任你博娛樂城

Yet sharing so much in common with a country as powerful and controversial as the United States聽can also breed contempt and insecurity, and Canadians spend a lot of time trying to come up with reasons why they are not like Americans. Or, just as often, why Americans are worse.

Judging, teasing and even hating America is聽a central part of the Canadian identity, and forms a persistant bias that runs through most aspects of Canadian society and culture. For various reasons, the default position of a great many Canadians is that America, Americans, and American things are generally bad, and need to be opposed. These feelings are not always logical and consistent, and are often hypocritical in practice. Yet they do exist, and understanding their powerful role in shaping Canadian society is a vital part of understanding what makes Canadians Canadian.

Anti-Americanism in Canadian Politics

As two very similar countries, Canada and America obviously can learn a lot from studying one another. An idea that works well in one country may be worth importing into the other, while an idea that fails in one will probably fail on the other side of the border,聽too. Canadian politics frequently embraces the latter principle to an exaggerated degree, with America often presented as a deeply dysfunctional, broken nation, and thus a country that Canada should be very careful to avoid copying.

It鈥檚 exceedingly common for Canadian politicians to describe ideas they 诲辞苍鈥檛 like as being 鈥�American-style.鈥� Someone who supports looser gun laws might be denounced as favouring an 鈥淎merican-style鈥� approach to gun control. Someone who wants to tinker with Canadian medicare will be blasted for favouring 鈥淎merican-style鈥� health care. A proposal for Canada to ditch the monarchy and become a republic would be condemned as ushering in 鈥淎merican-style鈥� government.

The 鈥淎merican-style鈥� slur is more commonly leveled at conservatives by liberals than vice versa, in part because it鈥檚 popular聽on the Canadian left to view Canada as a country defined by an聽embrace of progressivism, while portraying聽America鈥檚 flaws the result of the country鈥檚 conservatism. But rare is the聽Canadian聽politician or party who hasn鈥檛 found some occasion to accuse his opponent of being too 鈥淎merican鈥� at one time or another 鈥� no matter how forced the analogy may be.

Anti-Americanism in Canadian Pop Culture

A running trope in Canadian pop culture is comparing Americans to Canadians 鈥� a comparison聽that rarely has the Americans coming out well. If a Canadian character is witty, worldly, sophisticated and modern, you can count on the American character to be hickish, dumb, boorish and sheltered. Another favourite is the stereotypically ignorant聽American聽painfully uninformed聽about Canada; a聽yahoo who expects to see dogsleds on every street corner and a beaver-skin hat on every head.

In the early 2000s, the Molson Canadian beer company ran a number of hugely popular ads that played on this theme, showing cool Canadian guys striking back after being confronted by obnoxious American douchebags. One particularly famous one, dubbed “The Rant” (see below),聽consisted of a cool Canadian聽aggressively comparing Canada to the U.S. (鈥淚 believe in diversity, not assimilation! Peacekeeping, not policing!鈥�), before dramatically finishing with, 鈥淢y name is Joe鈥� and I AM CANADIAN!鈥� The actor became a huge national star, and was even recruited by the Canadian government to recite 鈥渢he rant鈥� at Canada Day festivities across the country.

Comedian聽Rick Mercer (b. 1969), one of the better-known faces in Canadian television, achieved similar聽fame through a series of聽early 2000s聽comedy聽sketches聽called Talking to Americans. As the title suggests, the premise consisted of Mercer visiting American cities, microphone in hand, and asking locals simple Canadian trivia questions, or gauging their reactions to obviously made-up Canadian “facts” 鈥� “Canada finally聽legalized dog ownership,” etc.聽鈥� with hilarious results.

As discussed in the聽pop culture chapter, made-in-Canada media is not tremendously popular in Canada, and most Canadians are fully capable of enjoying聽(and relating to) the American actors, characters and settings found in American movies, TV, and books聽without much difficulty. But this can breed a kind of insecurity unto itself, and聽aggressive reminders of 鈥渨hy we鈥檙e better鈥� delivered through anti-American聽jokes, gags, stereotypes, and insults remain聽popular tropes of聽Canadian entertainment.

Why Are Canadians Anti-American?

Attempting to find a single root cause of the sometimes subtle, sometimes intense聽anti-Americanism in Canada is a complicated task, and聽many Canadians have written about it at length. Generally, the most commonly held conclusion聽is that by vilifying America, Canadians are able to create a collective identity for themselves. Especially in an era where Canadians and Americans are becoming more similar in their lifestyles, behaviour聽and culture, there is strong pressure for Canadians to focus on the ways their country still remains different, and indeed, superior.

Others may聽interpret Canada鈥檚 history as being one long struggle against 鈥淯.S. domination,鈥� making anti-Americanism a sort of Canadian founding mission. Canadians partial to this perspective will view the United States as the single greatest threat to Canadian sovereignty, and a country that is always on the brink of conquering Canada 鈥� not just militarily, but culturally, politically and economically as well. Canadian history books usually make much of episodes like the War of 1812, Irish-American attacks on Canada during the mid-1800s聽(the “Fenian Raids“)聽and other instances where Americans seemed to be聽plotting the 鈥渁nnexation of Canada.鈥� The聽implication is聽Americans have a long habit of聽looking at Canada with hungry eyes, and Canadians must remain ever vigilant. As mentioned, this also frequently manifests in the form of left-wing politicians and activists who fear what further American encroachment would mean for the future of Canadian progressive values and social programs.

One聽final explanation may be immigration. Though a lot of immigrants come to Canada for non-ideological reasons such as聽economic opportunity, family unification, safety or convenience, there have always been more than a few immigrants who settle in Canada precisely because they want to come to North America but聽诲辞苍鈥檛 want to live in the more popular聽United States because they聽dislike some aspect of American culture, politics or society. It should also be noted, however, that during the Vietnam War (1964-1973) and to a lesser extent the聽George W. Bush聽presidency (2001-2009), a large number of Americans emigrated to Canada because they themselves disliked some element of their home country.

Canadian-American Integration

In the end, however, Canada鈥檚 cultural anti-Americanism should not disguise the very real way Canadians often casually or unconsciously think of themselves as Americans in day-to-day life. Most Canadians generally take it for granted that American studies or polls on topics like social behaviour, spending habits, family trends and personal psychology apply equally to their country, for instance, and it鈥檚 very common to hear Canadians speak of 鈥�North Americans鈥� as one giant cultural group, in contrast to Europeans or Asians or other 鈥渞eal鈥� foreigners. One of the great troubles of Canada鈥檚 entertainment industry, in fact, is that Canadians are almost too familiar and comfortable with American TV shows, music and movies (which barely seem foreign at all), meaning it鈥檚 often quite difficult for supposedly 鈥渄istinctly Canadian鈥� content to generate much public interest. To many, the phrase may even be an oxymoron.

A great struggle of Canadian existence is how to make peace with these two conflicting realities. How does one appreciate聽the reality of being very similar to an聽American聽while聽also holding a sense of pride in being something distinct聽and separate? It鈥檚 not a question with an easy answer.