Canadian Americans, Eh
I was thinking on my walk in to work about an argument my co-worker is always trying to have with me regarding my essential Canadianness and why I won't concede to him that Canadians are Americans because we watch the same television, rent the same movies, read the same books, yaddayadda blahblah.
He's a rightwinger, British, and a great and true believer in all things Republican American - as well as an admirer of Mark Steyn, David Warren, and Lowell Green (ahem... Canadians all, I believe...).
But isn't it always the way that Canadians who see themselves as Americans are rightwingers who believe in the War on Terror and Bush Inc. and private schools and private healthcare AND FORGET ALL ABOUT THE TIME WHEN BILL CLINTON WAS PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES?!
Anyway, I keep meaning to read it, but probably won't as I'm almost exclusively a fiction reader these days, but Andrew Cohen, a favourite columnist of mine, recently wrote a book called, "The Unfinished Canadian", which got a lot of media play around these parts (Ottawa) because, well - HE'S CANADIAN AND HE WROTE A BOOK ABOUT CANADA, DAMMIT!
It'sTrue.I'mCanadianAndIWroteABookAboutCanada
As did Professor Cohen's previous book (get a lot of local media play, I mean), "While Canada Slept", which would seem to lament Canada's less than enthusiastic support for the American "War on Terror" - specifically under Chretien's rule - at a time when many columinists - specifically if they worked at CanWest newspapers - felt we should be jumping in with both boots to join up with our American neighbours to fight their version of the good fight -The War on Terror.
ReadMeBeforeTheInvasionOfIraqGoesBad
Me? Well, define "terror" first. Then pinpoint where it is - exactly. But, of course, I don't see myself as in any way American.
Indeed, I have always seen myself as Canadian, never American - even when the President is a Democrat. No thanks. Their politics is repellent to me, the level of ignorance surrounding it alarming, the hypocrisy involved in it abhorrent, the religion behind it terrifying, yaddayadda blahblah. Oh - and their culture is like a giant gooey wet spot on the sheet of humanity.
I am Canadian - in spite of our rightwingers, because of them - whatever.
I do not see myself in any way as an American, as a citizen of the United States. Not. At. All. Not. One. Bit. Not.
But it's one thing to say that, write that, know it to be true - and another thing to win the argument so here's the slam dunk for all you Canadians who work with rightwing American wannabes who are constantly telling you that Canadians are Americans.
Here it is:
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And yet, you would never in a million years say that Americans are Canadians - would you? Why is that? Well, it's because they AREN'T Canadians. Americans are NOT Canadians. Not even a little bit. Americans are 100% American.
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See? It's very simple. Like the rest of the world, we are exposed to all things American - which a rightwinger will say makes us American but which I will say makes us more like the rest of the world. Because we aren't American, we're just exposed to all things American - in the way same way that Americans are exposed to all things American.
Except Americans, aren't exposed to anything else.
I think that really puts the nail in the coffin of the rightwinger argument that Canadians are Americans - just by noting the very obvious fact that Americans aren't Canadians. It's the stark reality of the inverse not being true that reveals the undeniable flaw in their argument. As Canadians, like the rest of the world, we are inundated with, exposed to, surrounded by all things American with a very keen awareness that the reverse is not true - that Americans have virtually no awareness of us.
And that, Dear Reader, is precisely what makes us NOT American.
Ah, but then - what makes us Canadian, you ask?
Canadiana makes us Canadian. It is uniquely ours. We can rest assured that the rest of the world - and especially Americans - are quite unaware of it.
