’s national anthem, “O Canada”: “With glowing hearts we see thee rise, The True North strong and free!”Over decades reporting on often dangerous and far-flung locales, Theroux earned a reputation as a curmudgeonly traveler. But peevish Paul is nowhere in evidence in his account of the many months (spread over three years) during which he drove thousands of miles along the Trans-Canada Highway through prairies, farmland, small towns, coastal areas, Indigenous reserves, and cities. He hails America’s northern neighbor as “welcoming, diverse, mild-tempered – a vast land with the vibe of a small town.” Theroux emphatically does not write travel guides touting luxury experiences. He feels that mass tourism, even when well-meaning, “has created a global blight.” His approach, as always, is to read widely, meet up with local writers and old friends, wander at will, tune into public radio, and converse with strangers he encounters to paint a portrait of a country. He asks whomever will talk to him – farmers, truckers, sports fans, waitresses, fellow diners, teachers, students, loafers, immigrants, Indigenous people – what it is to be Canadian, and their opinions of U.S.-Canada relations. When he’s ready to stop for the night, he finds lodgings in inexpensive motels.Canada’s vastness presents challenges. Spanning almost 4 million square miles, it is the world’s second-largest country by area – smaller than Russia’s 6.6 million square miles but slightly bigger than China and the United States. Yet its population is just 41 million, about equal to that of California. Most reside in urban areas. Theroux likens Canada to “an archipelago, a country of disparate urban islands, settlements like atolls, each with their peculiar weather and character.” His preference for country towns skews his portrait away from urban professionals.Theroux’s Canadian odyssey begins on a personal note, with a history of his French Canadian ancestry. He takes us back to Verdun-sur-Garonne, France. In 1693, Antoine Theroux, an impoverished 18-year-old boatman, was recruited to defend New France, as Canada was then known, against the Indigenous tribes and the British for King Louis XIV. Twenty years after he landed in Quebec City, Antoine settled with his married children in a small farming community about an hour southeast of Montreal, which had been named Yamaska (“Place of the Reeds”) by the Abenaki centuries before colonists arrived. Centuries later, Paul Theroux arranges to meet some of his relatives in Yamaska, where his grandfather was born in 1884. The writer is greeted by André Parenteau, a distant cousin and fellow free spirit of the 1960s, who convenes a family reunion in the town’s parish hall.“This was a first,” Theroux writes. “In all my traveling life, I had never been so warmly welcomed.” He touches base repeatedly with Parenteau during the course of his journey.And what a journey it is. Propelled by Theroux’s unflagging curiosity, the book takes some unexpected but welcome turns – including astute mini-essays about various Canadian writers (including Michael Ondaatje, Rohinton Mistry, Margaret Atwood, and Miriam Toews), which adds another dimension to an already rich picture. A map would have made Theroux’s zigs and zags across the vast terrain easier to follow.In his comparisons of Canada and the U.S., Theroux highlights what he views as Canada’s strengths, which he says are underpinned by politeness and good sense: publicly funded universal healthcare; better gun safety; no capital punishment; a greater appreciation for wilderness; and a greater acceptance of immigrants and multiculturalism. In 2024, 1 in 5 Canadians were born overseas, making up a large part of the country’s workforce.Theroux’s portrait is not all rosy. Like the U.S., Canada suffers from a housing shortage, which leaves refugees – such as the Somalis Theroux encounters at his motel in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario – in limbo. The country’s tolerance of separatist orthodoxies has led to a more fractured society, with “ethno-bubbles” such as a surging Khalistan movement advocating a Sikh homeland, which is banned in India. Theroux talks to people on both sides of the disruptive truckers’ protests against mandatory vaccination during the pandemic. He finds that politics in Canada is often as divisive as it is in the U.S. Deepen your worldviewwith Monitor Highlights.Politics with respectGet political stories with respectful analysis.There‘s a world of new ideas in everyBooks newsletter.There‘s more to life, enrich yours withCulture & Learning weekly.Follow humanity‘s discoveries withScience & Nature stories in your inbox.Gain a spiritual perspectivefrom the stories in your inbox.Want to understand the deeper impact of critical events? Learn the Monitor‘s insight.Already a subscriber? Log in to hide ads. Drugs, poverty, and bigotry are long-standing problems. When a woman thanks him for taking the time to listen to her story about running a care home for abused women in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Theroux responds, “The best travel [is] improvisational, a sequence of detours and digressions.”In “True North,” Theroux has woven myriad detours and digressions into a fascinating portrait of a complex – and uniquely inviting – country. ALREADY A SUBSCRIBER? LoginReal news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.The Christian Science Monitor was founded in 1908 to lift the standard of journalism and uplift humanity. We aim to “speak the truth in love.” Our goal is not to tell you what to think, but to give you the essential knowledge and understanding to come to your own intelligent conclusions. Join us in this mission by subscribing.