Stan Rogers’ music has been an integral part of our lives since we first heard “Northwest Passage” while living in Boston in 1983. “Northwest Passage” clicked the mileage west in 1984 as we drove the TransCanada to introduce my wife to her new country, and again in 1987 when we moved to Edmonton. Stan’s music was with us in 1985 during the labour for the birth of our first child. The nurses insisted that we bring our cassette player into the delivery room, and Donell was born while Stan was singing about his ancestor at the Heights. Since coming back to Canada home in 1987, I have listened to “The Mary Ellen Carter” whenever I have needed encouragement to continue working to resurrect the sovereign Canada we need—each time the lying, drunken rats, beginning with Mulroney’s gang, have tried to sink her or keep her down.

—David Laughton