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The Great Canadian Obsession: Americans
On a national pastime that has captured the hearts of many Canadians
Canadians are obsessed with Americans.
Let me clarify: Canadians are obsessed with hating on Americans. They smugly complain about American politics, culture, society, and everything in between. If it came from the United States, Canadians are guaranteed to turn their nose up at it.
Our obsession with bashing the United States has been a national pastime for years and persists to this day. The earliest complaint of this phenomenon I’ve seen was in an article of the September 24, 1960 issue of Maclean’s magazine.
We seem to think that problems Americans face are exclusive to the United States only. Tut, tut, tut. That would never happen here, we say.
We would rather fixate on all of the things our neighbour is doing wrong instead of looking inward and reflecting on our own shortcomings.
I hear what you’re saying: “Not all Canadians are like this.” Sure, not all — but there are more than enough. As a Canadian, I see this behaviour all the time.
Yes, the United States has its fair share of issues. I’m not naïve to that. It is a nation plagued by its broken health care system, widening income inequality, crumbling infrastructure, decaying social cohesion, police brutality, racism, gun violence and mass shootings — I could go on. On the international stage it doesn’t fare much better. American exceptionalism has led the United States to pursue global dominance via proxy wars, military interventions, and coups. The U.S. is responsible for imprisoning, torturing, and killing an untold number of innocent civilians abroad and at home. The country is full of sick people run by equally sick people. There’s no denying that.
But we risk losing sight of our own issues while we’re so busy pointing fingers elsewhere. We’ve become so myopically focused on Americans that we’ve become delusional of our own flaws.
Our Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (not unlike the rest of the world’s political leaders) is notorious for making false promises. He promised to reform the electoral system, but later backtracked once elected; he promised to pass more environmental…
