True patriot loathing

A couple of weeks ago, a blogger named Mister Ghost asked me to opine on what Canada stands for. I was not the only pundit and/or blogger approached, as it turns out. Contributions came in from both sides of the Canadian political spectrum, and points between. The results were posted on Canada Day. Here's an edited sample:

National Post columnist Barbara Kay:

Good question, and one we ask ourselves constantly. You happen to have hit upon one of the few neo-cons in Canada, so be advised that I am obviously a bit cynical. I think Canada stands for anti-Americanism first and foremost. That is not what Canadians will say: They will say they stand for Progressivism, Tolerance, Multi-culturalism, Equality, Peacekeeping rather than War-fighting, and (drum roll please) Medicare!!! But what really binds us as a nation is that we are not America. What that means in practice is fighting tooth and nail against any presumption of religious groups having any say at all in a public discussion and a show of open contempt for Christianity in the public square, the sanctification of gays and people of colour and those who wear cover, a pathological distaste for military adventures (even though peacekeeping is a non-starter these days) and an inability to take open pride in our heroes, but tons of compassion goes to victims.

The Winnipeg Sun's Lydia Lovric:

Canada is politically correct, inoffensive and apathetic to the point of offending anyone with half a brain and a healthy dose of conservatism. Canada could be and should be a great nation - tolerant and fair without caving into the ridiculous, proud and dignified without being arrogant, moderate and gentle without being pussies.

Relapsed Catholic Kathy Shaidle:

For all their pretend politeness and tolerance, most Canadians (except me and about 100 others!) hate Americans with a passion you cannot fathom. This predates George Bush — I was born in 1964 and heard it all my life. Americans are patriotic? Then we will look down on patriotism. Americans have a huge army; very well, we will reduce ours to a skeleton force. Americans don’t have “free” “health” “care” and we do, so we are superior (no matter than a Canadian has to wait almost two years for some routine operations that an American would get in a week). Imagine: Americans are proud of their inventions and their triumphs on the battlefield. We Canadians are most proud of a government entitlement that doesn’t even work anymore!

This smug bigotry is the only acceptable one in polite Canadian society. Americans are “fat, stupid, greedy, violent and evil.” My fellow Canadians consider this a sophisticated stance. Alas, they don’t realize how petty and jealous they appear. If America does indeed represent “opportunity” -- and I agree with you that it does — that is exactly what Canadians hate about it. They like their government run lives, no matter that our disposable income is 30% less than an American’s and our taxes are higher. Success is not something most Canadians admire. “Just keep your nose clean and one day you’ll win the lottery — or retire”. Very sad.

I would love to get out of here tomorrow, but alas, Green Cards are impossible to get :-)

It's fascinating that seemingly all the lib/progressives love Canada while the righties hate it, n'est-ce pas? Now why is that?

Comments

[sooey]

heheh - as a canadian, i find it blandly to tolerantly embarrassing that so many canadian neo-con lady pundits think they're the only canadian neo-con lady pundit...

[Antonia Z.]

Me! No me! Me! No me!

[Bill-Muskoka]

Can we start a fund for their Green cards?

[Neil]

Wow, who knew they hated Canada so much?

[Diana-Marie]

Mebbe we could start a petition, or an appeal to US immigration on humanitarian grounds to free them. So sad.

[Johnny Kap]

They don't hate Canada, Ms. Zerb, as you imply. They dislike whiny anti-Americanism. They dislike socialism. They dislike ineffective leftist outlets like the UN (I could include The Star in that description as well). They dislike the pride the Canadian media takes in pointing out how the Muslim jihadists arrested in Brampton were not identified as such by the PC cops during the press conference. They dislike how they were described as a diverse group because some of them had jobs and some of them didn't. That should make you as safe as the Spaniards. They dislike the smug attitude that many Canadians have about themselves. Those columnists want to know why most Canadians act like they are the planet's stewards when they club seals to death every spring. I'd love to see how well Canadians would fare if they were dumped off in Australia and told to fend for themselves with no Americans around to build manufacturing plants and use their precious Canadarm. You would be using the Canadarm to unload logging trucks if it weren't for the Yanks. Insulin, Antonia. You invented that 80 years ago and you're still milking that with CBC specials about Banting and Best. And endless specials about Bethune and Degrassi. The Tommy Hunter show and The Beachcombers? You'll slag US tv as you put that stuff out on the taxpayer's dole. Those neo-con journalists don't like that kind of hypocrisy. Do you remember when the left cried about how Free Trade was going to destroy Canada? Didn't turn out that way, did it. Those journalists don't like the whiny, protectionist fear mongering of the Canadian left. The Group of Seven? Unknown outside of Canada. Worshipped in Canada. What does that tell you? I suppose the rest of the world doesn't recognize talent. Or Canadians will glom onto second rate art (or anything) merely because it came from Canada. Develop any AIDS drugs lately? I'll give you credit for the Blackberry but that's as far as I'll go. Virtually everything important is invented in the US, is funded by the US, or gets approved by the US in some way, shape or form. Those columnists recognize that fact and respect the success of the American people. They know that that is a system that is worth emulating. How else could 5% of the population be responsible for 25% of the world's output? Yes, I know, they are oil hogs who will destroy planet earth. Like Al Gore says in his successful movie that has generated around $10M in ticket sales (US dollars, however). Kyoto. Yip, yip, yahoo. At least when the US commits to something, you know it is going to happen. How come you guys haven't hit your Kyoto targets? Let's face it. Liberalism/socialism is the easy way out. How can you be faulted for wanting free medicare? How can you be faulted for wanting peace? The conservative columnists are taking the hard way and have to pay a price because they're rowing upstream. But rowing upstream makes you stronger. You libs have been coasting all these years on tired, worn-out ideas that have been proven to be unsuccessful. But you want credit because your heart was in the right place. You had good intentions. You just couldn't implement it properly. And now Canadians are slowly waking up to that fact. Those columnists want a better Canada and conservatism is the way to make that happen. Kudos to the right whingers!!! Kudos to Harper. Kudos to Coulter. Kudos to Kinsella (just kidding, darlin', I'll hate him if you want me to).

[Michael Watkins]

What is truly amazing is that people holding such poorly developed points of view could find gainful employment as journalists. This speaks as much to the quality, or lack thereof, of their employers rag as much as it does to their own (in)abilities.

[Ti-Guy]

Walking miseries, every one of them. Really, let's boot them out. Especially La Shaidle. Canada is a toxic gas for her, and it's best we isolate her from it...for her own good.

[Ti-Guy]

"heheh - as a canadian, i find it blandly to tolerantly embarrassing that so many canadian neo-con lady pundits think they're the only canadian neo-con lady pundit..."

Sh*t. I should have read this first. Sooey, you're a f*cking riot*

*asterisks added by me, not by the censorious Antonia...I'm being mindful of my bad language.

[Bill-Muskoka]

Johnny Kap,

'But you want credit because your heart was in the right place.'

That is a negative human thing to you, eh?

Take your pro-capitalistic, 'I' centred philosophy, and pray you never are one of those unfortunates who find themselves unemployed, with no healthcare, and a serious illness that means you die!

Maybe a good experience will be an uncaring society and homelesness, coupled with 'dumpster diving'. Hey, you can apply for 'Survivor' and become every neo-cons dreams...a Star!

Oh, BTW, when the masses outnumber the 'haves' what do you think will happen?

[Jay Currie]

It is quite possible to support the conservative interest, be pro-American and love Canada...or at least it is out here in Victoria. It maybe rather different in the deepest Annex.

[Johnny Kap]

Ti-guy:

Having your heart in the right place is not a negative. It is just a poor substitute for sound policy. Poor policy with good intentions seems to be enuff to satisfy you. That's where we're different. You have just proven my point about how easy it is to be a liberal/socialist.

What will happen when the masses outnumber the "haves"? You assume that the pie can only be divided so many ways. Forward thinking conservatives know that the pie can be made larger. It's not a zero sum game.

Antonia has an MBA and speaks at least 4 languages. I'm pretty sure she'll vouch for me on this one, Ti-guy, but nice try.

And now, a difficult challenge for you, Ti-Guy. I challenge you to listen to one hour of Rush Limbaugh's show (noon- 3 pm) and then give this forum your honest opinion. If you are unable to pick it up, I'll email you an hour of his podcasted show. (I'm Antonia's inside guy (figuratively speaking) wrt Limbaugh.) I'll listen to one hour of Air America if that's what it takes to convince you. Do you guys get Air America in Canada?

[Ivan Prokopchuk]

Why does all this sound like so much like journalistic boilerplate?

Canada works because everybody is incompetent. Because government was incompetent, Canada is now run by Florentine princes, not at all incompetent,
who have taken over major land development and the automobile industry, largely through grant-grabbing and on the backs of taxpayers.

We have destroyed our major agricultural product, tobacco, and given full suzerainty to the medical-industrial complex, party poopers all, who want us all to be "smoke-free", drug-dependent little old ladies.
And where do the drugs come from? From CIDA, the Canadian International Development Agency which has now ended up at home, making all the prescription drugs and selling them to all us "nonsmokers". Again, on our own dime.

Street crime is rampant in Toronto because
a quarter of Canada's economy is based in Jamaica, and you dare not touch a hair. In Jamaica, you can't distiguish between mobster and politician. Everybody knows how to play the game. Street crimes in Toronto become matters for External Affairs, and so, and so.
The immigration department is clearly run by incompetents, just like the gun registry, and lately, chiefs of police and RCMP have been found to be incompetent. (Exception my home town, where everybody knows everybody else).Police chiefs appear to be bunch of Inspector Cluseaus,terrorized by domestic terrorists (not necessarily Muslims) and scared to death (understandably) of armed gunmen in the streets.
Canada works because everybody is incompetent and maybe even corrupt.
Ask any politician in his cups about multiculturalism and he'll laugh in you face.

The incompetent leading the incompetent, so incompetent, they can't even make beer. But we'll drink just about any kind.
Drive your truck, made in Oakville by incompetents, drink your beer, made in Toronto by incompetents, buy your beer at the beer store, sold by incompetents making forty dollars an hour.
Canada. Made for, and by, incompetents.
Our product is people.

[vinb]

If the Canada they hate actually existed, I might not be crazy about it either.

[casual observer]

"Maybe a good experience will be an uncaring society and homelesness, coupled with 'dumpster diving'."

Ummm, have you been to Vancouver lately?

[RRS]

I would like to add to the Diana Marie lecture. My friends nephew is an engineer.But since arriving in "tolerant and accepting" Canada,this highly educated lad from Pakistan had doors shut in his face over and over again."No experience" was the going theme.Frustrated, he opted to look to the "bad USA" for work. Sure enough, he landed a job in Texas, at Texas University as a researcher.Imagine that!! They actually ACCEPTED him based on his education and not on his experience. They took the chance on him.For of which he is ever so grateful.He's been in Texas for 3 years now.As for Canada ? He politely laughed at the "smug" attitudes he encountered.

[Adam (in Mississauga)]

Hey, now, Johnny Kap's right. They love Canada, they think it is a great country. Or would be, if everything about it were different.

[Jinoole]

"Take your pro-capitalistic, 'I' centred philosophy, and pray you never are one of those unfortunates who find themselves unemployed, with no healthcare, and a serious illness that means you die!"

You cracked me up, Bill.

It is also absurdly ironic, to me at least as a non-Christian, that they often quote the Bible, a holy book that teaches compassion, mercy, kindness, forgiveness and caring toward to one's fellow humanbeings.

Thus, I don't know why they hate the healthcare, of social assistance to the poorest who couldn't afford to work. At most, they are paying little cents or few dollars of taxes for the general well-being society and of their not-so-affluent fellow neighbours. Doesn't the Bible teach the beauty of charity?

The bible-thumpers also are pro-guns, where Jesus, according to Bible, was ideally against violence, yet for the bible-thumpers, it is also unholiness being against the control and regulation of guns, let alone outright ban of it.

Everything about them seems contradictory and hypocricy.

[su]

I am amused that Kathy Shaidle AKA The Queen of Cut and Paste is troubled by 'smug bigotry'.No one does bigotry better than her;witness one of her columns which was titled'Arabs are violent retards'or her propensity to categorize all Muslims as terrorists.I am surprised that a bigoted person like was given space to air her fulminations.

[Bill-Muskoka]

Have fun gang. See you Friday!

[sooey]

good grief. it seems to me that canadian conservatives make very unrealistic comparisons of canada to the united states, a 2/3rds tropical country with 10 Xs the population. we're not many of us living on a cold hard rock and we're spread out over a ridiculous distance. we're two distinctly different countries for a reason - geography. gawd. oh - and speaking of which, their gawd is a blowhard republican and our gawd is a preachy socialist. grr. stupid gawds.

[Bigus Dickus]

"Walking miseries, every one of them. Really, let's boot them out. Especially La Shaidle. Canada is a toxic gas for her, and it's best we isolate her from it...for her own good.
Posted by: Ti-Guy | July 05, 2006 at 09:01 PM"

Wow! What an open-minded, tolerant attitude to have towards those with whom you disagree.

Whatever happened to the "nice guy" Menshevik attitudes on the Canadian Left? Your "love it or leave it" philosophy makes GW Bush seem nuanced by comparison. "Let's boot them out." Very nice.

No wonder the Islamists are making such inroads in Greater Toronto. They can find their natural allies on this very blog...

[william fudger]

Antonia,

What a horrible life for these unfortunate people who, with the extreme good fortune to be here, can find so much to whine about. We don't claim to be perfect. That's the job of, oh never mind. One of the windbags rattled on about Banting and our endless bragging about our achievements. Ha. I suppose we could go on about our more recent achievers but who are they. We don't know because they're not American.

Look you tools. The border's still open. Go. We don't want you. We certainly don't need you. We'd smile more without you. We'd probably survive and yes, we'd be very very smug.

[Flea]

There's Jay with his anti-Annex line. As far as I know, Antonia is somewhere yonder in darkest Danforth.

[Antonia Z.]

That's right Flea. I am amongst my peeps.
http://www.greektowntoronto.com/