No neighbourly love in U.S. view of Canada
Media portrays us as 'great white waste of time'
Cristin Schmitz
CanWest News Service
March 28, 2005
OTTAWA -- Canada is a "great white waste of time" whose "docile, Zamboni-driving," Molson-sucking citizens consume seal casseroles as they export terrorism, mad cow disease, "and even deadlier Gordon Lightfoot and Nickelback albums" to the United States, American media reports suggested last week.
The unflattering composite portrait, only partly satirical, emerges from stories in influential U.S. media outlets this past week when Canuck-bashing arguably reached new lows before the summit last Wednesday of President George W. Bush, Prime Minister Paul Martin and Mexican President Vicente Fox in Crawford, Texas.
Most serious, perhaps, was the New York Times editorial a week ago in which the newspaper repeated unproven, but persistent, allegations that terrorists in Canada routinely slip into the U.S. through a porous border.
"Suspected terrorists have long been entering the country from Canada," asserted the Times, calling it "shocking ... how little progress has been made in securing our borders."
Canada's ambassador to the U.S., Frank McKenna, fired off a strong letter to the editor that was published in the Times Saturday.
"The ambassador is very keen on having these sorts of issues ... responded to within the news cycle," Bernard Etzinger, a spokesman for the Canadian Embassy in Washington said Sunday.
"He said we should answer the editorial and state the facts about the security relationship."
In his letter, McKenna pointed out that in late 2001, then-U.S. attorney general John Ashcroft acknowledged that none of the Sept. 11 hijackers entered the U.S. through Canada -- a fact acknowledged by the editorial.
"Since then, our two countries have implemented a 'smart border action plan' as well as national security policies, including almost $10 billion in security investments and the creation of a department similar to the Department of Homeland Security, that help keep North America closed to terrorists and open for business," McKenna wrote.
Concluded McKenna: "In open societies such as ours, we all know that no security arrangement can be 100 per cent effective. But between Canada and the United States, the record is clear: our co-operation has reduced the threat of terrorism in both our countries."
The New York Times also ran a story March 23 by its Canadian correspondent, Clifford Krauss, headlined "Canada May be a Close Neighbour, but it Proudly Keeps Its Distance." The story notes that "with the possible exception of France," a nation known for its anti-U.S. sentiment, "no traditional ally has been more consistently at odds with the United States than has Canada." The story recited a litany of Canada/U.S. disagreements since the Second World War.
They ran the gamut from Canada's refusal to fully back the late U.S. president John F. Kennedy during the Cuban missile crisis, to the welcome of U.S. draft dodgers during the Vietnam war, to the Liberals' present refusal to sign on to the U.S. ballistic missile defence shield and Canada's push for the International Criminal Court and the Kyoto climate control accord -- which are both opposed by the Bush administration.
Then last Monday there was an eyebrow-raising cover story on Canada in the Weekly Standard, a Washington-based conservative magazine that is considered a must-read publication for those inside America's beltway.
The magazine's contributing editors include Canadian David Frum and U.S. political commentator and humourist P.J. Rourke.
In "Welcome to Canada: The Great White Waste of Time," senior writer Matt Labash observes that most Americans -- when they think of Canada at all -- regard it "as North America's attic, a mildewy recess that adds little value to the house, but serves as an excellent dead space for stashing Nazi war criminals, drawing-room socialists and hockey goons."
Canadians delude themselves that they are a "superior race" but Americans see them as "a docile, Zamboni-driving people who subsist on seal casserole and Molson," writes Labash.
"Their hobbies include wearing flannel, obsessing over American hegemony, exporting deadly mad cow disease and even deadlier Gordon Lightfoot and Nickelback albums."
He adds: "You can tell a lot about a nation's mediocrity index by learning that they invented synchronized swimming. Even more so by the fact that they are proud of it."
Etzinger dismissed the Weekly Standard's story as "an ideological rant" that doesn't represent American mainstream views.
"I think we are great friends. What a few people say on the extremes of either side of the political spectrum don't represent what the vast majority of Americans have to say."
He acknowledged that the New York Times editorial was a serious matter for Canada.
"The bottom line is that it's important for us to dispel what myths may remain, and to reinforce Canada's image in the United States, not just as a security partner.
"Our message is that we are a country that is under threat. We are a country that has in fact responded to that threat, and we are partners in fighting that threat. And I think oftentimes that doesn't immediately come to (the American) mind."
