I do not suggest that my experiences regarding Canada and Canadians are representative of Americans generally. Manifestly, they are not.
Although I had traveled briefly in Canada previously, my first extended contact with Canadians came in graduate school. with numerous Canadian colleagues enrolled in the same program as was I. These friendships were uniformly delightful and conversations with my Canadian colleagues were often very fruitful academically, given our different experiences. I came to appreciate and understand their loyalty to Canada combined with genuine friendships formed with their American colleagues.
I have several fond and vivid memories of my contact with these Canadians. Several of them helped me come with them to a professional conference in Montreal and their willingness to guide me to navigate the very contentious language issues in Quebec in the late 1960's were much appreciated. (I did wish I could get them to accompany me to a Montreal Expos baseball game, although I went on my own and had a fabulous time, highlighted by four National Anthem renditions, with O, Canada and the Star Spangled Banner each sung in French and English.) Later they invited me to join them at a Gordon Lightfoot concert, which I was unable to do, but did introduce me to his music, of which I became a lifelong fan. And they introduced me to what remains after over 50 years, my favorite cheese, Black Diamond Cheddar.
These personal connections have always helped form my opinion of and respect for Canada, as have uniformly wonderful experiences traveling in Ontario and British Columbia. But what particularly troubles me about American disregard of Canada and Trump's off the charts ridiculous rants about Canada is the complete and horrifying lack of appreciation for the support the nation of Canada has given us when we needed it. The best example of this in my lifetime was the efforts, at great risk to themselves of Canadian diplomats to effect the escape of some (I think eight, if memory serves.) of the Americans who otherwise would have hostages in Iran in 1979.
Ditto in Haiti in ‘95. Although there under a United Nations mandate the Americans refused to wear blue helmets, fly the UN flag or otherwise display any representation of the UN, as the rest of us did. They were entirely dismissive of the other nations involved and maintained their own separate command structure. And yet they were nonetheless generous in every other way: time, personnel, materiel, etc. A peculiar people, sometimes.
As an American long resident here in Canada I see all of the failings of the country of my birth, and the people who live there, without the distraction of the noise of being in that mob.
US patriotism has always been too puffed up for my liking, and since 9/11 has been perverted into a wilful ignorance of the demons of racism and intolerance, prime features of Christian Nationalism - long a silent cancer poisoning US society - now on the verge of setting the political agenda for the next 4... or more, years.
For the first time I am giving consideration to renouncing my US citizenship.
As to how crazy things are becoming down there, consider just how delusional someone must be to think that the US population needs more guns... a new MAGA inspired "gun rights" lobby is openly advertising the need to "Make America Armed Again".
It's bitterly ironic that nothing made me feel less attached to my fellow Americans than my time in uniform as an enlisted soldier. That dismissive attitude towards allies is symptomatic of a much deeper rot.
I used to blame the military as an institution - part of why I wasn't too sad that a knee injury ended ambitions to earn an officer's commission. But as I got older and did more intensive academic studies I dame to realize that it's actually a problem with national American society, tied to how artificial the thing is.
Too many Americans of whatever partisan persuasion are authoritarians, and that's scary considering how fragile so many of the country's vaunted norms truly are. Meanwhile for all the worship of the military, my brief time in uniform taught me that the thing is a lot weaker than it's made out to be - mostly because the leadership drinks its own kool-aid and thinks it will be 1945 or 1991 forever.
More and more I'm tempted to actually start a West Coast Defense Force. Defending the Constitution against all hazards, foreign and domestic (including wildfires). Because our federal government sure can't be trusted. To our leaders, the Constitution says whatever they need it to at the moment, and that's the very antithesis of what the Founders were trying to accomplish.
“Meanwhile for all the worship of the military, my brief time in uniform taught me that the thing is a lot weaker than it's made out to be - mostly because the leadership drinks its own kool-aid and thinks it will be 1945 or 1991 forever.”
Andrew thank-you for your input. I’ve been disturbed by recent events and publications revealing how brutally nationalistic many of the US military members are. My idols are typically loyal to the US constitution alone, like Alex Vindman, Adam Kinzinger, John Kelly, and so on. In their writings, they all admit the recruitment process can’t seriously filter out all the psychopaths and ultranationalist zealots who join to bash heads under the US flag. I’m afraid of seeing more anti-government terrorists with military backgrounds getting radicalized, even under trump. What do you think?
Definitely a concern, though a common thread uniting most of the ones who do more than talk or brandish AR-15s is that they washed out. That kind encounters the daily bureaucracy of real military life and usually can't get along with others. And the crazy they do is terrible, but limited.
I worry more about the Vance types who don't believe anything and only use anti-government rhetoric as an excuse to install ideological loyalists. On the plus side, as soon as they're in the system they usually become banal bureaucrats like all the others. They're in it for the approval and cash more than belief. Though as with Putin's regime, that can lead to its own form of malignancy.
Danielle Smith from Alberta does not speak for Canadians in Alberta, nor the rest of Canada. I think she has staff that have no clue about politics or diplomacy. This woman has no idea about either. Her education (political or otherwise) was sorely lacking.
America, in my view, has always been a land of contradictions. Founded by men who spoke eloquently about freedom and liberty yet at the same time owned slaves. Fought a civil war over slavery but then allowed segregation to continue for another hundred years afterwards. Has some of the finest universities in the world yet has a shockingly badly-educated population. Rabid about the Second Amendment protecting them from tyranny, yet electing an avowed authoritarian who respects neither the Constitutional separation of powers nor even the rule of law itself. I could go on but I think you get my point.
And yeah - I remember one visit to the US with members of my unit when we went to a breakfast meeting with around 200 Americans and 7 Canadians, and it quickly turned into a *prayer* breakfast at which there were maybe 15 Americans and 7 Canadians *not* praying!
I was also hit with the NOFORN rules during my time with them, despite the fact that it was obvious what they were doing and why. They often assumed that everyone who wasn’t American was a moron, and didn’t quite know how to respond when we bested them during exercises with our shabby equipment.
So bottom line I get your anti-Americanism. Like others, I have formed some enduring friendships with a number of the Americans I served with over the years - great and generous people - but some of them just can’t be trusted, look down their noses at everyone else and at worst act like schoolyard bullies - and those are the ones that spoil it for the rest.
My gosh, it is so refreshing to see someone who has put Canada first without apology. It doesn’t mean being lesser than the US. It means we are not the US, not in any way, shape, or form.
What is it with US Americans and praying? This the second Canadian commenting on this in one day? Neither being alarmist We cannot, not now, not ever, ever allow Christian Nationalism in Canada. Canada is not Christian
I have always said that a Canadian would never be elected PM if he praised God and an American would never be elected President if he didn’t praise God.
Historically Canada *has been* a Christian country, as the vast majority of Canadians identified as Christian. I think a major difference is that Canada was first populated by Catholics, Anglicans, Presbyterians, etc. whilst the US was the destination for people like the puritans. I think the Catholic/Protestant divide in Canada right from the beginning also may have engendered a more tolerate attitude towards people with different beliefs. You can also see this in uber-religious rural Alberta and Saskatchewan, where 600,000 Americans came to settle in the 1890s. This (in my view) is why Alberta in particular is so much more conservative than the rest of the country.
Most people are not aware that the very first Catholic president in US history was John F Kennedy in 1960 - 184 years after the revolution! (For the record John Thompson was our first Catholic PM, in 1892, 25 years after confederation).
Also, religion has always been important to US voters. What church a candidate attends and how devout they are matters (at least until Trump), whereas in Canada religion is considered a private matter. Even Stephen Harper, who I understand to be an evangelical Christian, rarely if ever discussed this while in office.
I would like to agree somewhat with Elaine here. This summary of ‘Christian’ is a bit of an oversimplification, or maybe a broadening of the definition you don’t intend and in contemporary polarised politics, easily misunderstood. I think you may want to use European instead. No doubt Religion was a factor in much immigration and colonisation of then nascent America - that Religious Freedom thing, you know. But basically it was just as much an escape from oppressive governments, wars, and poverty.
Black Cloud, I’m thinking about the whole Iraq war. The Bush admin were convinced Saddam Hussein had hidden WMD’s, so the UN sent a British envoy to conduct a thorough and competent investigation. It came back negative but the Bush admin couldn’t accept that because of course, no other country could possibly be as competent as the US. Plus, Bush jr had a personal axe to grind. So he went ahead with the cringey-named “Shock and Awe”. Hindsight is 20/20 but even as a dumb kid following it all, I recognized the US arrogance and shortsightedness. It was the beginning of years of wasted war and lives. In my humble opinion, if the US had respected our allies, things would have unfolded very differently.
I have a 49 year old Iraqi friend here in Canada. She was a young woman when the war in Iraq started. She also had the opportunity to live in the USA for about 5 years as a young child; coincidentally so did the Iraqi man she married. Her stories of what happened to her and her husband's families as well educated but not rich Iraqis during the war are heartbreaking. When she married she and her husband moved to Oman to work and save money for 8 years, then decided to come here which is when I met them. They came with two small children; he got a scholarship to study for his PhD in Ottawa, and she returned to university for a year to retrain as an English as a 2nd Language teacher. They lived very frugally and managed to buy a home. They've spent the last 14 years in Canada continually upgrading themselves and raising 3 children following in their parents footsteps. One child is an engineer, another is in medical school and the youngest plans to work in astronomy or the space industry. They are exactly the type of people Canada needs with very strong family values. However, none of my friend's and her husband's siblings live in Iraq, they are spread across Oman, the USA and Canada. They left the country of their birth because their lives were destroyed in Iraq due to 'elites' like Tony Blair and the US insisting they knew better and could bring 'democracy' to any country they targeted.
I will fully support any politician who does their best to make the upcoming trade war as painful as possible for Americans. Not to sound paranoid but I sincerely believe this is just the first stages of America making more and more belligerent demands of their neighbours and (former) allies. Hopefully we do increase defence investment soon because the Water Wars are coming faster than we thought
WOW! Do I agree with you" ONE HUNDRED per cent! Thanks, Sir.
I attended high school in SE Pennsylvania 1966-68, and have been a bit of a CANADIAN "hyper-patriot" ever since. I'm a typical "Purple" Canadian non-partisan, Centrist and attempt to be inclusive.
This latest round of American Bravo Sierra and disrespect has made me come to the same conclusion... Enough is enough. No more jokes.
Spent a lot of time with University and Science-y types for Discovery Channel back in the early 2000’s. Liked all of them. Most were very worried about their own country and knew next to nothing about mine. I don’t think most Americans are even remotely interested in getting into a pissing match with Canada when they bother to think about it at all. Breaking that thick wall of ignorance and apathy will be very hard but we have to try.
I have heard similar comments from Australians who fought alongside Americans in various conflicts.
I think in some cases our military insisted on running their own shows in specific places, to avoid conflicts because of different approaches than the Americans.
I remember reading a book by a senior Aussie officer in Vietnam who said the Americans were so poor at jungle warfare that our Aussie patrols would practice their bush skills by secretly shadowing American patrols as they stumbled through the bush.
If the Americans spotted their Aussie shadows, the Aussies had failed and needed extra training.
He was also shocked to discover the American general in charge could theoretically order a nuclear strike!
Their idea of a successful operation was to bomb the crap out of a village, then chopper in and shoot anyone who had survived.
While there are many great Americans, there are also others who are not so great.
I do not suggest that my experiences regarding Canada and Canadians are representative of Americans generally. Manifestly, they are not.
Although I had traveled briefly in Canada previously, my first extended contact with Canadians came in graduate school. with numerous Canadian colleagues enrolled in the same program as was I. These friendships were uniformly delightful and conversations with my Canadian colleagues were often very fruitful academically, given our different experiences. I came to appreciate and understand their loyalty to Canada combined with genuine friendships formed with their American colleagues.
I have several fond and vivid memories of my contact with these Canadians. Several of them helped me come with them to a professional conference in Montreal and their willingness to guide me to navigate the very contentious language issues in Quebec in the late 1960's were much appreciated. (I did wish I could get them to accompany me to a Montreal Expos baseball game, although I went on my own and had a fabulous time, highlighted by four National Anthem renditions, with O, Canada and the Star Spangled Banner each sung in French and English.) Later they invited me to join them at a Gordon Lightfoot concert, which I was unable to do, but did introduce me to his music, of which I became a lifelong fan. And they introduced me to what remains after over 50 years, my favorite cheese, Black Diamond Cheddar.
These personal connections have always helped form my opinion of and respect for Canada, as have uniformly wonderful experiences traveling in Ontario and British Columbia. But what particularly troubles me about American disregard of Canada and Trump's off the charts ridiculous rants about Canada is the complete and horrifying lack of appreciation for the support the nation of Canada has given us when we needed it. The best example of this in my lifetime was the efforts, at great risk to themselves of Canadian diplomats to effect the escape of some (I think eight, if memory serves.) of the Americans who otherwise would have hostages in Iran in 1979.
Thank you for such a thoughtful post.
Please don’t give up on us all. A lot of us will stand with you come what may.
True north strong and free, Forever!
Ditto in Haiti in ‘95. Although there under a United Nations mandate the Americans refused to wear blue helmets, fly the UN flag or otherwise display any representation of the UN, as the rest of us did. They were entirely dismissive of the other nations involved and maintained their own separate command structure. And yet they were nonetheless generous in every other way: time, personnel, materiel, etc. A peculiar people, sometimes.
As an American long resident here in Canada I see all of the failings of the country of my birth, and the people who live there, without the distraction of the noise of being in that mob.
US patriotism has always been too puffed up for my liking, and since 9/11 has been perverted into a wilful ignorance of the demons of racism and intolerance, prime features of Christian Nationalism - long a silent cancer poisoning US society - now on the verge of setting the political agenda for the next 4... or more, years.
For the first time I am giving consideration to renouncing my US citizenship.
As to how crazy things are becoming down there, consider just how delusional someone must be to think that the US population needs more guns... a new MAGA inspired "gun rights" lobby is openly advertising the need to "Make America Armed Again".
https://gunrights.org/make-america-armed-again/
It’s a movement that is 3D printing untraceable guns because ideologically they think the more guns the better.
It’s madness.
M A A A D (Dammit!)
Thank you for this and for your service to our country, even though it wasn’t our conflict to direct. 🇨🇦
It's bitterly ironic that nothing made me feel less attached to my fellow Americans than my time in uniform as an enlisted soldier. That dismissive attitude towards allies is symptomatic of a much deeper rot.
I used to blame the military as an institution - part of why I wasn't too sad that a knee injury ended ambitions to earn an officer's commission. But as I got older and did more intensive academic studies I dame to realize that it's actually a problem with national American society, tied to how artificial the thing is.
Too many Americans of whatever partisan persuasion are authoritarians, and that's scary considering how fragile so many of the country's vaunted norms truly are. Meanwhile for all the worship of the military, my brief time in uniform taught me that the thing is a lot weaker than it's made out to be - mostly because the leadership drinks its own kool-aid and thinks it will be 1945 or 1991 forever.
More and more I'm tempted to actually start a West Coast Defense Force. Defending the Constitution against all hazards, foreign and domestic (including wildfires). Because our federal government sure can't be trusted. To our leaders, the Constitution says whatever they need it to at the moment, and that's the very antithesis of what the Founders were trying to accomplish.
“Meanwhile for all the worship of the military, my brief time in uniform taught me that the thing is a lot weaker than it's made out to be - mostly because the leadership drinks its own kool-aid and thinks it will be 1945 or 1991 forever.”
Andrew thank-you for your input. I’ve been disturbed by recent events and publications revealing how brutally nationalistic many of the US military members are. My idols are typically loyal to the US constitution alone, like Alex Vindman, Adam Kinzinger, John Kelly, and so on. In their writings, they all admit the recruitment process can’t seriously filter out all the psychopaths and ultranationalist zealots who join to bash heads under the US flag. I’m afraid of seeing more anti-government terrorists with military backgrounds getting radicalized, even under trump. What do you think?
Definitely a concern, though a common thread uniting most of the ones who do more than talk or brandish AR-15s is that they washed out. That kind encounters the daily bureaucracy of real military life and usually can't get along with others. And the crazy they do is terrible, but limited.
I worry more about the Vance types who don't believe anything and only use anti-government rhetoric as an excuse to install ideological loyalists. On the plus side, as soon as they're in the system they usually become banal bureaucrats like all the others. They're in it for the approval and cash more than belief. Though as with Putin's regime, that can lead to its own form of malignancy.
Ah, ok. Food for thought. Thanks Andrew.
Well said.
God save our King and heaven bless,
The Maple Leaf Forever.
Danielle Smith from Alberta does not speak for Canadians in Alberta, nor the rest of Canada. I think she has staff that have no clue about politics or diplomacy. This woman has no idea about either. Her education (political or otherwise) was sorely lacking.
She hopefully doesn’t speak for all of Alberta. Not sure, tho’.
America, in my view, has always been a land of contradictions. Founded by men who spoke eloquently about freedom and liberty yet at the same time owned slaves. Fought a civil war over slavery but then allowed segregation to continue for another hundred years afterwards. Has some of the finest universities in the world yet has a shockingly badly-educated population. Rabid about the Second Amendment protecting them from tyranny, yet electing an avowed authoritarian who respects neither the Constitutional separation of powers nor even the rule of law itself. I could go on but I think you get my point.
And yeah - I remember one visit to the US with members of my unit when we went to a breakfast meeting with around 200 Americans and 7 Canadians, and it quickly turned into a *prayer* breakfast at which there were maybe 15 Americans and 7 Canadians *not* praying!
I was also hit with the NOFORN rules during my time with them, despite the fact that it was obvious what they were doing and why. They often assumed that everyone who wasn’t American was a moron, and didn’t quite know how to respond when we bested them during exercises with our shabby equipment.
So bottom line I get your anti-Americanism. Like others, I have formed some enduring friendships with a number of the Americans I served with over the years - great and generous people - but some of them just can’t be trusted, look down their noses at everyone else and at worst act like schoolyard bullies - and those are the ones that spoil it for the rest.
My gosh, it is so refreshing to see someone who has put Canada first without apology. It doesn’t mean being lesser than the US. It means we are not the US, not in any way, shape, or form.
What is it with US Americans and praying? This the second Canadian commenting on this in one day? Neither being alarmist We cannot, not now, not ever, ever allow Christian Nationalism in Canada. Canada is not Christian
I have always said that a Canadian would never be elected PM if he praised God and an American would never be elected President if he didn’t praise God.
Excellent comment. Thank you Allen.
Historically Canada *has been* a Christian country, as the vast majority of Canadians identified as Christian. I think a major difference is that Canada was first populated by Catholics, Anglicans, Presbyterians, etc. whilst the US was the destination for people like the puritans. I think the Catholic/Protestant divide in Canada right from the beginning also may have engendered a more tolerate attitude towards people with different beliefs. You can also see this in uber-religious rural Alberta and Saskatchewan, where 600,000 Americans came to settle in the 1890s. This (in my view) is why Alberta in particular is so much more conservative than the rest of the country.
Most people are not aware that the very first Catholic president in US history was John F Kennedy in 1960 - 184 years after the revolution! (For the record John Thompson was our first Catholic PM, in 1892, 25 years after confederation).
Also, religion has always been important to US voters. What church a candidate attends and how devout they are matters (at least until Trump), whereas in Canada religion is considered a private matter. Even Stephen Harper, who I understand to be an evangelical Christian, rarely if ever discussed this while in office.
I would like to keep it that way.
I would like to agree somewhat with Elaine here. This summary of ‘Christian’ is a bit of an oversimplification, or maybe a broadening of the definition you don’t intend and in contemporary polarised politics, easily misunderstood. I think you may want to use European instead. No doubt Religion was a factor in much immigration and colonisation of then nascent America - that Religious Freedom thing, you know. But basically it was just as much an escape from oppressive governments, wars, and poverty.
Not so simple. See Saskatchewan.
Are you aware that there were major Jewish settlements in Saskatchewan? That until recently you could go and visit temples in Saskatchewan towns that are now nothing more than a gas station? Here’s a taste…https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/story-of-saskatchewan-s-jewish-farmers-goes-to-national-museum-1.1302867#:~:text=They%20were%20established%20a%20over,poverty%20and%20persecution%20in%20Europe.
Bloody well said!
Black Cloud, I’m thinking about the whole Iraq war. The Bush admin were convinced Saddam Hussein had hidden WMD’s, so the UN sent a British envoy to conduct a thorough and competent investigation. It came back negative but the Bush admin couldn’t accept that because of course, no other country could possibly be as competent as the US. Plus, Bush jr had a personal axe to grind. So he went ahead with the cringey-named “Shock and Awe”. Hindsight is 20/20 but even as a dumb kid following it all, I recognized the US arrogance and shortsightedness. It was the beginning of years of wasted war and lives. In my humble opinion, if the US had respected our allies, things would have unfolded very differently.
I have a 49 year old Iraqi friend here in Canada. She was a young woman when the war in Iraq started. She also had the opportunity to live in the USA for about 5 years as a young child; coincidentally so did the Iraqi man she married. Her stories of what happened to her and her husband's families as well educated but not rich Iraqis during the war are heartbreaking. When she married she and her husband moved to Oman to work and save money for 8 years, then decided to come here which is when I met them. They came with two small children; he got a scholarship to study for his PhD in Ottawa, and she returned to university for a year to retrain as an English as a 2nd Language teacher. They lived very frugally and managed to buy a home. They've spent the last 14 years in Canada continually upgrading themselves and raising 3 children following in their parents footsteps. One child is an engineer, another is in medical school and the youngest plans to work in astronomy or the space industry. They are exactly the type of people Canada needs with very strong family values. However, none of my friend's and her husband's siblings live in Iraq, they are spread across Oman, the USA and Canada. They left the country of their birth because their lives were destroyed in Iraq due to 'elites' like Tony Blair and the US insisting they knew better and could bring 'democracy' to any country they targeted.
I will fully support any politician who does their best to make the upcoming trade war as painful as possible for Americans. Not to sound paranoid but I sincerely believe this is just the first stages of America making more and more belligerent demands of their neighbours and (former) allies. Hopefully we do increase defence investment soon because the Water Wars are coming faster than we thought
WOW! Do I agree with you" ONE HUNDRED per cent! Thanks, Sir.
I attended high school in SE Pennsylvania 1966-68, and have been a bit of a CANADIAN "hyper-patriot" ever since. I'm a typical "Purple" Canadian non-partisan, Centrist and attempt to be inclusive.
This latest round of American Bravo Sierra and disrespect has made me come to the same conclusion... Enough is enough. No more jokes.
Well said.
I always appreciate hearing your ideas and reflections.
Well said.
Spent a lot of time with University and Science-y types for Discovery Channel back in the early 2000’s. Liked all of them. Most were very worried about their own country and knew next to nothing about mine. I don’t think most Americans are even remotely interested in getting into a pissing match with Canada when they bother to think about it at all. Breaking that thick wall of ignorance and apathy will be very hard but we have to try.
I have heard similar comments from Australians who fought alongside Americans in various conflicts.
I think in some cases our military insisted on running their own shows in specific places, to avoid conflicts because of different approaches than the Americans.
I remember reading a book by a senior Aussie officer in Vietnam who said the Americans were so poor at jungle warfare that our Aussie patrols would practice their bush skills by secretly shadowing American patrols as they stumbled through the bush.
If the Americans spotted their Aussie shadows, the Aussies had failed and needed extra training.
He was also shocked to discover the American general in charge could theoretically order a nuclear strike!
Their idea of a successful operation was to bomb the crap out of a village, then chopper in and shoot anyone who had survived.
While there are many great Americans, there are also others who are not so great.
Love this insight. As a Canadian I hope our military never projects a superiority complex on other nations and/or their population!
From what I know, the Canadian military has a fine reputation.