Canadians Have No Right to Look Down on the US: Indeed, None of Us Has

It is a little odd, after spending 10 days in the wide open spaces of the United States, to look down on them from Canada. I am in Toronto and I feel as if I am listening to the goings-on in the great rooms of the house below, from the slightly cramped spaces of the attic. Canada feels strangely shut in. Canada exists in a sliver laid across the top of the States. It is as if Canada were America's toupée.

Not that you can say that here, of course. In Toronto, the contempt for everything America is and does is palpable. I am on a book tour, and, as one small example, all the elements of the Canadian book trade feel resentful of their role as adjuncts to the great market to the south.

Canadian book sales represent between five and 10 per cent of the North American market as a whole, and that is not a position of great potency. Canadian phone calls to American publishers, distributors and wholesalers tend to be ignored.

This is the predicament, it is often said, of the mouse in bed with the elephant. Not very sexy for either party. And when the elephant is harrumphing and trumpeting as he now is, scratching his armpits and generally spreading his enormous bulk from one side of the bed to the other, the life of the mouse is not to be envied.

But she doesn't squeal. She puts on her tweed waistcoat and half-moon glasses, and draws herself up and says: "Really. This is not the sort of behaviour of which I approve." The American elephant's hearing is drowned out by his own scratching-farting-bed-rustling business. He ignores her. The marriage persists only because of geography. Countries can't move out.

Evening gogeo!

Which part of the article would you like me to comment on? The entire article is full of opinion and conjecture. Perhaps you could hone in on what you would like me to address specifically, and I'll try to do so.

For me, this is a case of one man's perception of Canadians in general. A perception acquired on a rather short visit to a very small area of a *very* large country.

Personally, I think he spoke out of turn. Certainly he spoke in ignorance, since what he puts forth as fact is no such thing. Take his comments re: the publishing industry for example, - pitifully biased, and blatently incorrect.

This part I thought particularly ignorant: "CANADA EXISTS IN A SLIVER LAID ACROSS THE TOP OF THE STATES."

Hardly! Canada is a HUGE country with a very well defined sense of itself. It is a great deal more than "America's toupee."

I myself live in the North, in Western Canada's Coastal Mountains. It's a shame that someone with so much to say couldn't find anything factual or hospitable to say about the second largest land mass on earth. Yes, that's right folks, CANADA (the "sliver" on top of the USA), not the STATES is the second largest landmass on earth, second only to Russia. The U.S. is only the FOURTH largest.

So, the man is rude. Perhaps the people he met didn't like either him or his book very much, I don't know, - so anything I say would be speculation. I am not fond of speculation. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for the author of the article.

Best regards, - Anij.

Evening Jackson!

Your point is well taken. That leaves over 3 million of us who don't live anywhere near the border. That's a lot of people!

I am not even a Patriot, and so am not rooting for Canada here, as in Canada is better than the US etc. I don't believe in that kind of nonsense. I just don't understand the need some people seem to have to tear down others...

Prior to 9/11 and the WOT there was none of this kind of talk. After it was made public that 9 out of 10 Canadians did not approve of President Bush's WOT, the emotional climate changed, and all of a sudden Canadians were and are seen as the enemy. (The article that started this thread is just fallout from this IMHO.)

This is unfortunate, as most Canadians wish only the best for the residents of the U.S. It's just that they don't necessarily believe the BEST is WAR.

Personally, I won't participate in *any* earthly war (as a combatant that is), but I love the U.S. and her people, and *really* wish all this rubbish about Canadians being anti-American would just stop. It isn't helping anyone.

Love in Christ, - Anij.

"After it was made public that 9 out of 10 Canadians did not approve of President Bush's WOT, the emotional climate changed, and all of a sudden Canadians were and are seen as the enemy."

I wouldn't say an enemy, but I wouldn't say a friend or Alli either...and I am someone who had a very high opinion of Canada and her peoples. I've liaisoned with the Canadian Coast Guard for many years, and the family and I have spent many pleasant days in Canada...from coast to coast. We haven't been back in almost two years, and probably won't be back any time soon.

When 9/11 happened the United States asked for some very simple assistance from it's neighbor to the north. One was to require and provide us with advanced passenger lists for all flights coming into Canada. Canada refused, yet cries when the security at the border increased. There is also the issue of the two largest Islamic Fundamentalist centers outside the Arab world...North Vancouver and Windsor...who continue to operate unobserved inside Canada and safe from our Homeland Protection Act.

The consider the comments of your own government, when high placed officials can publicly make the ugliest statements about our President and not be reprimanded. Or a government that right now does not provide any military support to the Iraqi mission and CONTINUES TO PROVIDE SANCTUARY to two U.S. military deserters.

Then there is also the open displays of hatred to America. We see it not only in sporting events such as Hockey, where even Don Cherry has been disgusted by Canadian fans, but also in attacks (verbal and physical) on American's vacationing in Canada.

A few months after 9/11 the wife and I spent our last night in Victoria, a place we always loved to visit. The next morning there was garbage on our car, the paint was scratched and a note telling us to go back to America. The police did nothing.

Enemy? No. Friend and Alli...not any more.

The article is an opinion piece, so it should not be surprising that it is filled with opinion.

I'll also point out that he was writing from Toronto, which is acroos trhe country from where you say you are, Western Canada. We in the US consider the western provinces much like our own "flyover country," mostly in tune with us.

I hope you're not saying that there is no contempt for the US or for the President in Canada. I can come up with a lot of quotes. As for the article, these are his opinions:

In Toronto, the contempt for everything America is and does is palpable.

Canadian liberal disgust at American neo-colonialism, heightened by the ever-unrolling Abu Ghraib scandal, seems widespread here.

Perhaps you would care to address them.

Hi Jackson...

I'm so sorry that happened to your and your family when you were in Victoria. That's a lousy thing to do to anyone, there is no excuse for it, and whomever did it should be ashamed.

I didn't vote for the government here (never do), and I don't pay any attention to politics other than to get a general overview, my main interest being to watch and see how world events coincide with Bible prophecy in our time. I get most of my "outside" news from the net.

My responses on this thread have nothing to do with the Canadian **government,** but rather with the Canadian people in general.

We don't watch TV up here in the mountains (well, we watch movies that we own, - we have quite the collection, LOL!) so we don't hear much that way either. I also *really* dislike hockey so I'm not exactly up on that! I *do* like baseball though... favorite team, - The Toronto Blue Jays! :)

As far as Americans vacationing in Canada goes, many do come here, and they are most welcome. They are also polite guests, and genuinely interested in the culture and history of this remote location. As I told you, I have no experience with anti-Americanism either here or elsewhere in Canada. It *does* sound as though your own experiences have been different.

Please do try not to let the actions of a few, harden your heart against the *many* who would welcome you with love.

With our youngest son, and also my brother being married to Americans, and the fact that we lived in Aspen for a long time ourselves, obviously no such bigotry exists in our family. Our little grandson is a dual-citizen of both Canada and the States. (As *my* kids are dual-citizens of Scotland and Canada.)

Should you ever change your mind, and fancy a nice quiet holiday in the mountains here, please do let me know and I will personally arrange it for you. I can promise you that nobody here will be anything other than charitable towards you and yours! Course, - I can't speak for the bears and cougars!!!

gogeo...

I am perfectly familiar with Toronto. I was married there, I have recorded (music) there, we used to live in The Beaches there, and my husband was born and raised there. My son, his wife, and our grandson live within a half an hour's drive of Toronto (going towards Niagara Falls), and my parents, only a little further than that. All of our children were born in that general area too.

No one I know in or around Toronto has any hatred for anyone, let alone Americans. Perhaps we just travel in different circles than some here seem to...

As for what Canadian or American politicians do and say, - I cannot comment on that because I retain a neutral position politically. I have no knowledge of the current brouhaha.

I can only speak for the many people I know who bear Americans no ill will whatsoever, myself included.

I daresay that the people who live where I do would consider it a tad audacious of you though to believe that Western Canada is *your* "flyover country." Truthfully, I also highly doubt that you would find the people here "in tune" with the present American agenda, and general attitude towards the rest of the planet. That does not make them anti-American though, - it simply means that they have a different worldview than do most Americans.

When I go to Rome, I don't convert to Catholicism, and they don't expect me to, yet I get along just fine with the 98% of the people there who are Catholic.

When we lived in Old Jerusalem I did not become a Jew, and taught the Gospel to both Jews and Palestinians alike. (No, it wasn't *allowed* even then.) We all somehow managed to live in peace in the Old City.

It is seldom the *common* people who want to war and kill one another, but the *governments* of countries can and do incite people to riot at times, - usually with lies making each group fear the other. This, of course, is done on purpose, and it is one of the great sorrows I have witnessed during my lifetime.

My point is, - we don't have to *agree* with one another to get along and love each other as we should, and as Christ commanded.

Surely we can manage that...

In the love and peace of Christ, - Anij.

Morning North!

The reasons I don't vote for earthly governments (apart from the fact that which human is in power at any given time is part and parcel of a ridiculous charade that most people actually think is real, when all the time the governments of all nations are carefully manipulated towards predetermined goals/agendas that have nothing whatsoever to do with what you think you are picking at the ballot box) is because I cast my vote decades ago for GOD'S Government, and continue to do so every time I say, "Thy Kingdom come."

All earthly governments are part of the Beast System, and will be done away with soon. I refuse to support Satan's system, and leave the "world" to it's own concerns.

I too thank GOD every day for my life, but it doesn't matter to me which country He sends me to at any given time, as long as I may be of service there. I see no reason for pride in ANY country, - only shame.

I am a solder in another war, with far more lasting repercussions that any war fought on the temporal plane. There is a **huge** battle going on as I write this for your soul and mine, and it has been raging for millenia. It is fast approaching it's climax now, and so there is not only much work to be done, but that work is harder because Satan knows he has only a little time left and is trying his best to mislead everyone possible.

The Bible tells us that "Friendship with the world is enmity with GOD," and that "We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against darkness, against principalities and powers, against wicked forces in high places..."

Believe it.

In the love and peace of Christ, - Anij.

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