Very few people here are fortunate enough to be Canadian. There are Americans and Brits and citizens of great nations all across the world. They're fine countries; I salute you and respect the love you bear for your homeland. Sing it out! Shout your love for your land - you should; if you're patriotic. Yours is a fine land. Your country, whichever one it is, has many fine qualities. But it's not Canada. Canada is God's country - wide and wonderful, beautiful, wild, strong, independant and free. Unique in every possible way. I love America; I have many good friends there and love to visit. I've also enjoyed Britain, Mexico and Columbia and love the idea (since I haven't yet had the pleasure of visiting) of France (great women), Italy (great food) and Australia (great beer - and the most Canadian of the non-Canadian countries.) But Canada is special...unique. If you don't agree; that's because you don't live here. I'm joking of course, but only in words. In my heart; I believe everything I've just said. That was Tom's message - the glory and majesty of our great land. The special place we Canadians must hold in our hearts for a land not even the Angels could have created. Only God is good enough to have created a land as rich and bountiful as the land we call Canada. We should know; the proud, ancient First Nations peoples have been telling us white European usurpers about the land we've stolen for generations now.
I've always been patriotic; I've fought, risked death, killed for my country. I believe in Canada. But the Canada I believe in includes Stompin' Tom; the man who has always told us how to be patriotic. As a man (just) under the age of 50; I've never known a Canada without him. He's been one of the most fundamental symbols of our country - every bit as important as the Beaver, the Maple Leaf and the Moose. Hard Canadian grit, humour and down-home honesty are embodied in every word, note and grin of this magnificent storyteller.
Oh; there are plenty (sad, deluded fools) that don't like him; it's true he never had a great voice but what he possessed was that innate Atlantic gift for storytelling. He wrote about small-town Canada in a time when people were only interested in the States and the British Invasion. He wrote about ordinary people; and the ordinary people loved him for it. He wrote about small towns - Tillsonburg, Sudbury, Smith Falls. Those small towns were where he went from singer to hero to Canadian legend.
Stompin' Tom has been called 'the most patriotic Canadian' and that's probably true. He was never flashy about it; but never stopped preaching his message that our country is the greatest on Earth. In the 1970's he even returned his six Junos - A Canadian music award similar to the Grammys - in anger; protesting the Americanization of Canadian music and the Canadian singers who made their fortune in the States. He did not return to performing or recording until persuaded to by other Canadian musicians at his 50th birthday party.
Tom Connors was a real character. He really did hitchhike across the country for thirteen years. He gutted fish, picked tobacco, painted walls, mined coal, worked in a cannery. One cold night in 1964 a logging truck dropped him off in the Northern town of Timmins, Ontario. He was broke, lonely and far from home. Looking for the warmth and comfort of a bar he wandered into the tavern of the Maple Leaf Hotel. (I've been there. Rode my Harley-Davidson the ten hours North about a decade ago. Few places are as Canadian (wild, rough, dangerous and free) as that Timmins biker bar. Tom must've been one tough lad to start his career there. Look at him in his sixties in the videos I've provided - I don't doubt his toughness for the smallest second.)
Anyway; going back to 1964: Tom was cold, dirty and lonely. He bought a beer but found he was a nickel short. The bartender - Gaet Lepine - didn't care about the nickel, but Tom did. M. Lapine offered Tom the chance to pay for the nickel by singing a song - Tom had his battered guitar with him. Tom agreed. Paying for one beer turned into a 14-month gig, and the start of a legend unique in this cynical world. Tom was funny, warm and wry. People loved his songs; loved his warm, personal style. Even as his fame grew, he never lost his down-home hard-headed sensibility. Even after he was famous, he would sing for anybody so long as they bought his beer. Other singers eat gourmet meals as their sleek tour busses whiz across the country; Tom drove the equipment truck and would stop in any old roadside diner and would always haul his famous guitar out of its battered case and lead a rousing, hand-clapping round of Tillsonburg, Sudbury Saturday Night or Bud the Spud if anyone asked. I've had the pleasure of seeing him 3 times; the best was when he visited our base after we (2 Battalion PPCLI) returned from Bosnia after my second tour of duty in 1993. It wan't official; someone called him and he just came, along with the incredibly funny, profane and dirty McLean & McLean. We all sang songs and drank beer together. He made friends easily; held long grudges. He was the true rural Canadian man and he will be sorely missed.
Farewell, Stompin' Tom Connors; you were far more than a country/folk singer; you were the conscience of a country called Canada. We will miss you.
A mural on the side of an industrial building in downtown Toronto:
