Episode 2.1-Before Canada Had a Name: Courage (for Gord Downie): Discovery, Maps, and the Tragically Hip

Canadian Grit: North of Ordinary

Before Canada had a name, there was only wilderness—vast, unknown, and full of risk. In this powerful two-part episode, host Jamie Jackson takes us on a sweeping journey through time and psyche: from uncharted oceans to the inner maps we carry as human beings navigating uncertainty.

Part history, part myth, part reflection—this episode explores the raw courage it takes to sail into the unknown, whether in the 10th century or today’s hybrid digital world. We reflect on early explorers, the Halifax Explosion, and the enduring legacy of Canadian author Hugh MacLennan, whose words inspired Gord Downie and The Tragically Hip's iconic song Courage.

We unpack identity, regret, resilience, and the universal need to belong—drawing parallels between the age of discovery and our own 21st-century crisis of disconnection. With ambient soundscapes, poetic narration, and real talk about demoralization, burnout, mental health, and the cost of not acting with courage, this episode calls on all of us to remember: we are not machines. We are human. We are Canadians. Together. 

And our story isn’t finished. 

It's just getting started! 

Featuring: Hugh MacLennan, The Tragically Hip, Gabor Maté, Peter Levine, Jackson's "Hybrid Reality Theory" (2025), Canadian history, public education, and the enduring power of grit.

Transcript

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Are we ready? Let's go. Welcome back to Canadian Grit North of Ordinary. I'm your host, Jamie Jackson. And this is episode two, part one of two of episode two. Before Canada had a name, the age of courage, discovery, maps, and wilderness. In episode one, we ended with a parable. Two voices in the womb arguing over whether life after delivery could even exist. That parable, it wasn't just a metaphor, it's a mirror of our lives. Today's episode is about that same kind of leap, the moment before the moment, when there's no proof that what lies ahead even exists hey welcome back this is episode two this episode is about the courage it takes to sail into the unknown to leave the comforts of land abandon all certainty and risk everything in the name of something not yet seen to head into a place so vast and dark and unmapped that some believed you might fall right off the edge right over there off the end of the earth. Or worse, be swallowed whole by the krakens, sea monsters, or your own rising damp. So let me ask you this. What are some of your biggest fears? Spiders? Death? For me, I'd say it's feeling misunderstood or not heard. And that's part of the reason I started this show. I want people to feel heard because of my own fear of not feeling heard. Was there ever a time when you were terrified, but you had no choice but to keep going? What carried you through? I'd love to hear your story. Make sure you join our Facebook community group. Follow me on socials at Canadian Grit Media and tell me and everybody else who's joining our movement. How did you make it through the fog? Because that's the heart of today's episode, not just history, but myth, courage, and the call of a promise that's beyond the horizon. In many ways, we're no different from the ones we now call explorers. We too live in an age of tremendous upheaval and unknowns. It's an unprecedented era of digital connection that, ironically, has left many of us more isolated than ever before. Yes, we have comforts. Yes, we have convenience. But we're starting to learn something critical. We can't outcode our biology. We're social creatures. We are tribal. We're born of wanderers, clans, and kinship. We're not designed to live alone in boxes staring at glowing rectangles. We're not machines. We're human. And perhaps part of our modern anxiety or anxieties, part of that quiet ache, is the echo of that or a forgotten truth. So today we set sail on a journey that traces the edge of the map, the edge of ourselves, the edge of Canada. From ancient forests to uncharted oceans, we'll step into the stories of those who dared to leave the world they knew behind. And in so doing, they became the first to imagine the shape of what could one day become Canada. The future is always shrouded. The waters are rough and the monsters are many, but so are the dreams. And just like those old ships creaking into the fog, we too must set sail together. Like the tragically hip in Gord We Trust, This episode will start with the concept of courage. For we Canadians perched up here on this branch of 2025, I'll argue that courage, well, it couldn't come at a better time. For many Canadians these days, the name Hugh McLennan might not mean too much, if anything. If you're a fan of the Tragically Hip and their Fully Completely album, you may know his name as a byline in quotes to their song Courage, for Hugh McLennan. Hugh McLennan, his full name was John Hugh McLennan, he was born in in 1907 and he lived until 1990, was a Canadian writer and professor of English at McGill in Montreal. He was awarded the Order of Canada, Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He was also the winner of five Governor General's Awards and a Royal Bank Award. In 1913, the family spent a few months in London, England, where his father Samuel studied as a medical specialist. The family would return to Canada, briefly living in Sydney, Nova Scotia, before settling in Halifax. In December 1917, a 10-year-old McLennan experienced the Halifax Explosion, the largest pre-nuclear age human-made explosion which later became central to his first and most famously published novel, Barometer Rising. Barometer Rising, his novel about the social class structure of Nova Scotia and the Halifax Explosion of 1917, was published in 1941. Mr. McLennan is said to have slept in the family's backyard from the age of 12 to 21, even in the harsh Atlantic winter, potentially as a means of escape from his overbearing father. In a fashion similar to the Group of Seven, McLennan was one of the first artists to point his gaze inward, an original Canadian writer and social media influencer. Barometer Rising represents a cultural shift for Canadian literature, and it only comes largely in part due to his wife Dorothy and her critical insights. In the 1930s, McLennan had a hard time finding work as a professor due to economic hardships related to the Great Depression. He turned to writing fiction, yet nothing panned out with much promise. It was his wife, Dorothy, who had the grit to confront McLennan with a constructive and critical piece of feedback. Perhaps the lack of success related to his first two novels related to his having set them outside of the scope of his audience. Dorothy persuaded her husband to write about Canada, the country, land, and home that he knew. She reportedly and astutely noted to Hugh that, quote, nobody would understand Canada or its identity beyond a British colony until it evolved a literature of its own. She encouraged him, saying he was the right man for the job to bring Canadian novels and content to the world. The literary tradition in Canada prior to Hugh MacLennan had been like the painters and artists prior to the Group of Seven. It was more of a disparate tradition of Canadians following the the British or European forms of art or genres in literature. Such famous British Canadian writers include Thomas Chandler Halliburton, Susanna Moody, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Stephen Leacock, Morley Callaghan, and W.O. Mitchell. These are but a few names of famous Canadian authors that preceded Hugh MacLennan. Yet it is he who is often attributed with being the first to define Canada for Canadians and the world through a concerted effort at penning a novel to define or capture the Canadian or national identity through a novel. Hugh McLennan demonstrated true Canadian grit. He had courage. And Gord and the fellas from The Hip brought it to us yet again. And just like Gord and the guys on the Road Apples tour, they knew that the fans coming to the party, they wanted to sing along and were more interested in hearing their classics. The stuff that got them famous. Like every band, a great difficulty arises in live performances. how to change styles, genres, or even to introduce a new song that follows a similar style. Yet Gord, he managed to nail it in his lyrics. Watch the band, through a bunch of dancers, quickly follow the unknown, with something more familiar, quickly something familiar, just like us in our social, familial, or marital roles. We come to define those around us just as they do. It's part of our human condition and part of our tribal brains that developed over thousands of years of human evolution. We seek that which is like us. We define ourselves not by what we are, but what we're not. For example, I am not you. You aren't me, and I'm not a woman. I don't identify as a woman. So all of these things that I am not, for example, I am not brown haired. I do not have brown eyes. I am not short. You know, all of these things add up to I am. And when we are discussing I am, famously said by Rene Descartes, it's often overlooked in our personal or individual experiences. And What I mean is that we may not often be cognizant or even aware of the fact that our entire society, our communities, and our nation, aka Canada, they are all us. But it's individually amplified. We complain about the world being crazy, that there's nothing we can do, so we may as well just accept it. When we're in traffic, we get angry about the traffic, yet we're part of it. We're not going to just accept it. We're not going to just sit and complain because, well, that's not what we're here to do at Canadian Grit. Here, we're born to run, to speak up, to help those who need it, to find ways to strive, to thrive, and not to only cope in our lives. It's not easy. That's why they refer to this type of self-growth as the work. It's mental gymnastics. Tough to critically apply to learn something unknown. But isn't that all that frustration really is when we don't know how to do something? I mean, at its core, isn't frustration nothing more but the learning process itself? Everything is frustrating until we've done it a thousand times. Learning to walk, to talk, to ride a bike, to swim, all of it. And all of life takes courage. Someone to encourage, to encourage an active verb. Again, asset-based, what do we have to work with? Let's encourage everybody in Canada to move forward together. In 1959, McLennan released The Watch That Ends the Night, another novel. It came out a couple of years after his wife, Dorothy, who had encouraged Barometer Rising, passed away. While touring the Road Apples album, Gord Downie read The Watch That Ends the Night. George, a character in the novel... looks back on a principal regret of his life, to propose to the love of his life. Wistful, looking back with regret at missed opportunities to show courage throughout his life, George says, no prospects, too much pride, the depression, but mostly not enough courage. Like so many of us, we think of a witty quip or rebuttal too late, a comeback. Or time shows that courage would have served us and everyone better at the time had we stood up. As Gord says, courage, it couldn't come at a worse time, meaning usually after we need it or when we least need it. It's clear to see how Gord was inspired by McLennan, and he himself, as a man, machine poet, saw his own calling. As did the other guys in the hip, that they were becoming Canada's band. After the last verse of Courage, Gord nearly cites an entire passage from McLennan, inserting Canadian history directly into the lyrics. He forces curious fans like myself to dig deeper into our shared Canadian history, just like Dorothy told her husband Hugh McLennan to do. The song Courage has become a Canadian anthem, but at one time was one of the new songs that Downey referenced in his own song. Courage would have been one of the songs that the band had to quickly follow with something familiar. Yet over time, it was accepted. It became part of the Canadian rock and roll canon, just like society, ideas, changes, technology, all of the things that are other to us. Going back to how we define ourselves, it's not by what we are, but what we are not, and in relationship to others. This includes other people and their ideas, their experiences and their upbringing, which we cannot divorce or differentiate from how we see or engage with our reality or other people. We don't adapt or accept to changes or others immediately. Things and people or ideas, they have to permeate. Change, well, it takes time and courage. So here's the actual passage from the night that ends the watch. Listen up and see if you catch it if you're a hip fan. But that night as I drove back from Montreal, I at least discovered this, that there is no simple explanation for anything important any of us do. and that the human tragedy or the human irony consists in the necessity of living with the consequences of actions performed under the pressure of compulsions so obscure we do not and cannot understand them. Gord Downie's uncanny ability to phrase, bend words, and shove sentences from a novel into a syncopated rhythm that, you know, has no rhyme scheme is nearly criminal. Yet it's the message of the lyrics, the timeless human meaning that keeps it pumping on Canadian speakers. A lack of courage when we look back in hindsight with time, with learning, are what McLennan and Downie bring to the fore. Universal human feelings for so many people. Music destroys the other. It's why I love going to live shows, because everyone's there to have a good time, to dance and high-five, and, you know, they're there for the same reasons. They usually like the same band. The deeper concept in how it relates to Canadian Grit is found in our shared, innate resilience to thrive, to find and do better, in the mundane, everyday pressures and the remarkable tragedies that we live through, both individually and collectively, which are necessary for growth. It's like fighting gravity with weights to build up muscles. These hardships and the will to overcome, well, they help shape us as individuals, as a society, and as Canadians. It's extremely potent stuff we're talking about. And perhaps, living with so many unknowns as human beings is why we've come to pretend we know so much. I guess it can be said that waking up every day facing the world and... Dealing with the existential questions we have, well, it can't be avoided. Perhaps there's no real reason for why we do the things we do. And sometimes we just do things, and what we're left with are the consequences. Gord says it, we always find the courage too late or after the fact. My word, he sings about courage, it couldn't come at a worse time. After the chorus, the hip slows it all down. The fans always got pumped. I was lucky enough to see the hip a few times, and Gord would take his time, ride the microphone, or fling something around, and he would reignite the torch of Canadian grit by showcasing the words of Hugh McLennan. There's no simple explanation for anything important. Any of us do. And yeah, the human tragedy consists in the necessity of living with the consequences under pressure. Under pressure. So here I am, not only reaching back to Hugh McLennan, but also to the Tragically Hip. Two Canadian icons who were so alive in their moment. Yet, like McLennan, the younger generations of artists like the Tragically Hip have started their own transition to a sort of fading supernova on the night sky. But we... As a collective, we have the ability to keep it all alive. Now, for us, for the future, we can choose what to carry forward and what to leave behind. That's why I'm here, and just like Gore Downie actively chose to take the torch from McLennan's hands, I am here now to remind us all of what we've inherited. It's the best. Lyrics or words on a page, however, are lifeless. Songs of the past have been forgotten, as have books. What strikes us as humans, however, is found in the timeless connection of art to our own lives. A true poet or writer seems to know the reader better than themselves sometimes, it would seem. I would argue, however, that these people are actually historians. Not always formally trained, okay? But they are also observers. Deep observers in that when we step back from our own individual walls that confine us and make us feel special as individuals, well, I think we're a lot more alike than many of us like to think or to give ourselves credit for. Just because your iPhone is black or gunmetal or space gray and mine is blue, it doesn't mean that it doesn't alter our state and relation as humans. Courage became a topic of the times when Canada learned of bad news of Gord's brain tumor back in 2016. Yet, Gord, he had the courage to relearn almost every song and to head back out on tour across the land he so dearly loved, incredibly ill with his bandmates and his family. He went to play something familiar for all of us who love them so much. Sometimes, I guess, we don't see what we have. Joni Mitchell, well, she said it pretty clearly. Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've got till it's gone? So let's pave paradise and put up a parking lot. And in the verse, she says, you take all the trees, you put them in a tree museum. Then you charge all the people a dollar and a half to see them. Sounds a lot like things that are sort of going on these days. As Gord's voice hauntingly stirs into the beginning of another one of my favorite hip songs, Gift Shop, he sings, the beautiful lull, the dangerous tug, we get to feel small from high up above. And after a glimpse over the top, the rest of the world becomes a gift shop. The pendulum swings for the horse like a man. Out over the rim is ice cream to him. The beautiful lull. The dangerous tug. We get to feel small, but not out of place at all. None of us is out of place. We are exactly when and where we are supposed to be. So let's figure that out. When and where are we exactly? Well, I'll never miss the chance for another hip reference, so I'll just say that all of humanity has been just like they said. We are looking for a place to happen, and we're making stops along the way. The job I explored. I follow every little whiff, and I want my life to smell like this. To find a place, an ancient race, the kind you'd like to gamble with. which I believe and many others online seem to agree that this is a reference to the European colonial mindset of native people enjoying gambling. And again, so Gord Downie critically analyzing our own history and past and present moment through his lyrics. It's a miracle. It's wonderful. The kind you'd like to gamble with. Where they'd stamp on burn in bags of S-H-I-T. Looking for a place to happen, making stops along the way. Hey, so wayward ho, away we go. It's a shame to leave this masterpiece with its gallery gods and its garbage bag trees. And again, we'll talk about gallery gods, false idols, for those of you who follow theology or Christianity, right? Garbage bag trees also is a reference to the 100th Meridian where in the breakdown he talks about garbage bag trees. And I think it's just a reference to also how we live in cities now, the urban versus rural, more natural living, which I also referenced in episode one with the Rush lyrics of Subdivisions. Gord continues, so I'll paint a scene from memory so I'd know who murdered me. It's a vain pursuit, but it helps me to sleep. This one, I'd love to just listen to these things over and over and sing. paint a scene from memory so I'd know who murdered me is the idea of an old general fighting for his country or cause. And it's funny because the gallery gods, we go and we see these paintings today to say, well, where do we come from? Who was a hero? And ultimately it was just who ended up being painted and that means people with power and money. And ultimately, if you've been killed and you've been painted dying, it is a vain pursuit, but it helps Gordy sleep, and that's just funny. So again, his irony is genius. But ultimately, what's going to lead us into episode three is in the last verse, and it's as though Downey switches from the role of colonizing explorer to the eyes of the first indigenous peoples. You would have seen Cartier and other explorers in a fashion as bizarre as the perspective of these explorers. Imagine, you know, the explorers come colonizing calling indigenous people savages, wearing hides, living in teepees or in other natural environments. Whereas Europeans from the native perspective would have been also very bizarre with their clothes and boots. So again, here at Canadian Grit, we're about entertaining lots of various perspectives as well. And using ultimately pop culture references is a lot of fun for me and to get people to engage. So what leads from these lyrics into episode three is the following. Jacques Cartier write this way I'll put your coat up on the bed hey man you've got the real bums eye for clothes come on in sit right down no you're not the first to show we've all been here since God who knows and that's it that's the point of today's episode we've all been here since God who knows and it really takes us back to the parable of the children in the womb is their life after delivery who are we where do we come from Are we separate or do we belong to the channel of history that continues to plow forward? Beyond digging deeply into more recent Canadian history, what I'm trying to show you is that through continuity and change, which is a historical thinking concept, we will continue and come to see that what changes is the stuff that surrounds us and what surrounds people through history. It's the tech, the gizmo, the gadgets, how we build, and it's not so much us or our human psychology. We are not computers, and for now at least, we are beholden to thousands of years of biological evolution that can't be simply upgraded from beta to version 2.0. We're naturally bound, we're part of this land. And as Eckhart Tolle says, we can't lose our lives, we are life, and we've never stopped exploring, so why stop now? Thank you so much for joining me on episode two. Join me next time when we get into part two of episode two, Before Canada Had a Name. Back in time to the earliest of explorers of this newfound land. They too were like us, just looking for a place to happen. If you liked today's episode, why not consider sharing with a friend or family member? Follow us on social media at Canadian Grit. This is your host, Jamie Jackson. Thank you so much for being here with me again. I hope you've enjoyed today's lyrical breakdown and join me again next time. We'll go all the way back to the time of the Vikings and we'll see how Leif Erikson got all the way here and what led to the discovery of newfound land. Take care and we'll talk soon.