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J.J. McCullough, OP

Columnist

Bush, Canada, and the Future

ast issue, I predicted the outcome
ar of the US election a week before

it occurred. As I write this, it is
the day after the election, and I am
trying to gauge what President
Bush’s victory means for Canada-US
relations at this early point in time.

I imagine many of Canada’s
mainstream pundits will quickly
jump to the conclusion that Bush’s
decisive victory represents yet
another manifestation of the alleged
“growing cultural divide” between
America and Canada. Prior to the
election, many Canadian media out-
lets ran polls (admittedly often of
dubious statistical validity), which
indicated the Canadian public pre-
ferred Senator Kerry by quite a large
margin. Many Canadians continue to
believe that opposing the Iraq war is

 

now one of the all-time greatest
moments in our nation’s history, so
obviously there is little Canadian
sympathy for the man who launched
the conflict. Similarly, the fact that
the votes of many Christian evan-
gelicals played a large—though by
no means, the only—factor in
Bush’s re-election is likely to be
highlighted by Canadian pundits as a
fundamental “weirdness” of
American society that has no cultur-
al equivalent in Canada. Many
policies that were strong issues in
the US election were simply not
debated in the Canadian election,
and vice-versa.

Are the pundits correct? Has this elec-
tion proven once and for all that Canada
and the US are moving in different direc-
tions faster than ever? I don’t think such a
sweeping conclusion can yet be drawn.

Bush’s victory, despite being a firm
mandate, has highlighted the cultural divi-
sions within the United States itself. The
Republican margin of victory was around
3,000,000 votes, a number smaller than
the population of many large cities. Bush

hovemuer 10/2000

was not elected unanimously, and those
who believe America is a “fundamentally”
right-wing nation need only to look at the
intensity of the figures associated with the
Kerry side of the race, such as Michael
Moore and his various Hollywood associ-
ates, to realize that the US is getting more,
and not less, polarized. If anything, this
election has highlighted the fact that
America remains a very regional nation, in
which the geographic “red” and “blue”
states continue to pit their populations
against one another for temporary control
of the federal government.

Kerry could have been elected
President, and the fact that such an out-
come was in fact widely predicted until
the very final hours of election night
should serve as a reminder to those left-
wing critics in Canada who enjoy
believing in the myth of homogeneous
American politics. Such critics should also
realize that Canada itself remains an

social relationship between our two coun-
tries. Eleven American states voted to
outlaw gay marriage in this last election.
Although these bans are unlikely to be
permanent, I strongly suspect this will
further embolden Canadian nationalists to
make gay marriage into the new poster
policy for Canada’s “moral superiority”
over the US, much as they have done with
socialized healthcare. The Iraq conflict is
similarly not showing any signs of disap-
pearing from the headlines any time soon,
indicating that Canadian liberals will be
keen to paint the war as the Vietnam of
this generation.

My own feeling, however, is that,
despite the small differences highlighted
by last Tuesday’s election, Canada and the
United States are still headed down a path
of increased cooperation and unity. Prime
Minister Paul Martin, despite the many
faults of his party and his NDP-Bloc

dominated minority government, is a

THE BIGGEST WINNERS:

equally polarized, regional, and divided
political nation, and that the growing
divide between conservative and liberal
politics, morals, and culture remains very
much a global phenomenon.

For Canadians like myself, who like
and support the United States and favour
closer US-Canadian integration, it is nev-
ertheless impossible to deny that Bush’s
victory does bring with it some ramifica-
tions, which will (at least temporarily)
colour the nature of the political and

dTo}eys YEARS!
8 | \

 

“small-c” conservative who has always
shared many of Bush’s views on matters
such as missile defense, border security,
and free trade.

The rabidly protectionist Democratic
Senate leader Tom Daschle is gone,
which, along with an absence of a pro-
union Kerry presidency, will help speed
up the resolution of Canada’s outstanding
trade disputes with our neighbour. With
his business background, Martin’s main
interests have always been in economic

matters, in which he remains a classic lib-
eral. Unlike Jean Chretien before him, he’s
unlikely to be overly aggressive in trying
to exploit the far-left “nationalist” crowd
with inflammatory anti-American rheto-
ric, instead regarding improved US
relations as one of the cornerstones of
his mandate.

Overall, the results of this election
should usher in a period for reflection
among Canadians of all political stripes.
Just as half of America must learn to
accept Bush’s second term, so too must
Canadians learn to accept the reality and
longevity of our next-door government. I
know of many Canadian conservatives
who were inclined to favour a Kerry pres-
idency, not because of ideological
reasons, but instead out of a desire to see
America’s global reputation improve,
prompting a decline in the rabid anti-
Americanism that has plagued this
country and others. Such hopes were
understandable, and I greatly
sympathized with them. Right
or left, socialist or conserva-
tive, pro or anti war, I think
the common thread that runs
through all politics is the
desire for unity.

This has been a _ very
intense political season. I have
become very emotionally
involved in this eight-month
election, and I imagine you
readers have been as well. I
favoured Bush, and yet the
aftermath of this election is
not a period of great joy for
me. The overwhelming emo-
tion is a feeling of uncertainty
in the times ahead, and per-
haps a bit of discomfort at the
sudden realization that by the
time President Bush leaves
office, I will be 24 years old
and out of university. One of
the greatest elements of a
democratic society is the
widespread public excitement
that comes with an election
season. When an election
ends, so too does that excite-
ment, as we all settle down
and watch that brief opportu-
nity for change pass into the
distance.

Regardless, the important thing to
remember is that policies are not perma-
nent, and governments remain but a brief
snapshot in a much larger history.
Whatever one’s thoughts on President
Bush may be, Canada and the US remain
more alike than any two nations on earth.
Now, more than ever, we should not hes-
itate to remember that simple fact.

DUNEPPPeSS | 4