Too American to Be Canadian?

The Washington Post ^ | January 8, 2006 | Anna Morgan

[quidnunc]

Anti-American sentiments are so robust in Canada that you apparently don't even have to be American to feel their sting — American-by-association will do. Take the case of Michael Ignatieff, the Toronto-born political scientist and human rights expert who spent the last couple of decades teaching at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.

When he returned to Canada late last year to run for Parliament, did he get a warm welcome home from the locals? Hardly. Ignatieff had to stand down hecklers shouting "American, American!" — and this was at the candidate nomination meeting for his electoral district, from grass-roots members of his own Liberal Party.

Ignatieff managed to win the nomination, but negative perceptions of his American — and Bush-supporting — veneer have dogged him on the campaign trail. The media have accused him of supporting "torture lite" for writing that legitimate interrogation can involve "some non-physical stress." He's been ridiculed for insulting the Ukrainian Canadian community with his complex (and nuanced) analysis of the Ukrainian experience under the Soviets in his 1995 book "Blood and Belonging." And he's been taunted for his support of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

-snip-

[MARKUSPRIME]

Getting tired of the canadians bashing the US. The hockey bashing of our young athletes was nearly the last straw. Boo my nations anthem and you become an enemy. We shall see if it changes with the conservatives. Im betting it doesnt. Let them buy eurofighters, no stealth tech or advanced radar should be sold to them if this continues.

[F14 Pilot]

disgusting

[Ursus arctos horribilis]

Seems we have some resident Canucks here at FR whom hold the anti-American bashing view also.

[MARKUSPRIME]

All we need is oil from Alberta. Thats it. If the anti-americanism continues I hope our government tells them to go pound sand.

[Clioman]

And MAYBE some wood from B.C. But where are they gonna find any sand? How about "go pound snow."

[Siena Dreaming]

Even many "good" Canadians have a deep-down anti-American bias.

Maybe it's because they didn't believe in our Revolution; many loyalists migrated from the US to Canada at that time. So the roots go deep. I think they better acknowledge that America won the Revolution and now leads the world because its views on freedom are the best.

[BW2221]

Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta aren't bad, but the rest of the Canadian provinces totally suck.

[Beowulf]

Even many "good" Canadians have a deep-down anti-American bias.

Envy is not new. Just as long as Canada keeps sending us the likes of Diana Krall, Michael Buble, and Sidney Crosby the rest of the Canadians can pound sand or do whatever else they please as far as I'm concerned.

[caveat emptor]

My goodness. Suddenly trusting WaPo are you?

I haven't followed the Ignatieff business that closely, but he was parachuted in by PM Paul Martin, who jiggered the nomination process so that some others were prevented from filing nomination papers - typical crooked Martin.

Conservative Canadians are laughing at this one.

[kajingawd]

...Boo my nations anthem and you become an enemy..."


When all of Auburn Hills fans booed my national anthem( for its full duration) in 2002 when the Raptors were playing the Pistons, i didnt consider all Americans as my enemy...i still don't.

grow up kids

[kajingawd]

But where are they gonna find any sand? How about "go pound snow."


yeh, we can't find sand here on our beaches.

[kajingawd]

have you ever been to any other province than those 3 that you mentioned?...

As a Canadian, Manitoba and Saskatchewan arent that great either lol.

Alberta's kinda nice.

[MARKUSPRIME]

What really makes it bad is the canadians didnt boo Norway or the Russians(you know the nation we protected you from in the cold war and we still do in the north pole with our nuclear subs), but the crowd booed the US national anthem and started chanting US sucks to the teenage hockey team. Well fk people like this. Your hate for the US has been known here for years just people now is starting to wake up and are bloody sick of it.Just keep on canada.You are quickly replacing France.

[marron]

You'll notice that there is a certain glee to the french-bashing threads; their fun to bash anytime. Its no surprise when the French hate us, and we really don't care if they hate us. We actually don't hate them, we don't care. So bashing them is fun.

The canadian-bashing threads aren't nearly as fun, because we're actually hurt. Thanks to the magic of cable, we get Canadian news, thanks to CSpan we occasionally get Canadian parliament on TV, and it has been an eye-opener. We can't really blame just Chretien, like we do Schroeder or Chirac, we can see that the hatred for us goes deeper, it seems to be across the board.

It doesn't hurt if the French don't like us, because we expect it. It doesn't hurt if the Germans don't like us, because we find them vaguely funny. It does hurt if Canadians hate us because we didn't expect it. We always thought of them as "us"; a slightly nicer, more polite "us" but with better grammar. Boy were we wrong. Not about the grammar, but about everything else.

[kajingawd]

I won't agree with 4000 fans booing any national anthem, ever...but it was a sporting event, international politics come into play in a tourney like that, unfortunately.
I agree with you somewhat...but you have to put into perspective what was going on there. It's a very PROUD environment this sacred * Arena *. It's one way for Canadians to distinguish themselves in the world of sports.


Hockey is an entity of its own in Canada. When i was growing up in New-Brunswick we played hockey in different villages, parishes, towns and cities. We played in neighboring provinces like PEI and Nova-Scotia.
I remember being yelled at at the age of 8 and on from opposing parents in those different places.
From town to town in the same parishes there was name calling and parents yelling obscenities from each end of the rink. Opposing parents and kids that we saw everyday at school, church, the store, different events. I remember when my HS( 800 students ) beat the capitol's HS team( 5000+ ) students. Frogs were thrown on the ice, we were attacked after the game by parents, students and anyone else there that weren't of Cajun origin. I remember playing and hearing our parents berate Native players ...and the same was done to us when we played on the *Reserves*...
The PEI potatoes( offensive slang?) came here, and we hated them when we played hockey...and they hated us when we played over there...same thing with the 'Capers.

I have since made very good friends with people i played hockey against and with...from here in my village, in the Parrish, in different towns around here, in our capitol...you get my point Those american players didn't feel what you softies are feeling here...The American players were favored to win and probably thought that the canadian fans were jealous...or just didnt want them near Canada to play for the final. so yeh...:D

[MARKUSPRIME]

Even the US youth hockey team coach and the players said they were disgusted by the canadians behavoir towards them(I saw them invied on the news). They were the only team booed. You really dont know how sick we are getting of this. These were not professional athletes or the olympics they were teenage kids that came to play in good sportsmanship. Disgusting.

[Altair333]

"The canadian-bashing threads aren't nearly as fun, because we're actually hurt."

I think that's accurate. It hurts for a little while. Then that hurt turns to a feeling of "who the #$%& do they think they are acting superior to us?" Canadians are basically indistinguishable from Americans- I fish the Bow River in Calgary and it's like you're in America except the dirt is black and the houses all look alike. But the people you talk to could just as easily be Americans. It's almost surreal to read about such people booing Americans and cheering Russians.

But whatever is motivating this, I think it's time for us to reciprocate. Stop sending any amateur hockey teams up there to play. Tighten trade restrictions. Let's see who needs whose economy the most.

[-=[_Super_Secret_Agent_]=-]

It's almost surreal to read about such people booing Americans and cheering Russians.


ahem. What so surreal about that? You got people in your own country burning US flag. You got people in your own country that hate USA.

Stop pretending you don't have one in your own cuntry.

[Altair333]

We don't have people here that take out their insecurities on kids playing a game. As a matter of fact, I can't recall American fans booing foreign teams in any sport- ever- just because they were foreignors. Yes, dust off that incident in Detroit if you like, but that was one game and this has happaned repeatedly in Canada.

Wtf are you doing here, by the way? Don't you have a good Canadian board you can visit? This board is for pro-American conservatives, not apologists for those who boo America.