What does it mean that over 40% of Canadian teens (64% in French Canada) think America is “evil”?
3 thoughts on “Blame Canada, I suppose”
It’s complex. We Canadians h It’s complex. We Canadians have a love-hate relationship, at least in our minds, with America; a mixture of admiration, general goodwill towards Americans, a love of much of American culture (and anti-culture, too, sadly), combined with jealousy and envy to some extent, but also more legitimate concerns with American power – not the U.S.A. or Americans so much as the American government – we don’t generally like U.S. government imperialism, in international affairs. There are some Canadians, both left and right, who love America uncritically; there are some Canadians, again both on the left and the right, who hate America unthinkingly, and then I believe there is the great mass of Canadians, who feel mixed emotions, in different regards. (I consider myself to be in this group.)
To a great extent, Canada, being founded by United Empire Loyalists and British colonists (ignoring the French-Canadian aspect at the moment), can be literally considered the “anti-America”, insofar as it was founded by those who disagreed with America’s break with Great Britain. We were those who conscientiously decided to be “not-Americans”, even if, given the English-French duality and other immigrant groups, we couldn’t completely affirm “Britishness”, and have tended to define ourselves more in terms of what we aren’t (American) rather than what we are (?), the latter being now especially muddified with the massive immigration waves since WWII, and official “multiculturalism”, etc. In fact, sadly, while our combination of British and French heritage was celebrated to a much greater extent in the past, and this allowed for more of a positive definition of what being Canadian is or was, now, what with traditional symbols and loyalties under attack, aboriginal and visible and ethnic minority activism being as strong as they are, about the only thing we have left is our negative affirmation, that we “aren’t Americans”. That, and our commitment beyond all reason, to our current system of universal medicare…
As for these students, in this news story, they, like all young Canadians, have had leftist anti-Americanism inculcated into them from the moment they entered elementary school; but, on the other hand, many of them have grown up observing, to name some examples, the activities of Central American “rightist” insurgent groups funded by the U.S. government during the Cold War, or the U.S.-backed Pinochet regime in Chile, Marcos in the Phillipines, and the Israeli Army’s treatment of Palestinians, all backed by U.S. funding, and see no reason to consider the U.S. government any more noble or honourable than its international opponents, in terms of the actions it bankrolls, not to mention those it carries out itself in bombing raids in Afghanistan, Sudan, Libya, etc. One need not be a raging leftist to be upset at the utilitarian moral calculus which permitted Truman to kill 130000 or so civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, in order to end the war, by arguing that it saved more lives than it ended – as if that justified it. And the hypocrisy of the moral outrage at Pearl Harbor combined with the rationalization of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, or the moral outrage at 9/11 combined with the indifference to, or worse, support for, the bombing of Fallujah and subsequent death of scores of civilians – these do not endear the American government to the rest of the world, to say the least… While some of us Canadians and other foreigners recognize and make the distinction between the U.S. government and the American people, others do not, and end up hating America itself, and Americans in general, not recognizing the many opponents of the U.S. government’s actions in America itself, on both the left and the right… (And to the extent that in a democracy, the people are responsible for who they elect, ultimately it’s understandable when some blame the people themselves for permitting the government to do what it does, and hold them responsible; if ignorant of what the government does, then culpably so…)
Anyway, this is how modern America comes across to many of us non-Americans. All defenders of the American Imperial regime who are reading this, argue all you like with our supposed misunderstandings and failure to appreciate the unique situation with which America is faced today, blah blah blah, but regardless of what may or may not be fair or prejudiced on our part, this is how it plays out in the rest of the world – even next door here in Canada, America’s biggest trading partner… And generally faithful ally – remember, we joined in Afghanistan – speaking of which, we were not happy in recent days with that trigger-happy, orders-ignoring pilot being let off so lightly, after killing four Canadian soldiers in “friendly fire”… There’s another sore point…
Canada As Canada drifts ever more leftist and anti-American, Americans will hopefully realize that the absorption of Canada, less an isolated, impotent Quebec, might be needed. If leftist Europe is so wonderful and in sync with Canada, repatriate the Canadians, maybe. P. Murgos.
Indeed, if America were to ab Indeed, if America were to absorb Canada, with all of its citizens, that would push America leftward ever more quickly; if one recalls how close the 2000 U.S. Presidential election was, imagine leftist Canadians tipping the balance over to the Democrats – and that, combined with Hispanic and Black American birthrates, could bring about a permanent reign by the Democrats… Not an attractive prospect, for traditionalist conservatives, to say the least…
I don’t know that Western Europe would want Canadians; they seem to favour African and Middle Eastern immigrants… For my part, I wish to remain a subject of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, and so would move to wherever I could remain one (the U.K., or New Zealand, or perhaps Australia)…
It’s complex. We Canadians h
It’s complex. We Canadians have a love-hate relationship, at least in our minds, with America; a mixture of admiration, general goodwill towards Americans, a love of much of American culture (and anti-culture, too, sadly), combined with jealousy and envy to some extent, but also more legitimate concerns with American power – not the U.S.A. or Americans so much as the American government – we don’t generally like U.S. government imperialism, in international affairs. There are some Canadians, both left and right, who love America uncritically; there are some Canadians, again both on the left and the right, who hate America unthinkingly, and then I believe there is the great mass of Canadians, who feel mixed emotions, in different regards. (I consider myself to be in this group.)
To a great extent, Canada, being founded by United Empire Loyalists and British colonists (ignoring the French-Canadian aspect at the moment), can be literally considered the “anti-America”, insofar as it was founded by those who disagreed with America’s break with Great Britain. We were those who conscientiously decided to be “not-Americans”, even if, given the English-French duality and other immigrant groups, we couldn’t completely affirm “Britishness”, and have tended to define ourselves more in terms of what we aren’t (American) rather than what we are (?), the latter being now especially muddified with the massive immigration waves since WWII, and official “multiculturalism”, etc. In fact, sadly, while our combination of British and French heritage was celebrated to a much greater extent in the past, and this allowed for more of a positive definition of what being Canadian is or was, now, what with traditional symbols and loyalties under attack, aboriginal and visible and ethnic minority activism being as strong as they are, about the only thing we have left is our negative affirmation, that we “aren’t Americans”. That, and our commitment beyond all reason, to our current system of universal medicare…
As for these students, in this news story, they, like all young Canadians, have had leftist anti-Americanism inculcated into them from the moment they entered elementary school; but, on the other hand, many of them have grown up observing, to name some examples, the activities of Central American “rightist” insurgent groups funded by the U.S. government during the Cold War, or the U.S.-backed Pinochet regime in Chile, Marcos in the Phillipines, and the Israeli Army’s treatment of Palestinians, all backed by U.S. funding, and see no reason to consider the U.S. government any more noble or honourable than its international opponents, in terms of the actions it bankrolls, not to mention those it carries out itself in bombing raids in Afghanistan, Sudan, Libya, etc. One need not be a raging leftist to be upset at the utilitarian moral calculus which permitted Truman to kill 130000 or so civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, in order to end the war, by arguing that it saved more lives than it ended – as if that justified it. And the hypocrisy of the moral outrage at Pearl Harbor combined with the rationalization of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, or the moral outrage at 9/11 combined with the indifference to, or worse, support for, the bombing of Fallujah and subsequent death of scores of civilians – these do not endear the American government to the rest of the world, to say the least… While some of us Canadians and other foreigners recognize and make the distinction between the U.S. government and the American people, others do not, and end up hating America itself, and Americans in general, not recognizing the many opponents of the U.S. government’s actions in America itself, on both the left and the right… (And to the extent that in a democracy, the people are responsible for who they elect, ultimately it’s understandable when some blame the people themselves for permitting the government to do what it does, and hold them responsible; if ignorant of what the government does, then culpably so…)
Anyway, this is how modern America comes across to many of us non-Americans. All defenders of the American Imperial regime who are reading this, argue all you like with our supposed misunderstandings and failure to appreciate the unique situation with which America is faced today, blah blah blah, but regardless of what may or may not be fair or prejudiced on our part, this is how it plays out in the rest of the world – even next door here in Canada, America’s biggest trading partner… And generally faithful ally – remember, we joined in Afghanistan – speaking of which, we were not happy in recent days with that trigger-happy, orders-ignoring pilot being let off so lightly, after killing four Canadian soldiers in “friendly fire”… There’s another sore point…
Will S.
Canada
As Canada drifts ever more leftist and anti-American, Americans will hopefully realize that the absorption of Canada, less an isolated, impotent Quebec, might be needed. If leftist Europe is so wonderful and in sync with Canada, repatriate the Canadians, maybe. P. Murgos.
Indeed, if America were to ab
Indeed, if America were to absorb Canada, with all of its citizens, that would push America leftward ever more quickly; if one recalls how close the 2000 U.S. Presidential election was, imagine leftist Canadians tipping the balance over to the Democrats – and that, combined with Hispanic and Black American birthrates, could bring about a permanent reign by the Democrats… Not an attractive prospect, for traditionalist conservatives, to say the least…
I don’t know that Western Europe would want Canadians; they seem to favour African and Middle Eastern immigrants… For my part, I wish to remain a subject of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, and so would move to wherever I could remain one (the U.K., or New Zealand, or perhaps Australia)…
Will S.