Letters to the Editor
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How predictable...
No offence but an American with enough sense to flee a pointless military occupation is still an American. Nice to have as a visitor now and then but not really that great as a neighbour. Stay at home and fight for what you believe in.
How predictable. An article about a U.S./Canada relations prompts snide, veiled America bashing from Canadians. A few points -
1.)Canada hasn't historically treated its aboriginals any better than the U.S. has treated its minorities.
2.)Quebecois and English speaking Canadians don't get along any better than English speaking Americans and Spanish speaking Hispanics. In fact, a significant percentage of Canada's population doesn't even think it should be a unified country.
3.)You elected Stephen Harper, a.k.a. the Canadian George Bush.
Canada does some things better than the U.S. (hockey, drug laws, healthcare, good manners, etc.), but let's not pretend its Shangri-La, okay? It has its problems too.
Now, about the U.S. You think we're a bad neighbor? Well, our countries do share the world's longest undefended border and there hasn't been a war between us in nearly 200 years. I don't know if you've studied your world history but that is utterly unprecedented. Try living next to the USSR, the Roman Empire, the Han Chinese, Nazi Germany, ancient Athens, or any other superpower in history, and I guarantee you'd feel more pain than you do now.
Furthermore, a great deal of your economic prosperity you owe to trade with the U.S., your best students all study here, far more of your citizens move here than the reverse, you import huge quantities of consumer goods and raw materials from the U.S., the reason you haven't historically needed a large military to defend the world's second largest amount of territory is that you always had the luxury of knowing that no one would dare f**k with you for fear of pissing off your rather formidable ally to the south, CAN-CON regulations aside much of your culture is derivative of American culture, etc. Canada wouldn't be nearly as successful as it is without the U.S., and you know it.
Don't get me wrong. I love Canada, many of my best friends are Canadians, and I think I can safely say I know far more about it than 99% of Americans. It's a great country. But one of its major flaws is the smug, self-righteous attitude shared by a certain segment of its people, which is reflected in your post. Americans aren't the only ones capable of being knee-jerk nationalist idiots.
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How predictable...
No offence but an American with enough sense to flee a pointless military occupation is still an American. Nice to have as a visitor now and then but not really that great as a neighbour. Stay at home and fight for what you believe in.
How predictable. An article about U.S./Canada relations prompts snide America bashing from smug Canadians. A few points -
1.)Canada hasn't historically treated its aboriginals any better than the U.S. has treated its minorities.
2.)Quebecois and English speaking Canadians don't get along any better than English speaking Americans and Spanish speaking Hispanics. In fact, a significant percentage of Canada's population doesn't even think it should be a unified country.
3.)You elected Stephen Harper, a.k.a. the Canadian George Bush.
Canada does some things better than the U.S. (hockey, drug laws, healthcare, good manners, etc.), but let's not pretend its Shangri-La, okay? It has its problems too.
Now, about the U.S. You think we're a bad neighbor? Well, our countries do share the world's longest undefended border and there hasn't been a war between us in nearly 200 years. I don't know if you've studied your world history but that is utterly unprecedented. Try living next to the USSR, the Roman Empire, the Han Chinese, Nazi Germany, ancient Athens, or any other superpower in history, and I guarantee you'd feel more pain than you do now.
Furthermore, a great deal of your economic prosperity you owe to trade with the U.S., your best students all study here, far more of your citizens move here than the reverse, you import huge quantities of consumer goods and raw materials from the U.S., the reason you haven't historically needed a large military to defend the world's second largest amount of territory is that you always had the luxury of knowing that no one would dare f**k with you for fear of pissing off your rather formidable ally to the south, CAN-CON regulations aside much of your culture is derivative of American culture, etc. Canada wouldn't be nearly as successful as it is without the U.S., and you know it.
Don't get me wrong. I love Canada, many of my best friends are Canadians, and I think I can safely say I know far more about it than 99% of Americans. It's a great country. But one of its major flaws is the self-satisfied, holier-than-thou attitude shared by a certain segment of its population, which is reflected in your post. Americans aren't the only ones capable of being knee-jerk nationalist idiots. The Canadian version can wrap their condescension in the Maple Leaf and shove it up their *sses for what this American cares.
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Oops...
Sorry about the double post... Regardless of which side of the border you're on I think we can agree that's annoying.
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Those nasty Canadians
Its interesting what people take from this article. I didn't think the article put the Canadians in a particularly flattering light at all - it seems that the soldiers are getting help from US organizations, and that even leftish Canadian politicians are not particularly supportive.
My limited experience with Canadians [my daughter goes to school there] is that they are quite pro-US, and that the same cliche holds: its Bush they can't stand. Ditto most French people. Why are Americans so defensive when another country is mentioned? Is there a growing suspicion that life isn't all so wonderful in the good old USA, and that just to mention another country brings out defensiveness? How terribly sad.