B Sides: Canada and Anti-Americanism Keenan Nurmsoo, OP Contributor I’m Canadian, and I love being one. I love Canada. I’m proud of our accomplish- ments, even though we don’t have an exceptionally large amount of them. I’m proud of our military history, which is more or less dominated by quiet successes in noble wars. But the one thing I’m not proud of is the anti-American plague that’s spread across this great nation. It’s horrible. You know, we kind of get this stereotype (most- ly from Americans, it seems) that we’re this super friendly, happy little country that loves everyone. This is far from the case. Ask any sensible Canadian and they'll tell Americans that they are not liked one bit in Canada. It’s shocking. How could the friendly neighbour to the north, who helps out in times of need, hate America? How could America’s little brother be a breeding ground for anti-Americanism? Sure, it’s not “stomp on and burn your flag Middle- Eastern anti-Americanism,” but it’s still rude and completely unfounded. We have this mindset that the Canadian is intelligent, modest, kind, and always will- ing to lend a helping hand, while the American is moronic, arrogant, and thinks that everyone else is terrible. You see these ridiculous, wonderfully exact examples of hypocrisy in Canadians. Talking to Americans, a show featuring cleverly edited, most likely out-of-context interviews with random Americans, is one such example. In it, you'll see Americans discussing whether or not Canada should have a navy and keep the ships in US ports, seeing as how Canada is fully land-locked. This is done so Canadians, supposedly kind and modest, can laugh at America. The problem is due to two things: our culture and our national identity. The simple fact is, when Canada was called “America junior” on The Simpsons, it was true. It’s logical and inevitable. America has no independent culture. It is a cultural melting pot, as corny as it sounds. And you know what?—it’s the same in Canada. We, too, have no independent cul- ture. We are nothing more than a cultural melting pot. Naturally, because of these similarities, it is almost impossible to differ- entiate between American and Canadian cultures. We both have the British-meets- world culture. This lack of cultural differ- ence means there’s no reason to take the patriotic high road and state facts about your culture with a smile on your face. For Canadians, the only way we can be proud of our culture is by saying how it’s not like America’s. Out of this denial of the inher- ent similarities between our cultures grows anti-Americanism. It’s natural, and it’s inevitable. Get Your Hands UP! The Other Press is Hiring! The following positions will be available in coming months... Managing Editor Proofreader Opinions Editor Features Editor But there’s more to anti-Americanism than a lack of different cultures. We have a severe issue with our national identity. To put it bluntly, we have none. We do not force our citizens to become Canadian. Because of this, we have no real identity. We are a jumble of different cultures which have not really melted together. We are a cultural melting pot, only we refuse to actu- ally melt. While America makes you join up with everyone else, creating a real sense of who you are, we refuse to do that. So you end up with multiple fragmented groups and no real rallying point for us to get up and say “I’m Canadian!” With all this frag- mentation, an apparent feeling of jealously towards American’s unity and pride just creates more anti-Americanism. Basically, what I’m trying to say here is that Canadians shouldn’t just stand up and say “I’m just like an American!” Quite to the contrary, we have things to be proud of. Yet we refuse to be proud of just these things. We feel that we need to hate America to be proud. We have based pattri- otism on hatred of America. This is unnec- essary. If we just acknowledged that we were incredibly similar to America, and that that’s alright, because we still do have dif- ferences, like Quebec, and our system of government, and our history, I think we would cast aside our anti-Americanism, and embrace our subtle differences, and there- fore, be less nationalistic, and more patriotic.