With four years as a Canadian resident behind her, Norma Jacobson has some advice fo Americans considering a move to the Great White North – don’t.
Although I enjoy my work and have made good friends here, I’ve found life as an American expatriate in Canada difficult, frustrating and even painful in ways that have surprised me. As attractive as living here may be in theory, the reality’s something else. For me, it’s been one of almost daily confrontation with a powerful anti-Americanism that pervades many aspects of life. When I’ve mentioned this phenomenon to Canadian friends, they’ve furrowed their brows sympathetically and said, “Yes, Canadian anti-Americanism can be very subtle.” My response is, there’s nothing subtle about it.
The anti-Americanism I experience generally takes this form: Canadians bring up “the States” or “Americans” to make comparisons or evaluations that mix a kind of smug contempt with a wariness that alternates between the paranoid and the absurd.
Thus, Canadian media discussion of President Bush’s upcoming official visit on Tuesday focuses on the snub implied by his not having visited earlier. It’s reported that when he does come, he will not speak to a Parliament that’s so hostile it can’t be trusted to receive him politely. Coverage of a Canadian athlete caught doping devolves into complaints about how Americans always get away with cheating. The “Blame Canada” song from the “South Park” movie is taken as documentary evidence of Americans’ real attitudes toward this country. The ongoing U.S. ban on importing Canadian cattle (after a case of mad cow disease was traced to Alberta) is interpreted as a form of political persecution. A six o’clock news show introduces a group of parents and children who are convinced that the reason Canadian textbooks give short shrift to America’s failed attempts to invade the Canadian territories in the War of 1812 is to avoid antagonizing the Americans — who are just waiting for an excuse to give it another try.
[…]
Part of what’s irksome about Canadian anti-Americanism and the obsession with the United States is that it seems so corrosive to Canada. Any country that defines itself through a negative (“Canada: We’re not the United States”) is doomed to an endless and repetitive cycle of hand-wringing and angst. For example, Canadians often point to their system of universal health care as the best example of what it means to be Canadian (because the United States doesn’t provide it), but this means that any effort to adjust or reform that system (which is not perfect) precipitates a national identity crisis: To wit, instituting co-payments or private MRI clinics will make Canada too much like the United States.
She has seen us as we are. Read it all.
hat tip – Cosh.
It is precisely those things which Canadian nationalists brag about the most, that are the most bogus. The CBC. Our dedication to peacekeeping. Multiculturalism. Health care. Rita McNeil.
The real Canada is something to be proud of. Unfortunately it’s going to take a lot of digging to find it again under the forty years’ worth of Trudeaupian cr*p that has accumulated.
Who here wants to bet that the Europeans have the same “At least we aren’t Northern Americans” attitude?
Canadains really have to get off their high horse.
Having grown up just across the border from Canada and having a Canadian sister-in-law, I have seen the corrosive and destructive effects of Canadian anti-Americanism up close. To me the saddest part of this anti-Americanism is the way that it prevents many Canadians from seeing the good things about their country because they are too busy disparaging the United States. Not seeing these good features makes them difficult to preserve.
I also know a few flaming Bush-haters. This article will not dissuade them from moving to Canada. The anti-Americanism that horrifies Nora Jacobson will delight them. For many for them, their most basic emotion is a feeling of moral superiority and distain towards other, “less enlightened” people.
I’ve come pretty close to hating this country over the years and smug, self-righteous Anti-Americanism has had a lot to do with it. It’s especially galling when some freakin DRAFT DODGER like Andy Barry, Toronto’s CBC morning wind-bag, can’t let a day go by without making some comment or observation that, if it were directed against any identifiable group other than Americans, would be decried as hate speech by the CBC thought police. However, I’ve been saved by folks like Kate and others, mostly on the net, who’ve helped me to realize that there may actually be hope for this country .
BUSH IN CANADA
The Bush visit to Canada starts today and of course media on both sides of the border have started to analyze the differences between the two nations and assess where they may find common ground. Personally, I have written more
For many Canadians and Europeans, Americans have become the new “Jews”. One can make any kind of disparaging remark about them and most of the room will nod in agreement.
They don’t seem to worry about expressing this simple minded prejudice because they are clever little Davids standing up against a bully. Morally superior and discerning!
Among all the other socialist dope that Maclean’s magazine, CBC and others have pushed for the last 2 generations, is the argument that the USA is the only yardstick to which Canada should be measured by. They’ve carefully chosen which “important” things are measured, to show how well Canada is doing.
It could take years of re-hab to restore Canadians to pre Trudopian thinking.
As per the moniker, I’m increasingly of the view there’s no point in trying to restore pre-Trudeaupian thinking. There are now two generations, including one that has been inculcated with the notion of Charter as panacea, that separate us from those times. Although I expect individual Canadians will, for the most part, continue to live relatively fruitful and contented lives, I have little hope that our nation will be able to slow, let alone reverse its slide into morass and irrelevance. I see anti-Americanism less as a misguided attempt to define our elusive national identity and more a symptom of the denial that Trudeaupia has rendered us devoid of international significance (not including hockey or curling).
BUSH IN CANADA
The Bush visit to Canada starts today and of course media on both sides of the border have started to analyze the differences between the two nations and assess where they may find common ground. Personally, I have written more
Well said, Kate. I’m a Canadian woman who moved to Chicago 25 (for love) years ago — and wasn’t aware of the depth of anti-American sentiment in my native country until leaving. I gradually realized that I had been weaned on this, that it was the underpinning for many deeply-held opinions — and that it felt wonderful to leave it behind.
On trips back, however, when broaching the subject to friends and family members who still live in Canada, they look puzzled and can’t quite relate. Then, sooner or later, they ask the ever present question: “But how can you stand to live down there?”
Interesting . . . .
BUSH IN CANADA
The Bush visit to Canada starts today and of course media on both sides of the border have started to analyze the differences between the two nations and assess where they may find common ground. Personally, I have written more
firewalls ‘r us
You may be right but I hope that there are still enough right thinking Canadians to turn away from our present course.
I was never a socialist (especially after the first time that I didn’t have all my income tax refunded to me, in July). But I went through much of my twenties and thirties gorging on CBC etc. I never did much critical thinking about their relentless core message.
Government can solve anything and I mean anything if given enough resources.
Deep down this didn’t seem right but not many were saying much against this theory and life in Canada was pretty good.
It wasn’t until I lived outside of Western culture that I realized that we were drifting into cloud cuckoo land.
Living in an Arab culture opened my eyes to the fact that many of the things that we take in the West to be universal human thoughts, feelings and behaviour, are definitely not. It made me realize how much our thoughts, beliefs and actions are culturally imposed upon us.
Right now the cultural industry is mostly controlled by the left.
That may slowly be changing. If is does, then there is still hope.