Arrived in Winnipeg, the “geographic centre of the continent” according to the announcer on the train, and which is also true.
Not quite the halfway point of the trip, time wise (two days and three sleeps* to go), but definitely crossing that border.
Much like the last post, there’s definitely a boundary feeling here. Winnipeg feels more in common with the cities of the East, the ornate buildings, the Union Station downtown, but… less so perhaps, as the fraying tendrils of empire degrade the further out one gets from the centre of it, or in this case the further West one drives (or rides).
This view of the empire, of the core and the periphery, is central to the work of Harold Innis, the Canadian communication studies scholar (well, “political economy”, but communication was a key theme) and his earlier work studying the history of the fur trade in Canada.
His later work on the Bias of Communication, of the dichotomy between time and space, between durability and speed, is something I gave a guest lecture on several years ago. The title of the lecture was “Monolithic and Ephemeral”. (I’ll see if I can find a copy and post it up here).
But it’s the part here, about how the reach of the Empire is dictated by the speed and quality of information coming from the heart. And here, at the railroad station at the centre of the continent, along those steel lines of communication, it feels more central than ever.
*: as if I’m getting a good and consistent sleep here..