Travel writer Paul Theroux explores Canadian family roots and the 'mood of betrayal' about the U.S. - National Post

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney at a working lunch with leaders of G7 and the Middle East, on June 16, 2026 in Evian-les-Bains, France. Photo by Pool /Getty ImagesWe independently select everything we recommend. Buying through us may earn us a commission, which supports our work.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — If only Americans better understood Canada and its people. That’s a thought many Canadians have shared in recent years, especially as the widening trade spat has disrupted cross-border travel and trade. But those tensions have not stopped one American octogenarian — no, not that one — from sharing his many thoughts on Canada.

Famed travel writer and novelist Paul Theroux, 85, recently released his 12th travel book, True North: On the Road in Canada, detailing his cross-country trek and the conversations and discoveries made along the way between 2022 and 2025. To better understand what everyone can gain by travelling across Canada, National Post spoke with Theroux to hear what he learned about his family’s Canadian roots, today’s sense of national unity, Canada’s disappointment in its southern neighbour, and the important role Canada has always played in American society and culture.

This Q&A has been edited for clarity and length.

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I knew very little about my ancestors or what they did, where they came from, and I realized that they were pioneers and that when the original ancestor, Antoine, came here, he was 18 years old. He came from a small village near Toulouse called Verdun-sur-Garonne, and arrived in Canada a callow youth. He didn’t even speak French — he was a Gascon speaker. He hooked up with other Gascons. The main one was (Antoine) de la Mothe Cadillac, the founder of Detroit.

He was also involved in (Louis de Buade, Comte de) Frontenac’s last big campaign against the Onondaga people, a punitive mission, actually. Two thousand soldiers went to the Onondaga territory with Frontenac, who was in his seventies then, leading them. He was carried. They were there trying to punish First Nation people, but they did a very wise thing. They actually disappeared. They just withdrew from their village.

Antoine later retired and became a farmer in Yamaska. And here’s the interesting part: He went to Yamaska, following one of his children there in 1707, and died there in 1759, the pivotal year … of the fall of Quebec.

The family’s still there. So here’s a Canadian story — a family that goes to a small village. The patriarch goes there, has children; his children live there, and they become farmers. Three hundred years later, they’re still there. That’s not an American story. I don’t know any American (families) who, 300 years later, are still in the same place, still farming, still struggling, and still speaking the language.

I was going back to a place where I have family. That has never happened to me in travel. It’s a wonderful experience, actually. And a very sobering experience too, because, as you know, a lot of the Québécois couldn’t find work, so hundreds of thousands of them came to New England, like my grandfather, and settled, worked in the mills, had children, like my father.

So it’s not only a trip to Canada, it’s a trip to the past. It’s connection with the family.

Yes, but it’s a divided loyalty because I have First Nation ancestry. My grandmother was related to — she was Anishinaabe Nipissing, and she was born in Belleville, but one of her ancestors was First Nation.