A Tale Of Two Countries

The country is called Canada, and I would safely say that the majority of people living here are in agreement with me.

For most of my adult life people here have been talking about something they call the Canadian identity. I’m pretty sure the reason for this is nothing more than an attempt to differentiate ourselves from the United States who are very big on their identity. You know “Greatest democracy in the known universe" and all that crap.

It can be hard living next to a big country that’s so full of itself. One of the trickiest things that we have to deal with is not being lumped in with Americans, which a lot of people used to do. But these days not so much.

Yeah, America is our biggest trading partner, because about 70% of our exports go there, sold in Canadian dollars for the most part. So we have a lot of trouble with some of the Americans who swear that they are getting screwed over by us. They’re making at least 25% without having to do a damn thing. Nice work if you can get it.

America also supplies us with a much their entertainment and a lot of it is pretty good. Trouble is that it’s so good that it sometimes make our Canadian produced entertainment look a little sub-par in comparison.

I don’t feel that way personally but a lot of people tell me they do. So I guess that’s just an incentive to work harder.

Canada is different from America in a lot other ways too.

For example, we generally know a hell of a lot more about America than many Americans know about us.

The further south you go, the less they seem to know. A lot of people down there think we’re above the Arctic Circle, when in fact about 1/3 of mainland America (ex Alaska) is further north than where I am sitting right now in Southern Ontario.

Politically, there are a lot of differences between Canada and the US. We have a parliamentary system on both the national and provincial levels. Premiers and the Prime Minister are all members of parliament.

America has Congress, a Senate and a President and they are all quite separate. We got our system from England, because up until 1982, we were a part of the British Commonwealth. And if the person running our government is doing a shitty job, they can sometimes be voted out with something called a non-confidence motion.

The Americans got theirs from their founders who were revolutionaries. They tried to frame it so it would be a fair system, but that was all predicated on having leaders of each area with something akin to integrity.

It all goes to hell if you don’t, and America has gone to hell a few times, and very much look like their on their way there again. IMHO. (Disagree if you like…it’s still sort of a free world.)

One of biggest difference in our countries is in our attitude towards what we are. Canada has always been a great ‘melting pot of a country. America has as well, but as we can clearly see from the tide of white racism that is sweeping that country, their acceptance of other races has always been a grudging one.

I don’t believe that this represents the view of most Americans, but it does appear be the opinion of a much more sizeable contingent than people with the same white racist attitude in Canada.

This seems kind of odd to me, because whenever you look at different breakdowns of the US economy, which seems to be their principal obsession, you see that immigrants invariably hold their own, get good jobs, work hard, start businesses, make them work, employ people and are basically responsible if not, exemplary, citizens.

So you kind of have to wonder where all this racist sentiment is coming from.

Now we have a racist element here are well, but on a scale of 1 to 10, a 10 being the racial situation in the US, we are probably not more than a 2.

Another main difference between our countries is the proclivity to violence, both organized and random. America has more non-military gun deaths than the next 20 countries combined. They also have a huge war machine and a military industrial complex that employs hundreds of thousands and sells arms and technology to countries around the world.

One the downside this has made them very unpopular with many countries and groups who view this as nothing more than a major element of economic imperialism…i.e. using their weapons business to tilt the outcomes of various conflicts to their favour.

Canada, on the other side of the coin, is mainly known as a peacekeeping nation. We have a very small military force and no known enemies around the world.

Instead of making arms, we make technology for space travel. We make trains and streetcars and subway cars. In short we are a true nation of peace. And the majority of Canadians appreciate this.

The current political situation In America, not withstanding, our countries have many interesting similarities and many fundamental differences.

America is all about capitalism at any cost, which is why there has been no serious outcry against their massive ongoing deregulation because, well it’s good for business. But this comes at a price, and that price will start to manifest itself in a few years, as the climate worsens and the diseases from things like unbridled pesticide use and water table pollution begin take theri toll on human health.

This deregulation is the direct result big business influence on government. And while we certainly have our share of this here in Canada, we work much harder to make sure that the health of our people is not superseded by toxic corporate interests. It doesn’t always work, but it’s not for lack of caring on the part of the government.

Two different countries. A lot of similarities, and a very important handful of fundamental differences.

As Canadians, a lot of us look at America, especially in light of what’s happening down there these days, and in our hearts wish that they could be more like us.

But by the same token we accept that America is what it is, and pray that the current iteration we see before us is just an aberration that will be corrected over time.

And at the same time, we as Canadians look at this and see it as a bit of a blueprint for a lot of the kind of thinking and action we should work hard to avoid in the future if we are going to keep on being this great place to live and work and, in my case, grow old.

jim out