Oh Canada: Explaining Canadian Silence (The lotus-eaters of the True North)

National Review ^ | September 30, 2003 | ‘David Frum’s Diary’

[quidnunc]

Home Sweet Home

The Canadian chattering class is much delighted by this week’s Economist cover : a moose in surfer glasses beneath the headline: “Canada’s New Spirit.” Now that will sell magazines!

I haven’t read the issue yet, and anyway the story is not available on line, but I hope it is an improvement over the Economist ’s last Canadian cover, in the summer of 2000. The writer of that survey managed to travel thousands of miles, talk to dozens of people, and (apparently) put tens of thousands of dollars on his expense account without absorbing a single idea beyond the weary clichés of what the great Mark Steyn has called “Trudeaupia”: ie, Canadians are gentler, more compassionate, and all around nicer than Americans, and if the Canadian economy malfunctions and young people flee the country, that is the price of Canada’s superior virtue — and Canadians are happy to pay it.

The New York Times last week also succumbed to a nasty bout of Canadian clichés. Reporter Clifford Krauss observed that while same-sex marriage and the recent social changes imposed by Canadian courts and federal governments are bitterly controversial, they have somehow provoked little public protest in Canada. Krauss attributed this lack of response to the “compromise, consensus, and civility” that characterizes Canadian political life.

Um, not exactly. Canadian political life is hardly characterized by “compromise.” The rules of the Canadian political system have allowed one party — the Liberals — to hold near-absolute power for almost 75 of the past 100 years, even though they have seldom won more than 44% of the vote. Since the prime minister appoints judges at his sole discretion, political power has translated into judicial power — an important fact in a country that in 1982 adopted a strikingly open-ended Charter of Rights. Until last month’s vote on same-sex marriage in the federal House of Commons, virtually none of the gay-rights advances that so impressed Krauss was enacted by a legislature — all were imposed by the courts.

So why did Canadians keep so quiet? It could be Canadian culture at work. It could also be that Canadians who do not keep quiet are liable to be hauled before an administrative tribunal, prosecuted without benefit of jury, and fined .

Bias

In the US, right and left argue over whether the media is biased for or against them. Not in Canada, where the case is open and shut. From the front page of this morning’s Globe & Mail report on the California recount:

“After two weeks of entertaining mayhem, Californians awoke yesterday to learn that it’s very likely that the world’s fifth largest economy will end up being run by a monosyllabic bodybuilder, chosen by a tiny percentage of the population. The reaction sounded a lot like panic.

“ ‘Up to now, I just worried that this would look stupid, but it mostly seemed fun,’ Maria Sobiya, a worker at a Los Angles Starbucks said. ‘But now I’m starting to get really scared.’”

Presumably some of the large plurality of Californians now poised to vote for Schwarzenegger are unpanicked — maybe even delighted.

Of course, noticing that would require reporter Doug Saunders to surrender some of his prejudices — and maybe interview somebody other than the girl who sells him his morning latte.

09:17 AM

[quidnunc]

Gay Wedding Bells. Why No Hubbub? It's Canada.

Gay marriage is the most contentious issue to emerge on the Canadian political scene since Quebec threatened to secede in 1995. Opinion polls show the issue cuts a fissure across class, age, regions, gender and religious lines — a recipe for sharp discord in most societies, rich or poor.

But this is Canada, a country that has never suffered a revolution or civil war, where compromise, consensus and civility are the most cherished political values.

The other day religious groups, calling their campaign "Millions for Marriage," tried to mobilize demonstrations outside the offices of 30 members of Parliament across the nation to sway them against extending marriage rights to gays. The demonstration fizzled, with reporters outnumbering protesters in several places.

That failure did not mean that gay marriage is not deeply divisive; the House of Commons was evenly split in a test vote on the issue last week, rejecting by 137 to 132 a conservative resolution defining marriage as between a man and a woman.

But it showed that explicitly taking a position on an emotional, divisive issue is, well, un-Canadian.

"Debate in Canada is like talking into a pillow," noted Jane Jacobs, an urban affairs expert who left the United States during the Vietnam War and became a Canadian. "There's a great civility, but you often don't know how people are thinking."

Austin Clarke, an acclaimed Barbadian-born immigrant novelist, had a less approving interpretation: "We are oppressed by political correctness," he said. "That makes us more conservative and scared to express our deeply felt convictions than people in countries that we regard as conservative."

Mr. Clarke was referring, of course, to Canada's argumentative neighbor to the south, the country Canadians love to differentiate themselves from. Canada is a big, multicultural country that is united by very few things: a shared love for ice hockey and Tim Hortons donuts, watching the CBC and an enduring collective desire to distinguish Canadian culture from American. If Americans are loud, Canadians will be whispery.

As the American political debate has become noisier and more polarized in recent years, Canada has settled into a comfortable, left-leaning middle ground. It's partly, though not entirely, a reaction. Canadians generally like the fact that the culture wars don't move their nation. The Christian right is small here, and few politicians will openly address hot-button issues like abortion.

Come north over the border, and you may want to turn up the volume on Canada's comparatively tepid radio talk shows. The two leading political magazines of the left and right have gone bankrupt in the last couple of years, because of decreasing reader interest and declining advertising.

"There is a deep-seated bias against anybody who stirs up feelings of anxiety about the status quo or the way the world is," noted Link Byfield, the editor and publisher of The Report, the conservative magazine that went silent in June after 30 years in print.

It is not that there is nothing to debate about here. Homelessness and urban decay are growing, as are waiting lists for health care services. Federal and local governments are liberalizing drug laws, decriminalizing marijuana and allowing safe-injection centers to open in Vancouver. But even with national elections expected to be held early next year, debates on these issues have yet to jell. Recent provincial elections have turned on such mundane concerns as auto insurance rates.

-snip-

(Cliford Krauss in The New York Times, September 24, 2003)
To Read This Article Click Here

[tkathy]

I just came back from a trip to Canada, and sat in my motel room. I hate CNN so I ended up watching the Canadian news network. (very much like CNN) Hardly a word about Canada, but endless reports about the Yanks. Really funny, since U.S. media reports little or nothing about Canada.

[headsonpikes]

OTOH, here in the Kootenays the sun is shining, the sky is blue, God's in his Heaven, all's right with the world. ;^)

When in Canada, avoid Toronto and Montreal.

And Ottawa.

[goldstategop]

Ontario's provincial election is the day after tomorrow. Yes, Canada still troops to the polls but the standing joke about Canadians, is "you're so polite!" And the answer is, "we'd rather not have to think about it since O Canada means never upsetting the boat."

[kidd]

I started doing business in London, Ontario in the early 90's. When I first began to visit there, I was impressed by how a city of 300,000 could be so clean, safe and alive. By 1999, the center of the city was shoulder to shoulder panhandlers, filthy with garbage and grafitti, and I was told to avoid the center of the city at night because of gangs.

I was amazed at how rapidly a city could fall into decline.

I've spoken to a lot of locals there. Many brain-washed sheep. Most of them cannot have too many social programs. Many have the impression that homosexuals are somehow smarter than the rest of us. Many will not come to the United States because they think that as soon as they step across the border that they're going to be shot by someone who legally owns a gun.

Conservatives are vastly outnumbered, but they are there.

I had business dealings there for over ten years without a price increase (the Canadian dollar dropped faster than inflation increased). Finally, the business that I dealt with could no longer keep pace with regulations regarding the handling of radioactive material, and I had to find a US vendor.

Canada is dying, and only a few of them know it.

[Alberta's Child]

My sentiments exactly.

I don't do business in Canada -- I do business in Alberta.

[marron]

I have always had a high regard for Canadians, considering them to be the same as us, but better. If you run into someone who is apparently American, but is polite and speaks grammatically, he's prima facie Canadian.

The events of the past year or so, and cable access to Canadian news has cured me of that impression completely.

I can't square my image of Canadians based on the many that I work with and know, with the image I see on Canadian news, its like another species I have never encountered before, shrill, ignorant, angry, hateful, bigoted. Totally conformist, elitist, dependent. I don't recognize those people, but I know I don't like them.

I remember when I was living overseas I used to catch CNN once in a while (I purposely didn't watch them very often) and the image I got of Americans from CNN was hair-raising, nauseating. When you are in the states, and you see CNN, it doesn't have the same effect, because you have context. You know that what you see is only a small part of the whole. But when you see CNN from overseas, the context is stripped away, and what you see is all you know, and it is horrifying.

Maybe there is something to that in watching Canadian news from the states.

[overtaxed_canadian]

Many brain-washed sheep. Most of them cannot have too many social programs. Many have the impression that homosexuals are somehow smarter than the rest of us. Many will not come to the United States because they think that as soon as they step across the border that they're going to be shot by someone who legally owns a gun. Conservatives are vastly outnumbered, but they are there.

Sadly, your impressions are all too accurate.

[marron]

I wince a little at what I wrote in post #7, because I don't know how it reads to someone else.

I have worked with many Canadians over the years, both in the US and abroad, and I have always held them in very high regard, they have been almost uniformly decent, competent, good people.

But Canada filtered through the Canadian press is not a pretty sight, and I have been very disappointed by the level of discourse, for example, in Canadian parliament discussions of Iraq and Afghanistan, and in the level of rhetoric in the Canadian press.

It is hurtful primarily because I hold Canadians in such high regard. No one cares what France thinks, or what Belgians, or even the Germans think. What Canada thinks matters, not on a realpolitik level, they aren't that kind of world power, but on more of a personal level, as we have seen them in the past as an extension of "us". They may not appreciate being an extension of us, they obviously don't, but it is only on that level that we care.

But we did care, and it is on that level that the Canadian cut was the unkindest one.

This takes nothing away from the flesh and blood Canadians I know. I wouldn't want to be judged on the basis of CNN's America, or Jerry Springer's America, or Clinton's America, although they really do exist. The Canadian left isn't very pretty, but then nobody's Left is very pretty.

[quidnunc]

I suspect that what Canadians say to Americans' faces and what they say behind their backs is quite different ("I have nothing against Americans as people, but…")

A year or so ago there was a Canadian scientific poll which reported that 86% of Canadians believed that America wholly or partly bore the responsibility for 9/11.

The Canadian politicians wouldn't be bashing America if it didn't play in Peoria.

[BushisTheMan]

I have been waiting for the opportune time to post an e-mail that I received from a Canadian reporter who actually wrote me back when I told him to keep Martin Sheen.

Here is his response, and I find it particularly funny that this guy is the total opposite of how I think...except for the lawyers part. And he's a reporter..."Personnally" is spelled incorrectly. And "way to" should be "way too" Guess it's the fine educational system of Canada?

===============================

Okay, let me explain it to you one more time.

America is a free because in America a person can criticize the government.

Afganistan was not free because a person would be jailed, tortured or killed for criticizing the government.

You called Sheen a traitor for speaking critically about his government.

What does that make you, American because you support free speech, or Taliban because you don't? Hello!

That's how I see your comment. But, we'll never agree, so let's drop it.

But let me tell you. You'd really hate Canada if you lived here. We are a multicultural country where white is no longer a big majority. Our kids hang out, date and marry kids of all varieties of backgrounds and religions. We are also bilingual. Where I live, courts have decided that if a man can go bare chested in public, so can a woman. Courts have decided they will not hear cases for posession of small amounts of marijuana, so if someone wants to smoke a joint on the front steps of a police station, they will be ignored by the cops. My minister has performed two marriages to same-sex couples in the last month or so and our old, grey-haired white-skinned congregation doesn't care one way or the other. It is illegal to carry a hand gun and so in a city like Toronto, we have one murder for every 100 that happen a comparible-size US city like Chicago or Atlanta. Escort services in my city are licenced by the city and advertise in the yellow pages. Young women walk home from college night classes without fear of mugging. If I need to go to a doctor or have an operation, the cost is covered by the government. All Canadians have the same health care coverage, rich or poor. The cancer survival rate of poor Canadians is the same as the cancer survival rate of rich Americans because they both have instant access to health care. Canadian taxes are higher, but they are lower than taxes plus health insurance in the US. Our health care system is cheaper because there are no lawyers involved in disputes. Everything is covered for everyone so there are no disputes.

It's not a perfect country, so I complain about my government all the time. I do that without feeling like a traitor.

Personnally, I think Martin Sheen is way to conservative to live in Canada. You keep him.

John

[BushisTheMan]

I have been waiting for the opportune time to post an e-mail that I received from a Canadian reporter who actually wrote me back when I told him to keep Martin Sheen.

Here is his response, and I find it particularly funny that this guy is the total opposite of how I think...except for the lawyers part. And he's a reporter..."Personnally" is spelled incorrectly. And "way to" should be "way too" Guess it's the fine educational system of Canada?

===============================

Okay, let me explain it to you one more time.

America is a free because in America a person can criticize the government.

Afganistan was not free because a person would be jailed, tortured or killed for criticizing the government.

You called Sheen a traitor for speaking critically about his government.

What does that make you, American because you support free speech, or Taliban because you don't? Hello!

That's how I see your comment. But, we'll never agree, so let's drop it.

But let me tell you. You'd really hate Canada if you lived here. We are a multicultural country where white is no longer a big majority. Our kids hang out, date and marry kids of all varieties of backgrounds and religions. We are also bilingual. Where I live, courts have decided that if a man can go bare chested in public, so can a woman. Courts have decided they will not hear cases for posession of small amounts of marijuana, so if someone wants to smoke a joint on the front steps of a police station, they will be ignored by the cops. My minister has performed two marriages to same-sex couples in the last month or so and our old, grey-haired white-skinned congregation doesn't care one way or the other. It is illegal to carry a hand gun and so in a city like Toronto, we have one murder for every 100 that happen a comparible-size US city like Chicago or Atlanta. Escort services in my city are licenced by the city and advertise in the yellow pages. Young women walk home from college night classes without fear of mugging. If I need to go to a doctor or have an operation, the cost is covered by the government. All Canadians have the same health care coverage, rich or poor. The cancer survival rate of poor Canadians is the same as the cancer survival rate of rich Americans because they both have instant access to health care. Canadian taxes are higher, but they are lower than taxes plus health insurance in the US. Our health care system is cheaper because there are no lawyers involved in disputes. Everything is covered for everyone so there are no disputes.

It's not a perfect country, so I complain about my government all the time. I do that without feeling like a traitor.

Personnally, I think Martin Sheen is way to conservative to live in Canada. You keep him.

John

[Timesink]

The events of the past year or so, and cable access to Canadian news has cured me of that impression completely.

Needless to say, Canadian news is seen as Gospel to those DUers that live close enough to the border to get it. They can't stop talking about how wonderful it is.

During the Iraq War, C-SPAN aired the CBC's main evening newscast live, and there were a number of live threads here on FR ragging on each night's show; you should try to dig them up and read them. The general consensus was that it is was so biased it made the worst of the BBC and other hard-left European news outlets look like they'd all been hand-fed propaganda straight from Karl Rove's hand. There is no news operation in the free world more filled with hatred towards America and George W. Bush than that of the CBC.

[Timesink]

Canada is dying, and only a few of them know it.

And most of those that do seem to believe that America will somehow save them when their country falls apart (by having various provinces secede and apply for statehood, etc). I hate to break it to them, but this isn't going to happen. The GOP will never allow most provinces to become states, because they are overwhelmingly populated by liberals that would become hardcore Democrats the moment they became American citizens. That means more RAT senators and more RAT congressman. Not a chance. Likewise, the Dems wouldn't allow Western provinces to be admitted to the US because it would result in guaranteed GOP senators and congressmen.

When Canada collapses under the weight of its own inferiority complex and socialist feelgood policies, they're going to be on their own.

[Lorenb420]

When in Canada, avoid Toronto and Montreal.

I live right downtown in Toronto and as I was walking home tonight up Yonge St. I passed in order: a sex shop, a tattoo parlour, a male/"shemale" strip club, a youth street mission and a government agency for child and social services.

At first glance it's kind of funny to see all these places beside each other but really it's just sad.

There are nice parts of Toronto for sure. It's not all bad, but IMO it sure looks like it going downhill fast.

[headsonpikes]

There are nice parts of Toronto...

No doubt...I've heard Rosedale is wonderful - I've only been downtown and the airport, on several occasions, none of them warmly memorable.

Canadian-style socialism has destroyed the nation; the type of paternalistic policies and practices sharpened on the Indian Act Reservations turn out to have been a mere pilot project for the social reconstruction of the country. The family is being systematically dismantled, so far as it is within the power of the CanSoc Party to do so.

Canadian hubris is just as despicable as German or Russian hubris, IMNSHO.

[Lorenb420]

Canadian-style socialism has destroyed the nation; the type of paternalistic policies and practices sharpened on the Indian Act Reservations turn out to have been a mere pilot project for the social reconstruction of the country. The family is being systematically dismantled, so far as it is within the power of the CanSoc Party to do so.

I agree and I'm working on getting out of here before it's too late!

[SendShaqtoIraq]

"If I need to go to a doctor or have an operation, the cost is covered by the government."

Only if you can get in before you die. They have a 2 YEAR waiting list for open-heart surgery.

"The cancer survival rate of poor Canadians is the same as the cancer survival rate of rich Americans because they both have instant access to health care."

I don't believe this, but if true, it's because WE do all the R&D on the cancer drugs, WE pay premium prices for them, and they get them for nearly free.

[Squawk 8888]

You forgot about the "Canada clause" of the US constitution, wherein Canadian provinces can bypass the normal process for becoming States. British Columbia threatened to invoke it in the 1860s to gain leverage for the construction of a transcontinental railway.

[Allan]

I hope it is an improvement over the Economist ’s last Canadian cover, in the summer of 2000.

Oh yes, an improvement indeed.

Here are couple excerpts:

"...Canada is now rather cool.
Part of what makes it cool is a certain boldness
in social matters."

"Canada's government has recently announced its support
for pioneering bills
to legalise gay marriage and decriminalise marijuana
both excellent liberal ideas."

That's the last time I shall shell out 6.95 Canadian dollars for the Economist's trash.