Canadian Conscience

This is a picture of a sign telling drivers to butt out before they reach the take-out window, at the Tim Horton's Drive-Thru in Cobourg, Ontario.

In other words, the sign tells citizens what they should do in their own cars. That kind of finger-wagging by high-minded moralists of the churchlady stripe just makes me roll my eyes. You can't convince me that this is about smoke. It's about social judgment.

I say that because evidently, no one at Tim's questions the health hazzards of THOUSANDS OF IDLING CARS creeping through such drive-thrus every single day. As if second hand smoke wafting out automobile windows is deadly, and the noxious fumes of internal-combustion engines are not an issue at all.

But then as I sat idling (but not smoking), waiting for my breakfast sandwich and medium regular coffee in this very drive-thru, I listened to Stephen Lewis and David Suzuki on "The Current," graphically describing the tragic future we have brought upon ourselves by our addiction to fossil fuel and our ongoing state of total denial. Well, it's an issue for these guys, anyway, I thought, as I dropped my money on the window sill. At least Canada still has a conscience.

Leaving the take-out window, I was politely reminded not to litter:


Then, to yield to pedestrians:


I did, of course. I yielded. I sipped my coffee and ate my sandwich instead of knocking down any walkers with my mini-van. I refrained from throwing my wrapper onto the road. The interview with Suzuki and Lewis drew to a sudden close before I hit the road again. "What happened?" Suzuki exclaimed in shock, before the "The Current" cut to a station break.

I'm wondering the same thing. What happened? I'm reading the signs. I'm obeying them to the letter.

So why is my Canadian conscience not clean?