In the fall of 2012, in my early 20s, I visited Canada, Toronto specifically, with a childhood friend. The background to the trip was my friend had just gotten out of the military, and I had just gotten out of a somewhat intense relationship. We were both looking toward what would be next in our lives, but also a bit stuck in a sort of limbo. My friend thought it might be a good idea to get away from Ohio for a week, he had another friend in Canada he wanted to visit, and we decided to make the scenic fall drive up to the capital city of Ontario. 

Toronto is an incredibly walkable city, and we moved around mostly on foot with a late-night cab ride or two. When a city is walkable, you experience it more intimately than via car or public transit. You have more time to look at the city's details and absorb the "feel" of it all. 

A considerable amount of what makes up the feel of a city is the combination of the architectural styles, the people, and a bit of land use and zoning. For the latter, I mean how far building setbacks must be, the districts and uses that are allowed or not due to zoning regulations, and the mix of types of zoning in a particular area. 

What struck me most was the eclectic mix of traditional and modern architectural styles. Some of which seemed to mesh well in an interesting symmetry. Others were as discordant as one could imagine. The worst offender I experienced was the Royal Ontario Museum. We were coming from lunch and walking towards Eaton Centre. I turned the corner and confronted the most jarring architectural experience I have ever had. 

It was the Royal Ontario Museum. Half of the building was built in the 20th century in a traditional style taking design cues from the Renaissance and Romanesque Revival. Beige brick and stone, arched windows with muntins and grids, and decorative pillars make up the original building. The new addition is a jagged shard type of structure, graphed onto the original form in a way that reminds one of a stitched-together monster from horror fiction. The style of the crystal shard is called Deconstructivist by architect Daniel Liebeskind, notable for his Jewish Museum in Berlin. 

Not even the scaling of the crystal shard was settling. It was all very inhuman and bizarre. The way my mood and thoughts shifted immediately upon walking near the structure would forever change my view of city planning and architecture's role in our day-to-day lives. 

The materials affect one similarly. In contrast with steel and glass arranged in unnatural shapes, vernacular materials like wood and stone or brick from the local area create vastly different experiences. 

Finally, the realization of why civilizations are incompatible become so clear while staring at the horrific cancer emerging from the museum. What we find beautiful, they find terrifying. What makes them feel at ease, makes us recoil.

Diversity in the Town Square -Younge-Dundas Square and Eaton Centre Mall

I sat down in Dundas Square. It was a beautiful afternoon, chilly, with the sun shining. The Square was particularly busy that day. I was having something to drink and a rest from the walking before heading into Eaton Centre. Dundas Square is the intersection of Yonge Street and Dundas Street East, two major roads in Toronto. The Square sees over 100,000 people through the scramble each day. There is a considerable number of electronic signs and billboards, reminding one of Times Square or Piccadilly Circus. In short, it is a perfect place to people watch and see the world go by. 

As with stumbling upon the Royal Ontario Museum's Abrahamic addition, I had another jarring experience in the Square. Under the brightly illuminated billboards as the sun was fading, I looked around, and it struck me -- I was the only White person I could see. Anywhere. 

In 1988, Canada passed a law called the Canadian Multiculturalism Act, which enshrined the government's policy into law. The stated goal of the act is to promote and protect the cultural diversity of Canada, which in part rewrites the history of Canada into a nation that has always been multicultural in the sense that we understand the word in its common usage. Further, "multicultural" does not mean British and French, the founding stock of Canada. 

And a mere 24 years later, I was the only White man in one of the busiest pedestrian intersections in the world. 

I met back with my friend, and we went to Eaton Centre. The experience was similar to that of Dundas Square. Although Eaton Centre uses steel and glass, it is styled after Milan's Galleria, featuring vaulted ceilings and multi-level shopping. I appreciated the history of indoor shopping reflected in its design.

We stopped at the food court. I think it was in the basement of the Centre. It was full of people, most of them not what I picture when I think "Canadian." If you recall the Raman scene, it was a very surreal Blade Runner experience. I did not even hear much English spoken, or French, for that matter. The dining options were vast. I cannot recall specifics other than dozens of options for all types of food. I ordered a veggie burger and fries from a burger stand. I also remember there was a vast amount of Asian cuisine, which perfectly matched the patron demographic of the mall.

In many ways, Toronto was like looking into the future. It was the perfect global city, a beacon on the hill for the staunch globalists. The demographics say the city is still half White; if that's true, they must not go out as much. The city being mostly White and Asian, the crime rate isn't very high, according to the sources I found. With that said, I never felt at home or at ease in the city. Nothing replaces proper social capital, the kind that comes from understanding the norms and customs of your own people. The economy could be doing well, crime can be low, and the food court bustling, but it's not ours, and ultimately that is what matters. 

The Exchange Rate

The apartment building where we were staying was foreign to me as a native Ohioan. It was a highrise, 40 stories or so; we were staying on the 22nd floor. I spent a lot of time on the balcony looking out over the other apartment towers that seemed endless. That itself was foreign to me. The concept of a "city apartment tower" was something that I both loved and found dystopian. Most of the tower residents did not have cars. Those who did could buy a parking pass and park their car on one of the several floors of a subterranean garage. Most of the vehicles in the underground car park were quite high-end; Bentleys and Ferraris, and AMG Mercedes were not uncommon. The arrangement of poor students living in the same building as wealthy business people was another oddity to me. Above the garage, but below the apartments, was a mall and amenities. There was a laundromat, restaurants, a movie theatre, a few shops, a small grocery, a food court, and a bank. I found this quite pleasant overall and enjoyed the partially underground mall hidden away from most of the world. It served the residents of the building and the few nearby towers. You can reach the mall from other towers via tunnels. 

Although most places in Toronto seemed content to accept American dollars, I wanted to pay in Canadian dollars. I don't fully recall why that was. I think I found it to be the proper thing to do. It is frustrating when people go to another country that is not theirs and insist on not even attempting to participate in the norms of the country they find themselves. 

I handed the bank teller a $100 bill, and he handed me back about $96 Canadian. I must have looked a bit confused. He replied with a half-hearted smile, "the US dollar isn't what it used to be." He said it with almost pity, as if I was a rube from some backward nation. And maybe I was. 

The exchange rate was shocking for a couple of reasons. First, as an American, most books in bookstores here have the US price and the Canadian price, and the Canadian price has been higher for as long as I can remember. Second, I had been to Canada with my parents as a kid. My dad always loved trains. We took train rides into the Canadian wilderness on a couple of trips. My mom would give me money to buy snacks on the train from the food car, and I was always so excited at how much more purchasing power a $10 bill had in Canada over the US. 

But now, a man in his early 20s, realizing that the world has changed, in a bank in the basement of an apartment complex, humiliated with a debased fiat currency. Obama was president at the time, and no experience more than that made it more clear to me that there was an effort to knock the United States down a few rungs in the global hierarchy. As a country, we were becoming more equal to the rest, and I felt so embarrassed to be from a place that had fallen so far. 

That exchange rate experience would send me down a lifelong path of distrusting anything in traditional finance. This scene would stick with me forever and alter how I viewed cash, work, assets, and finance. When I became aware of Bitcoin, among other things, the pieces fell into place, and it all made sense. 

My autumn 2012 expedition to Canada was many things to me. It was sad, exciting, humiliating, hilarious, bizarre, foreign, and familiar. The range of emotions and thoughts were as diverse as Dundas Square and Eaton Centre. I came home not a changed man but the same man with a few new goals and considerations. I learned so much about the future of navigating a Western world that is more diverse (less White) with each passing day. I found firsthand that what is welcomed progress to one group is an alien dystopia for another. And perhaps most importantly, I realized that you cannot passively defend a status quo but that your desires and goals must be brought forth with complete action and assertion of will. 

I hope to visit Canada again sooner or later. Seeing Quebec City and skiing the Canadian Rockies are on my travel and cultural expeditions list. But when I do, it will be as a different man than the one seeing Toronto ten years ago. That much is for certain.