Canadians are sometimes ridiculed for being too nice. We have an international reputation for saying “sorry” and “please” and “thank you,” for being agreeable to a fault. While that’s something of a stereotype, we are, by and large, a respectful people.
That’s been a particularly useful trait over the decades and centuries during which we have, in the words of the first Prime Minister Trudeau, been “sleeping with an elephant.”
We have often disagreed with the United States of America, its policies and its choices, including its choice of leaders.
Polling suggests most Canadians don’t agree with Americans’ most recent choice for president. But we accept their right to choose and their right to exist, because we respect their history, traditions and accomplishments.
Regrettably, the same cannot be said of their president’s view of our country. When Donald Trump opines that Canada is of no value to the United States, except perhaps as an appendage, a state or states, he is displaying a deep disrespect for our history, traditions and accomplishments.
Canada exists in no small measure because our forebearers consciously chose not to become part of the American republican experiment, but they came to accept America’s choice and, since 1867, we have always respected it.
We have also stood with the Americans when it mattered most, even though they didn’t always do the same. Canada was at war with Germany for two years before the United States took up the cause.
The mere fact that the leader of a great, sovereign nation displays so little knowledge or respect for its best friend makes clear how little he understands the essential differences between Americans and Canadians and that while we respect them, we most certainly don’t want to be them.
