PING!
Great story and great dog!
It is one of the things that defines Canadians as different from Americans. Canada still has a vast , empty frontier laced with rivers and lakes stretching far into the Northern tundra.
I do not derogate Americans, I am one, but when I recently posted to a thread about the Canadian military, I tried to communicate this difference to my fellow Americans, who didn;t get it. I was seen as somewaht eccentric for saying that Canadian soldiers from rural areas of Canada had the old skills and attitudes largely missing today from soldiers in the USA, except perhaps those of Native American extraction.
The Candaian wilderness and ones ability to sojourn in it for lenghty periods of timew generates a view and skill iin survival, clear thinking and resourcefulness in many. These traditions are still passed down in families and through friendship with fellow travellers, and native Canadians have taught us a lot.
This has defined many Canadian men from the rural areas of Canada, many of whom are comprise the backbone of Cnada's small military. Most of them could have done what Kanawa did, not to take away from his bravery and accomplishment, but it is a fact. It is the character that Kanawa has and his resourcefulness and skill defined by wilderness experience which are shared by so many Canadian men and women.
It is something that Canadians should remember in their often too strident insistance that they are different from Americans. It is in this area that they surely are, and Canadians should have confidence in that as an established fact.
The results are not always positive though, we have a murderer of two RCMP officers at large in Northern Manitoba because of these skills and character, and he may never be found.
Thanks so much for this ping, GMMAC. That, as we say in the military aviation community, is a confirmed kill!