On my way to America
It's July 4, and I'm on my way to America.
Anyone who's read anything I've written in this space knows, I'm as Canadian as the day is long. I didn't write a journal entry on Canada Day to make a big deal of it, because I spent Canada Day driving through the countryside of eastern Ontario with a canoe on the roof, listening to Fifty Tracks on the CBC, on the way to a tiny little festival in Oxford Mills that ultimately got rained out. I love highways, trains, trees and rivers. I drink beer and speak in a broad, rude dialect after I've had a couple. I live in a neighbourhood my dad grew up in and I cherish the fact that it's peopled with a crazy mix of old school poor folks, Vietnamese and Chinese immigrants, upwardly mobile DINKS, gay men, and whoever else wants to call the place home. I play hockey and paddle my canoe and build sheds, not incidentally, but religiously. I am Canadian, and I didn't need a beer commercial to tell me so.
But I live with an American girl, and I recognized even before she came into my life that Canadians are a prejudiced bunch when it comes to the US. I think it was Allan Fotheringham who once said, "Americans are the most arrogant people in the world, and Canadians are the most smug people in the world. Canadians secretly love Americans being so arrogant, because it allows them to be so smug."
I think that's true, and it bothers me because I see it in myself. It also bothers me when people assume my attitude is going to be anti-American, just because of where I live and what I do. It bothers me when people make snide comments aout Americans that would be unacceptable if they were about any other group of people, and it bothers me when people suggest Canada is somehow superior to the US.
Don't get me wrong: I prefer it here. I'm actually uncomfortable about a lot of what goes on in the States, especially foreign policy, but also the way their society is constructed. I never feel at home there.
But the American dream is a good dream, and we have a lot to learn from America as we step breezily into the 21st century. Look back a hundred years to a young America, just beginning to assert itself, the darling of all the world, and you'll see a familiar sight: it's us, today.
Happy Birthday, USA. I'll be watching your fireworks tonight with hope for us all.
Anyone who's read anything I've written in this space knows, I'm as Canadian as the day is long. I didn't write a journal entry on Canada Day to make a big deal of it, because I spent Canada Day driving through the countryside of eastern Ontario with a canoe on the roof, listening to Fifty Tracks on the CBC, on the way to a tiny little festival in Oxford Mills that ultimately got rained out. I love highways, trains, trees and rivers. I drink beer and speak in a broad, rude dialect after I've had a couple. I live in a neighbourhood my dad grew up in and I cherish the fact that it's peopled with a crazy mix of old school poor folks, Vietnamese and Chinese immigrants, upwardly mobile DINKS, gay men, and whoever else wants to call the place home. I play hockey and paddle my canoe and build sheds, not incidentally, but religiously. I am Canadian, and I didn't need a beer commercial to tell me so.
But I live with an American girl, and I recognized even before she came into my life that Canadians are a prejudiced bunch when it comes to the US. I think it was Allan Fotheringham who once said, "Americans are the most arrogant people in the world, and Canadians are the most smug people in the world. Canadians secretly love Americans being so arrogant, because it allows them to be so smug."
I think that's true, and it bothers me because I see it in myself. It also bothers me when people assume my attitude is going to be anti-American, just because of where I live and what I do. It bothers me when people make snide comments aout Americans that would be unacceptable if they were about any other group of people, and it bothers me when people suggest Canada is somehow superior to the US.
Don't get me wrong: I prefer it here. I'm actually uncomfortable about a lot of what goes on in the States, especially foreign policy, but also the way their society is constructed. I never feel at home there.
But the American dream is a good dream, and we have a lot to learn from America as we step breezily into the 21st century. Look back a hundred years to a young America, just beginning to assert itself, the darling of all the world, and you'll see a familiar sight: it's us, today.
Happy Birthday, USA. I'll be watching your fireworks tonight with hope for us all.
posted by David Newland at 4.7.05
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