We stand on guard for thee... on Page A12
We Canadians worry -- often rightly, often despairingly (as if our very sense of self-worth were at stake) -- that Americans don't pay us any attention. I mean, I write The Reaction, a blog mostly about American politics and culture, but I wonder how many Americans pay similar attention to Canadian politics and culture. Not many, but I'm not sure I blame them. I don't even pay that kind of attention to Canadian politics and culture, although I pay more attention than most. (Gomery, anyone? -- no, don't bother.) At least I have an excuse -- I went to high school and college in the U.S. -- but, generally, such is life when you live right next to the world's single superpower.
How nice, then, to find that the Post -- that is, The Washington Post -- has published a piece on Queen Elizabeth's visit to Canada and its relation to an impending confidence vote in the House of Commons. It may not matter much to most Americans whether or not Paul Martin's minority Liberal government survives past the next election, likely just weeks away, but it certainly matters to us, and at least one of America's leading newspapers has taken the time to tell its readers our story...
on Page A12.
Woo-hoo!
How nice, then, to find that the Post -- that is, The Washington Post -- has published a piece on Queen Elizabeth's visit to Canada and its relation to an impending confidence vote in the House of Commons. It may not matter much to most Americans whether or not Paul Martin's minority Liberal government survives past the next election, likely just weeks away, but it certainly matters to us, and at least one of America's leading newspapers has taken the time to tell its readers our story...
on Page A12.
Woo-hoo!
posted by Michael J.W. Stickings at
11:52 PM
2 Comments:
Well, I think Americans might care more about Canada if there wasn't a sense that Canadians don't like us. Maybe I'm paranoid, but it seems like whenever I read a Canadian reference to the US, it's negative.
By
Anonymous, at 10:29 AM
Fair enough. It's true that anti-Americanism is, for some, an element of Canadian self-identity. That is, being Canadian means NOT being American. But that's more or less inevitable when you live so close to the world's superpower. I think for most Canadians it's more of a love-hate relationship. No, not that strong, but I think many Canadians are quite ambivalent. We are very "American" ourselves, in terms of our culture and our values (with notable exceptions), but we tend to recoil from America's insularity and arrogance. And there are many of us who have spent a lot of time in the U.S. (I went to high school in New Jersey and college in Boston.) and who recognize that America is astonishingly complex and diverse, not easily reduced to stereotypes. In the end, though, we don't really know what we want. We want to distinguish ourselves from Americans (say, in terms of our health care system and our dedication to internationalism), but we also desperately want Americans to pay attention to us and to recognize us. (Which is why we tend to elevate those celebrities who make it in the U.S., as if somehow they represent us all.)
By
Michael J.W. Stickings, at 8:21 PM
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