Canadian Myths

J.L. Granatstein in the Saturday, November 12, 2005 of the National Post had a great article addressing some of the attitudes that Canadians have toward our American cousins. There is a strong anti-American sentiment in Vancouver that at first surprised me (the prevailing attitude in red-neck rural Alberta is quite different), and now just annoys me. It’s not that I approve of everything the USA is and does (as if I approve of everything Canadian!), it's just that I just refuse to accept that 'the Americans', including thier government and institutions, are as bad as Canadians, especially Vancouverites make them out to be. I think Granastein’s article is important enough to quote a bunch of it here.

The myth Granatstein tackles is that Canada is a nation of peacekeepers and the U.S. is a nation of warmongers. 'Canadians keep the peace; Americans fight wars.’ That cliched statement, that Canadian myth, is now accepted as gospel truth from St John's to Vancouver. Canadians proudly cite Lester B. Pearson's Nobel Peace Prize, won for his role in stabilizing the Suez Crisis of 1956. They point to the grand peacekeeping monument in Ottawa and to the back of their $10 bill showing Canadian peacekeepers. We are the good guys in white hats or, at least, blue berets. Canadians, we like to think, are natural-born peacekeepers.

And the Yanks? The Americans are the superpower that fought in Vietnam and sprayed its jungles with Agent Orange. They waged war against the Nicaraguan and Cuban peoples, invaded Iraq twice, and continue to station troops all over the world to serve U.S. interests and ensure control over oil supplies. If we're the good guys, the Americans are the world's bullies. Too many Canadians accept this view of their neighbours.

Granatstein rightly points out that the harsh truth is that Canada has largely had a free ride while the United States has taken most of the risks, paid the lion's share of the bills and, for its pains, borne the brunt of the world's abuse. The Canadian Forces, its strength shrunken, much of its equipment obsolete, cannot even credibly defend this nation's air space, sea approaches and land mass. The only question is how much longer the United States will wait before it declares that its own national security makes it necessary for Washington to openly assume responsibility for Canadian defence. Can we still call ourselves a sovereign state if that occurs?

Canadians need to be more clear-headed about the world. We have national interests, not just values. We must defend them or see them overridden by others. The Americans have their own national interests, and have demonstrated they will do what is necessary to protect them.

Canada is part of Western civilization, and we share the values and beliefs of that civilization. So do Americans. We must get beyond the reflexive desire to criticize the superpower next door and to understand that if the United States is crippled, we too will suffer. We can pretend we keep the peace if it pleases us to do so, but we simply must recognize that without America's strength and will, our civilization will disappear. More realism, fewer myths, please.