Nova Scotians are unpretentious and civil to the point of being quaint. People go out of their way to be agreeable; they listen sincerely to other points of view, express their own thoughtfully, and generally withhold or temper opinions with the potential to be hurtful. The place feels safe and friendly. It is a preferable culture to one of aggression, suspicion or indifference. Indeed it’s worth visiting just for this experience alone.

But there are undercurrents here too. The most obvious is that real conflict occurs passive-aggressively. Many people prefer this, as it tends to blunt the emotional discomfort of conflict and prevents some escalation of disputes. But it also results in a lot of confusion and misunderstanding. People talk in riddles and avoid resolution. There’s a driving behavior that is so common in Nova Scotia that it deserves a proper name. At the exact moment that you pull out to pass a car, the driver will accelerate by about 10 mph. They will hold the new speed until either you are beside them and obviously going to complete the pass, or until the passing lane ends. At this time, they will drop back to their previous speed. They don’t seem to want to drive as fast as you, nor do they want to endanger you – they just don’t want you to pass them. For no reason.

The show Trailer Park Boys capitalizes on this cultural confusion. The characters on the show are chronic law breakers, superficially without morals, and downright confrontational. They are an overreaction to the frustration of a low grade repressive culture. Yet they routinely look after each other in profoundly unselfish and personal ways.

Nova Scotians scoff at the notion that the culture is repressive, because there exists a class of petty bad behaviors that are tolerated or even encouraged. But ironically the range of acceptable ill behavior is in practice cleanly defined and narrow in its own way.

I don’t know which came first: the agreeable citizenry or the culture of rules. Nova Scotia is a place where there are lots of rules. Written rules. Written, and posted. And for the most part, people follow them. In some cases, like recycling, they seem to be proud to follow them even at considerable inconvenience. But in many cases, they just blindly follow them. Don’t walk here. Don’t eat food not purchased here. Don’t fill that gas can. Don’t idle your car. Don’t use pesticide. Don’t install you own propane lines. Don’t carry a Taser. Don’t open on Sunday. Don’t close on Sunday. Pay this fee. Take this course. Get an inspection. Where is your sticker? Stand in this line.

People are as quick to confront you with a tiny infraction as they are slow to offend you otherwise. And even people who express dissatisfaction with the overall freedom robbing effects of a rules culture are quick to support new rules when they impact only someone else. Of course there’s enforcement. Usually social pressure, an army of quasi authority figures – some not yet out of high school but with a nice hat. And an escalation will land you in jail for, with apologies to Bruce Springsteen, “disturbing the almighty peace”. But the usual enforcement is financial. Mandatory fees, insurance, combined with fines, the threat of property   seizure, direct wage and price control, denial of government income and denial of your means of employment or the means to employ others usually do the trick. The easiest way to deny freedom to a group save people from themselves is to control most of their livelihood.

The political class is thriving. Smart ambitious young people go to university to take Political Science, or the newer program, Environmental Science, hoping to land lifetime employment in the department of rules. The political ideology in Nova Scotia ranges from Conservative – the belief that the proper role of government is regulate and pick winners and losers in business, to Liberal where the proper role is to  is regulate and pick winners and losers in business, households and communities.

In practice of none of this seems ominous. Safety, fairness, the environment are all good reasons to make rules. Rules are thoughtfully made, in response to real issues. Well, usually. Two summers ago gas was becoming too expensive, so it quickly became illegal to change the price without notice and then only on special days. Nobody, anywhere, thought this would have any real effect. But nobody stopped it because once a rules culture sets in, people lose the means to impact the process. This is how freedom dies.

One stupid rule at a time.

Mike.