March 2003....Toronto....during one of the worse storms of the winter....
Posted on 10/15/2003 8:18:04 AM PDT by quidnunc
Anti-Americanism is a fact of daily life for Americans living in Toronto. The slurs aren't always directed at U.S. foreign policy, but at Americans in general, as in, "That's so American." Like most prejudice, this one is coded: "American" has come to mean pushy, self-promoting, and arrogant. Oh yes, and fat.
It's getting worse. Every encounter, every banal elevator conversation, every talk show, carries the risk of a barb, a stereotype.
Americans, I heard at a party just last week are "individualistic" (translation: greedy, out for yourself) and imperialistic — they want to conquer the world. Isn't it amazing that we're not supposed to mind?
At meetings of Democrats Abroad, a group affiliated with the U.S. Democratic party, which tries to help register U.S. Democrats to vote absentee, I have seen people fuming at this basso continuo of insult and prejudice.
"I get it day in and day out — and it's so ignorant," says Denise, a Toronto teacher. Anti-Americanism, she continues, is encouraged here. "It shows you're a loyal Canadian, that you're smart." Sadly, she says, it often infects her friendships with Canadians. "You might feel you have a lot in common with someone, and then they say something insulting. Without apology."
Peter, a writer, imagined Canada as a tolerant, compassionate society. Then he started living here.
"If the same kind of expressions were directed at people from other parts of the world, it would be considered racism," he says. Canadians, he points out, complain that their country scarcely registers on the U.S. radar screen. "But there's a lack of appreciation in Canada for the diversity and complexity in America. Stereotyping denies people a basic human right, which is to be considered a person, not a cartoon."
Fat? Has anyone been to Manhattan — or San Francisco or Los Angeles or umpteen other U.S. cities?
Of course, at Democrats Abroad get-togethers, the venting is mostly about other things: the Bush administration, its frightening first-strike foreign policy, its "deja voodoo" economics. Yet these gripes carry anguish, betrayal, indignation; Canadians are content to gloat.
Where does this infantile anti-Americanism come from? Is it a by-product of the Canadian inferiority complex — English Canadian, that is, for none of this is a problem in French Canada, among francophones or anglophones.
Is the put down of Americans, the main route to Canadian identity? It's hard to understand this toxic brew of shaky sanctimony spiked with envy and resentment. Some Americans have given up trying — they're planning to go back to the U.S.A.
Others, whose families and careers have taken root here, have come to feel more American after years of not thinking much about it. This has a lot to do with the defining event of our young century: the attacks on the U.S. on Sept. 11, 2001. If anyone doubted that Americans were different from Canadians, that day seared the message into our collective skin. Americans were attacked — because they were Americans.
In the sombre aftermath of those events, we sought other Americans, for only they could understand. That feeling remains, no matter how sickeningly President George Bush has exploited the events of 9/11.
Bush, the man Democrats call the Resident of the White House, used Sept. 11 to push his indefensible attack on Iraq. And, guess what, we were against it.
But that didn't make us any more acceptable to Canadians.
What about all those Canadians who spoke out against the frenzy of hate towards the U.S. during the buildup to the attack on Iraq?
Let's be clear — the attitude of those people reflected support for the war against Iraq. Cheered on by the likes of Ralph Klein and Ernie Eves, they were part of a small but vociferous pro-war pep rally. They were no allies of mine, or of the Democrats I knew.
But I felt equally out of place at the anti-war rallies in Toronto.
There was that knee-jerk anti-Americanism, the kind that closes its eyes to the existence of passionate, articulate critics of the war who live south of the border, of dissenting magazines, newspaper columnists, public radio and TV outlets that are small compared to Fox but that reach millions, along with lively Internet sites like Truthout.org .
Even the current slate of contenders for the Democratic candidate for president has a front runner, Howard Dean, who owes his success to his attacks on current U.S. policies.
But acknowledging such snowballing dissent in the U.S. makes many Canadian critics uncomfortable. It deprives them of the gratification of simple-minded, feel-good superiority.
With the U.S. as the multi-use scapegoat, they don't have to face their own problems, from pollution to ports, from too little affordable housing to too few people owning the media.
As an American, I can, and do, criticize U.S. policies and leaders. But I cannot de-Americanize myself.
Yet coming from America condemns you no matter what your political views are. Sure, if you say you never want to see the U.S. again, you express that kind of fatuous gratitude about living in Canada, you'll be welcomed here with exuberant, U.S.-bashing arms.
But to renounce your birth country is to lose your original sense of place; where you grew up, how it looked and smelled, the holidays. All that is part of you. It is your roots.
Every other immigrant in Canada has a right to his or her roots. Why not Americans?
Jacqueline Swartz is vice-chair of Democrats Abroad Canada.
No they're not. Some play goal , some defence .Only 3 whingers on a team, Ya know.:)
And I thought the writer of this foolishness was an American. Why is she whining so much?
There is 'Merican name for An American in Canada: DRAFTDODGER
It's exactly the misguided devotion of the Liberal Party to that goal since the Pearson/Trudeau Revolution that has screwed our country!
Canada was doing fine before these traitors assumed power, without an official national flag or anthem, and with less socialism than the States.
Now, I advise my own children to emigrate.
That has always been my general impression as well as I visit British Columbia often. The Canadians I know reserve their hatred for Ottawa and the French.
Most people around the world would have no clue that Clinton and Bush were from different political parties.
March 2003....Toronto....during one of the worse storms of the winter....
Being born and bread a Torontonian, I have witnessed in the last 30 years the devolution of my city, and it's happened in direct proportion to the floodgates of immigration being opened. What used to be a clean city has garbage strewn allover it by immigrants who don't value civic cleanliness (just look at our chinatown, it's a disgrace). The rest of the city is turning into crime infested crapholes. The only areas that are still good are the areas where our traditional immigrant base have strongholds (British and european backgrounds). In those areas, new immigrants are simply priced out of the market for the homes there, they simply cannot afford it, so they shack up downtown, and help contribute to the decay.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.