Canada Versus The USA. (A liberal's path to conservatism.)

Galganov.com ^ | 10/24/2002 | Howard Galganov

[NorthernRight]

Canada Versus The USA.
By Howard Galganov	10/24/2002

 
From some of my earliest grade-school recollections, I remember more than just one of my teachers telling the class how Americans have no culture. But Canadians do. And in these lessons, we learned about our "steep culture", including our colonial past and membership in the Commonwealth. I even recollect singing "God Save The Queen" every morning. How utterly Canadian.

When I was in highschool, it was more of the same, especially when it came to any discussion of the war in Vietnam. To us, America was the big bad North American bully boy. Even though, if it wasn't for the Americans during the time of both World Wars, the world would be a much different place than it is today.

I recall WW II stories told to me by my late father, of finding American front line military camps, where there were tents, places to warm up and dry out, and hot food dished out by a cook. Much of which was unavailable to Canada's fighting men by our own government. He never told me these tales with envy. Only with gratitude.

It seems, that to the Americans, an allied fighting man was treated as one of their own. And as such, they shared their wealth.

To many Canadians however, the American soldiers were soft and pampered. Yet; it was these same soldiers fighting under the Stars and Stripes who stormed the beaches at Normandy, and eventually liberated Europe. It is also these same American soldiers and their leaders (a generation or more beyond) who kept the world safe from Communism until its final inglorious defeat.

The USA is a huge machine with more cogs, gears and wheels than we can count. And it just keeps on grinding forward. And with its momentum, it carries the whole world along with it. And to many, even though the benefits created by the American machine are huge, the Americans are more often than not resented for their success and contributions.

The Islamic world hates America and Americans for its innumerable successes. And so it appears do we. We don't hate Americans to the degree that we wish them real harm as do the Islamists, only to the degree that we feel pretty smug when they get egg on their face. Or when someone takes them down a notch or two.

I guess, what bothers many Canadians about the USA, is that next to them, we are a pretty insignificant country which does extremely well only because of our friendship and proximity to America.

More than that, for Canadians to really make it big, means that we have to make it big in the USA. Very few people have ever heard of most of our Canadian "famous" writers, actors, musicians and business people until they've made it south of our border.

Making it in the USA takes excellence and competitive dedication. And when you compete in the USA, you're usually competing against the world's best. It also means that you're in the big league opposed to the minor league. And that you've proven your mettle beyond doubt.

When my teachers used to tell us that Canada has a real culture, unlike the culture of the USA, these teachers were not only lying to their students, they were also lying to themselves, and fabricating something they wanted to believe, as opposed to what was real.

The American culture is so powerful and pervasive, that it can be found everywhere in the world. Including Canada. And frankly, many Canadians resent it. But; these same holier-than-thou Canadians who are so quick to take cheap shots at the USA, are also usually at the top of the Canadian "intellectual" food chain, enjoying the largesse that rolls our way courtesy of the US of A.

No one has ever heard of Canadian culture with the exception perhaps of hockey, but ask about Movies, music, food, fashion, medicine, space exploration, business, military might and on and on, and you're talking about the USA.

In the past, I have written many critical arguments against the USA and many of its leaders. Because that's the way I was conditioned from my earliest recollections.

But that said: I have written positively about Democrats; mostly because they more or less reflect Canada's Liberal views.

I have also been guilty of taking cheap shots at Republicans and their Presidents, mostly because they see the world in far fewer shades of gray than do their Liberal counterparts. But over the past few years, my views have changed significantly. Now, I too see the world in far fewer shades of gray.

I clearly see, that it has not been the Liberal Democrats who have kept the world safe from Communism and tyranny. It has not been the Liberal Democrats who have guaranteed that earning money meant that you could keep and enjoy much of what you've earned by paying less in taxes.

But, it has been the Republican Conservatives, with warts and all, who have stared down the enemies of the democratic West. And it was also the Republican Conservatives who bailed out a fiscally bankrupt USA from the Carter presidency. And have carried the world along with it.

I like the clear-speak of the Republican Conservatives. I like it when George W Bush calls the people who terrorize the world "Evil-Doers". I understand exactly what he means. I have had it up to here with the eloquent Liberal left, and their rose colored glasses, where everything is foggy, in an unlimited number of shades of gray.

Much of life is really not all that complicated. There are good guys. And there are bad guys. It's as simple as that. There are people who really make a difference. And there are people who pretend to make a difference. There are people who will stand up for decency, honor and the pursuit of justice. And there are people who will find countless ways to obfuscate what is right, and what is wrong, to the point where you can't tell the difference.

It appears to me, that as far as the Democrats go, they can very much "talk the talk". But as for the Republicans, they indeed know how to "walk the walk".

Canada is a decent little country where the people get along pretty well. But we are not the USA with all the glory that goes with it. And as such, we never have to pay the price to keep what we have, simply because the Americans pay it for us. And we can be as jealous of our neighbors to the south as we want to be, but that will not change what is.

As of 9/11 and the undeclared Islamist World War against modernity and democracy, I have chosen to place all of my trust in the Republican controlled USA. It is only the Americans, with limited help form a few of their friends such as England, who can save the day, and keep the world safe from the Islamist fundamentalists.

If you were to ever visit our home, you would see a 22 foot flagpole at the front of our property, flying the Red Maple Leaf and the Stars and Stripes. And remarkably, in this tiny agricultural community where we live, ours is not the only flagpole sporting these two flags.

There is only one USA in the entire world. And as Canadians, we can thank all of our lucky stars that there is. And we should be even more thankful, that they are our neighbors, friends and just like family.

It's time for Canada and Canadians to realize who were are, and how little significance we represent on the world stage, and how fortunate we are to be living next door to the USA, which might not be the only yardstick by which we should be measuring ourselves. But it's a hell of a good place to start.  

[JasonC]

Nope, it isn't geography. Here is a region by region comparison. What I did is look at the population of various Canadian regions and matched them with comparable populations from US states bordering them, with similar geography and patterns of settlement. It goes as follows -

Quebec and Atlantic provinces - 9.8 million population
Ontario - 12.1 million population
British Columbia - 4.1 million population
Other west - 5.4 million population

vs.

New England (minus CT, RI) - 9.5 million population
Michigan - 10 million population
Washington - 6 million population
Minnesota - 4.9 million population

Minnesota is a faster way to count it, but if you like you can replace it with a mix of western states from the great plains and mountain regions - Nebraska, the Dakotas, Montana and Idaho, with or without Alaska (635k) - and you get about the same result, to within $25-30 billion in overall GDP for the set.

Those US regions have a combined population of 30.4 million, vs. 31.4 million for Canada. Or 31 million if you throw in Alaska. Their combined GDP is $1.1 trillion to $1.15 trillion. Which is about the same as Canadian GDP in Canadian rather than US dollars. In US dollars, their GDP is only 64% as large.

It can't be blamed on different regions. The correspondance in actual populated areas is quite close. British Columbia is a bit smaller than Washington state population wise, but Ontario is the same amount larger than Michigan and makes up for it.

There are indeed regions of Canada that are strongly affected by much colder climate, but they don't enter the picture at all because they are essentially uninhabited. The entire Yukon, Northwest Territories, and tundra regions have a combined population of only 100,000, less than 1/6th that of Alaska (with its mostly maritime settlement).

A more telling difference may be the respective sizes of the government sector in the two economies. Government at all levels takes 30% of US GDP. In Canada, government takes 40% of GDP. (In both cases, about half of that is the federal level and half is state or region plus local). Canada spends only 1% of GDP on the military, while the US spends around 3%. Non-military government expense is thus almost 50% higher in Canada than in the US - with only two thirds the per capita income to pay for it.

I hope this is interesting.

[JasonC]

If one scans through the regions listed and asks what is missing, it is the peaks of private sector accomplishment that are glaringly absent on the Canadian side of the border. Quebec has a distinctive culture and highly developed service sector, but it does not have the world class universities of Massachusetts with their high tech spin offs. Ontario has a Toronto to balance a Detroit, and a strong industrial base including auto parts, but not GM, Ford, and Chrysler. The west has extractive industries as well as agriculture, but nothing like the continual innovation of a 3M. British Columbia has a diverse economy centered on Vancouver mirroring Seattle, but no Boeing or Microsoft. The larger US market is obviously a much more favorable environment for large corporations.

[Snowyman]

I don't know who Howard Galganov is and sure won't rely on his knowledge of Canada any time soon. It's too bad he can't take the time to learn something about what apparently is his own country.

I even recollect singing "God Save The Queen" every morning.How utterly Canadian

Me too .And the Maple Leaf Forever. With the same respect an American kid was expected to sing the Stars and Stripes. How utterly American.

To us, America was the big bad North American bully boy

Not in my 66-67 class .My classmate went to Viet Nam .Twice. USMC. And no one said or believed he was helping a bully. And when Iran took the Americans captives no Canadian said they deserved it or were not worthy of our help

He never told me these tales with envy.

My Dad was a D-day Dodger. In Italy. Then NW Europe . I've never heard him complain about the food or being wet. Just being shot at all the time. And his friends dying. And as for the beaches on D-Day there were 47 different nationalities there on June the 6th. Galganov insults every serviceman that was there and that went on from there for the next 11 months.

extremely well only because of our friendship and proximity to America.

No . Extremely well only because Canada has 2 billion bucks worth of value to sell to the US every day.

When my teachers used to tell us that Canada has a real culture, unlike the culture of the USA, these teachers were not only lying to their students,

Galganov has never heard of the Cirque Du Soleil, Group of Seven ,Stratford Theatre, Stomp'n Tom , Leahy, John McDermott, Tim Horton's, Calgary Stampede, Bon Homme, beaver tails and Ice wine. Even Don Cherry and Red Green.

It is only the Americans, with limited help form a few of their friends such as England, who can save the day, and keep the world safe from the Islamist fundamentalists.

BS. All of the Western world needs to stand up with the Americans. And none of this limited bs. All the way and that in itself will be a fight between what is right and needs to be done and the timid and procrastinators.

It's time for Canada and Canadians to realize

What, Galganov ? That every Canadian is not as patronizing as you are and that being Pro-Canadian is not being Anti-American. And that 31 million Canadians choose to be Canadian because that is our preferance. And that because America does great things and Americans love their country is not a reason for us to love ours less.

[NorthernRight]

I normally don't try to defend the contentions in any article I repost from other sources. I usually leave that for the author of the piece. That said, I'll say this - Galganov is a friend of mine, and someone who I've known for over 25 years. A more proud, patriotic and nationalistic Canadian, you will not find.

I think you may have completely misinterpreted his intentions in writing this article. It was written as a rebuttal and response to the knee-jerk liberal elite anti-American reactionaries in the Canadian government, and in the Canadian "intelligentia".

In fact, I think you ought to forward your complaint to Mr. Galganov directly, (howard@galganov.com). I believe you'll find that he'll agree with every single one of your contentions and arguments.

[Black Powder]

I think you may have completely misinterpreted his intentions in writing this article.

If his intention was to come across as a complete ingrate, he's done quite well in this article. Writing nonsense such as the following doesn't say much for his historical recollections either:

And as such, we never have to pay the price to keep what we have, simply because the Americans pay it for us.

This is such an obscene insult to the 116,000 Canadians who gave their lives this past century while helping their allies from Great Britain and the USA. Here is an important point to keep in mind, something a nationalistic Canadian such as Glagonov should also be aware of: Canadians are the ones who have helped and protected others in their wars and petty conflicts, not the other way around. Per capita, no other country on earth has paid such a high price for freedom and to the aid of its allies as Canada.

[Snowyman]

If I were someone reading this article for the first time I would have a hard time, a really hard time, interpreting this article as a rebuttal and response to the knee-jerk liberal elite anti-American reactionaries in the Canadian government, and in the Canadian "intelligentia".

And I doubt if any Canadian, not to mention any American, reading it would interpret it that way either.

[calenel]

"Not in my 66-67 class...And when Iran took the Americans captives..."

35 years ago, even 25 years ago, the socialists had not taken over the Canadian government, media and academia.

"No . Extremely well only because Canada has 2 billion bucks worth of value to sell to the US every day."

Which Canada can do across the longest undefended border in the world. Hmmm.

"BS. All of the Western world needs to stand up with the Americans. And none of this limited bs. All the way and that in itself will be a fight between what is right and needs to be done and the timid and procrastinators."

Yes, agreed. That being said, New York State has more cops than the number of military personnel in the entire Canadian armed forces. If it were not for the US defensive umbrella neither Europe nor Canada (nor alot of other places) could afford their social programs that they now don't want to cut back.

No offense - I'm tired and on the verge of losing coherency - but unless a lot of governments pull their heads out of their behinds, it's going to be pretty much all the US. Britain is there - at least until its next election. Canada has 53,000 soldiers with obsolete hodge-podge hand-me-down equipment from years of neglect of its military. Australia kicks, but we still don't know how they are going to react to the Bali bombing and I wonder what shape her military is in. NATO? They designed the camel, if you know what I mean. Russia? Maybe.

America made a huge mistake - it defended its allies too well, so they abandoned their militaries and invested in socialized medicine.

This is, indeed, the war of Civilization vs. Barbarism. If we win, the bad guys have a chance to become civilized. If we lose, that's it. We're done.

"It's time for Canada and Canadians to realize...

What, Galganov..."

I think you misunderstand the guy. He seems in no way anti-Canadian. He seems, in fact, to be addressing the very reaction that you seem to be having - resentment of the US as a "standard" for comparison. What he seems to saying is that Canada should consider itself lucky to be in a good neighborhood (as should America IMHO). He's saying that Canada might not measure itself *only* against America, but that America is a pretty good standard.

I don't see the patronage there. Especially since the article appears to be directed at other Canadians who are likely infected with "It's All America's Fault" disease. Maybe messages like this are the vaccine.

[Snowyman]

I agree with much of what you say however,even 25 years ago, the socialists had not taken over the Canadian government, media and academia.

No, they've been around and in control to some degree a lot longer than that. Trudeau and Chretien go way back to the Sixties. Pearson and King the thirties. Academia for decades.

Which Canada can do across the longest undefended border in the world

Doesn't matter, it swings both ways. And if Canada had no wealth to sell ?

New York State has more cops, US defensive umbrella

And that is a consequence of crime in NY state, not the required size of our neglected military .Canada has never maintained a large standing military. When she declared war in 1914 Canada had an army of 3000. Within 4 months the first contigent of 32,000 was in England. In 1939 her navy was 6 destroyers and 3500 men. It became over 400 ships and 100,000 strong. If one looks at the "cold war " as a struggle between the US and the USSR and the defensive plan using the Bomarc missile by the US there may well have been a umbrella over Canada . But undestand the destructive power the Bomarc would have created. Right on top of Canada . There was no defence of Canada. The US was defending itself, it's interests.

America is a pretty good standard. I don't deny that for a second but generally speaking , which we are doing here , perhaps the same could be said for Canada and hammering the hell out of Canada using myths and lies, then holding up the USA as a measuring stick is not the way to measure .

I don't see the patronage there.

To an American maybe not. But the falsehoods used to be critical of Canada while ,in every instance, using the USA as a measure of what we should be ,appears to patronize America

[NorthernRight]

I guess what's missing here is the context - which is Galganov's previous articles.

Some of his early pieces were quite critical of both the USA and George W. Bush. His tranformation from unwitting liberal, to decided conservative is quite dramatic, and well documented in his writings.

I'm going to see if I can convince him to drop by and respond, but he generally prefers to respond individually in an email, or via his own web site.

That said, I must agree with calenel, who shares my own take on this article - ...the article appears to be directed at other Canadians who are likely infected with "It's All America's Fault" disease.

[calenel]

"No, they've been around and in control to some degree a lot longer than that. Trudeau and Chretien go way back to the Sixties. Pearson and King the thirties. Academia for decades."

Surely there have been Socialists around for ages, and surely there were many even 25 years ago, and just as surely they did not have the complete stifling control of government, academia and the media that they do today.

"Doesn't matter, it swings both ways. And if Canada had no wealth to sell ?"

Canada sells 85% of its "wealth" to the US. Canada's trade balance, excluding the trade with the US, is a defecit. Include the US and it is a surplus. That means that the US absorbs the entire trade defecit of Canada and then some. The fact that the entire border is undefended is symbolic of our mutual friendship and the reasons why our relationship has been so successful.

"And that is a consequence of crime in NY state, not the required size of our neglected military."

Absoulutely, the number of cops in NY is a function of the amount of crime. I suppose it is an irrelevant statistic, but it does serve to illustrate the scale of the problem. I'll compare apples to apples, then: in Canada, about 1 in 600 is in the military; in the US the ratio is 1 in 200.

"Canada has never maintained a large standing military."

Because she never had to have one - the US is Canada's *only* neighbor, and between her relationship to Great Britain, the Treaty of Ghent and the Monroe Doctrine, Canada has never needed to have a military except in time of War. No one could effectively touch her *except* the US which has never chosen to.

"When she declared war in 1914 Canada had an army of 3000. Within 4 months the first contigent of 32,000 was in England. In 1939 her navy was 6 destroyers and 3500 men. It became over 400 ships and 100,000 strong."

Which merely illustrates that Canada could contribute more to our mutual defense.

"If one looks at the "cold war " as a struggle between the US and the USSR and the defensive plan using the Bomarc missile by the US there may well have been a umbrella over Canada . But undestand the destructive power the Bomarc would have created. Right on top of Canada . There was no defence of Canada. The US was defending itself, it's interests."

That explains 38000 US troops stationed in Korea for fifty years. You know, all the "wealth" that comes to the US from there... Wouldn't the interests of the US be better served by using those 38000 troops to, say, "secure" all the resources of the north american continent, letting the rest of the world stew in its own juices?

The Bomarcs? I don't think I understand your concern. Perhaps you should clarify that a little. But I was thinking in more general terms.

But, of course, the US does do things deliberately for the sole sake of its own interests. What's wrong with that? Is there a country in the world that conciously acts consistently against its own interests? I think not. Anyone that suggests it is appropriate for the US to ignore or undermine its own interests is an enemy of the US, and any American politician that does so is a traitor. The debate should be what to do in our own interests, not whether to act in them. Isn't it strange, however, that so much of what the US does for its own sake seems to consistently significantly benefit others as well? How many other countries can you say that about?

If you consider the number of people not even Americans who have had better lives as a result of the US' everyday practices and policies you would realize that to be a worthy standard to which to aspire. And that was the author's point.

[chasio649]

old bump but goodie

[chasio649]

ping

[Yardstick]

Very interesting. Thanks!