Posted on 12/01/2004 5:31:56 AM PST by Clive
A poll done just before U.S. President George Bush's first official visit to Canada yesterday informs us that nearly three-quarters of Canadians view America as our "closest friend."
But the same poll also indicates Canadians in equal number dislike Bush.
There is something wrong when Canadians proclaim friendship for their most important trading partner and traditional ally, then distance themselves from the democratic choice of Americans, with whom their common continental destiny is joined.
The answer lies somewhere in the reality of an America that challenges Canadian self-identity, is unnerving and, hence, many Canadians indulge in caricatures of an America that Bush supposedly represents -- bellicose, simple-minded, uncouth, reactionary.
Following last month's election, with Bush winning his second term and Republicans making gains in the Congress as the majority party, it is time Canadians showed maturity in appreciating the reality of America as it is, rather than seeking comfort from the polemics of self-loathing Americans such as Noam Chomsky, Michael Moore and their followers.
In a recent New York Times column, David Gergen observed, "George W. Bush is emerging as one of the boldest, most audacious presidents in modern history."
Gergen is not an uncritical fan of the president, yet he is an astute observer of his nation's politics as a media person and academic who has also served four U.S. presidents, Republican and Democrat.
Gergen writes that Bush "believes he has a mandate for a revolutionary agenda."
This can be frightening to those who are afraid of altering the status quo in domestic or international politics.
But no American president -- whether a Franklin Roosevelt or a Ronald Reagan -- can lead a revolution without the people's electoral support.
American politics is ultimately the people's business, or its representative majority, and Americans are arguably the most revolutionary of all people in the world.
This fact gets obscured due to the noise and images surrounding the term "revolution," associated with violent uprisings or repression.
But the modern American revolution at home, and by extension abroad, is the unceasing quest for expanding human freedom to constantly reconstruct the world. It defies past norms and skepticism of the faint-hearted everywhere.
A generation ago, Jean-Francois Revel, an uncommon French intellectual, wrote: "The revolution of the 20th century will take place in the United States. It is only here that it can happen."
In his most recent book, Anti-Americanism, Revel discusses once again how much of European antipathy towards America is driven by hostility to Jeffersonian democracy, rather than any rational analysis.
Europe, Revel reminds us, is the cradle of the two great criminal ideologies of the 20th century -- Communism and Nazism -- and it is America that rescued her from both, as it will most likely again from the perils of Islamist fascism.
Canadians' desire to be different from Americans, or be more European, makes us imagine rhetorically a value system more compassionate and more abiding of UN principles than that of Americans.
Americans decided after 9/11 to take their revolutionary principles of freedom and democracy into the heart of Middle Eastern darkness and, accordingly, gave Bush a second mandate.
Victor Davis Hanson, a historian at Stanford University, California states in a recent essay: "We are living in historic times, as all the landmarks of the past half-century are in the midst of passing away ... as the United States is proving to be the most radical engine for world democratic change and liberalization of the age."
Canadians are not required to join Americans in this venture, but at least they need to soberly understand the historic forces at play, rather than indulge in caricatures.
I have a certain affection for some Canadians, especially walleyes. Dipped in batter, fried in butter, on the shoreline, this represents some of the best Canadians. And duck potatoes wrapped in foil, roasted on red hot coals, this is the tastiest of Canadians, and no better mix of Canadians can be found on earth. Add in boiled cattail flower spikes, munched like miniature corn-on-the-cob, and you have the best Canadians that Canada offers.
Okay, Canadians brew good beer, too. See you next year.
I think Canada's identitiy is that of "peacemaker". The problem with that is...that often goes along with not recognizing evil. War and harm to innocents will always be the end result of that philosophy.
-...many Canadians indulge in caricatures of an America that Bush supposedly represents -- bellicose, simple-minded, uncouth, reactionary.-
Let me get my cryin' towel, my feewings are hurt.
I was visiting Toronto a few years ago and read an opinion piece in a Toronto newspaper. The writer said that Canada's problem was the parlimentary system doesn't fit the country. Without a Senate (and Electoral College?) the urban voter had TOTAL control over a country with huge rural areas, and did not even have to listen (and didn't listen) to the concerns of non-urban Canadians. Do urban Canadians think non-urban Canadians are stupid, like the American red states?
Well, you make it sound like the left has taken hold up there, probably true. Keep fighting for your rights, free speech, association, right to keep and bear arms (uphill, I know) and for returning the Dominion to sanity. Just found www.proudtobecanadian.com, seems like a few conservatives there. Thanks.
Keep fightin' the good fight. Thanks for your response.
I am amazed there are any Conservatives left up here.
We have adapted to the hostile Canadian environment by growing thicker skins, stronger stomachs, and a quirky taste for the bizarre performances of the likes of Carolyn Parrish, Svend Robinson, any NDP provincial government, etc., etc., each whack-job outdone in fatuity by the whack-job following.
I rejoiced when Canuckleheads chose the smarmy socialist preacher T.C. Douglas as the 'Greatest Canadian' last Sunday - a perfect symbol of the sanctimony and credulous thinking that so typifies Canadian public life.
I'm happy to have heckled the red demagogue 'Tommy' when I was a teenager in the early '60s. Made the papers. ;^)
By the lights of the lefty loons who direct Canadian public life, Canada appears to want to be the East Germany of the 21st Century.
That's not much of an ambition, imo, but it has its absurdist moments, and the b*stards won't grind me down. This is my country.
So the libs angry over Kerry's loss who are headed up to Canada are not going to be the first lefties to whine about their loss. Hope there are enough sane up north to turn things around. Nice profile!
Your neighbours are evidently brainwashed by the CBC. Their display of prejudice over your flag is telling of their values. I love seeing the Maple Leaf and the Stars 'n Stripes flying side by side - a beautiful thing.
They are just jealous because they are taxed more than we are.
Just out of interest, did you fly that US flag by itself?
I ask because I remember some stories about Americans in Florida getting all bent out of shape because some Canadian snowbirds down there were flying their Canadian flags by themselves. Do they represent your views?
Me, I couldn't care less. US flags are commonly seen in Canada. Many businesses fly them along with the Canadian and provincial flags, and sometimes those of the business also, as a way of welcoming and showing our friendship for Americans. My office building, for example, has the flags of Canada, the US, and Westbury (the property management company that owns the building) flying in front of it. Of course, I work for a US company and regularly work with Americans.
Remember when Canada was part of America?
What are they a part of now?
(and, what part is that?)
Yes. It is all Americas fault.
Poor Canadians. Always the victim.
Canada never fought for her own freedom. Once independence was forced upon her, Canada has voted for socialism ever since.
Therefore; your basis for blaming America is based on false figures.
I know I'm shocked.
A truly bizarre extrapolation of my well-documented post coupled with an abysmal ignorance of history.
What year was the Canadian war for independence fought?
Now, don't go silent on me.
Yes, yes. America is to blame for Canadas' problems. Gotcha.
Thanks for voting Parrish into office; or was it me that voted for her?
There is no reasoning with the man.
I believe it came up in an earlier thread that a scholarship hockey player from Moose Jaw stole his girlfriend.
;^)
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