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One of the most readily identifiable differences between Canadians and Americans is that Americans are taught to be self-loathing while Canadians are taught to be raving narcissists.

Consider the case of the New York Times' recently-unveiled most popular comment ever.  Paul Krugman, the paper's dour financial columnist, had written one of his trademark pieces about how America is going to hell in a shopping cart thanks to growing inequality yada yada.  In response, a guy named "Bob from Calgary" wrote a snippy couple of paragraphs bragging how everything in Canada, by contrast, was perfect.  The Times' liberal audience couldn't get enough of that one, and gave it more than 7,000 thumbs-up.  There are few things liberal Americans love more than a foreigner telling them how awful their country is.

Last week, in a CBC column reflecting on his five minutes of fame, Bob described how encouraged he was by the scant pushback his views provoked from fellow Canadians.

"I braced myself for an onslaught of critical comments," he writes, but luckily no bracing was necessary, as the "dozens of emails and hundreds of tweets" he received were overwhelmingly complimentary.  Bob concludes his sentiments "represented the quiet majority of people who are proudly compassionate and who believe in equality of opportunity as a core Canadian value."  How splendid we are!

Similar good times were had from a recent Canadian Press piece about Bernie Sanders that was promptly republished everywhere.  Though awkward facts sometimes got in the way, author Alexander Panetta did his best to reach the only conclusion the Official Canadian Narrative would accept: even the most radical, crusading American liberal would be comfortably mainstream in happy, progressive Canada.  Sanders' utopian goals have already been achieved here.  It was the exact inverse of an article Panetta had written a week prior on why Kevin O'Leary's Trump-like populism would never work in Canada because, basically, Canadians are smarter and richer.  It's worth noting that Panetta is a reporter, not a columnist.  Articles of his flavor are considered the sort of hard news Canadians simply need to know.

America's presidential race is currently dominated by two angry men who lecture endlessly about how horrible their country has become and how dreadful everyone has it.  Over here, the Metro summed up Prime Minister Trudeau's recent trip to Davos with the headline "Be like us, Canada tells world."  Trudeau's winning political brand is said to be based around "optimism," which translates to incessantly announcing to anyone in earshot how Canadians have built the most tolerant, friendly, resourceful society to ever grace God's green globe.  The Americans, for their part, are happy to be our enablers.  Canada is hip, said the New York Times.  Got that right, replied Canadian editorial pages.

 

Pessimism sells in America.  Popular works of American economics and sociology report obsessively on the negative — police violence, wealth gaps, structural sexism — while beloved public commentators from Glenn Beck to Ta-Naheshi Coates, build brands as gloom-and-doomers who reliably paint their country as a grim, even sinister place.  It can be depressing, but it also has the effect of infusing Americans with a striving energy to fix, innovate, and improve.

In this country, books and columns that are overly critical of Canada are rare, and there tends to be scant interest among journalists and academics in exploring statistics and trends that emphasize the darker sides of Canadian life.  Even the plight of the Canadian Indian, long ago sanctified into The One Official Canadian Problem, is so awash in sentimentalism and performance it functions less as a source of discomfort than something to feel pride in showily "addressing."

Nations are like people, and different ones are prone to different vices.  Vanity and ego are ours, and they're scarcely more attractive than greed or wrath or whatever sins we so loudly and often speculate to be at the root of American dysfunction.  A culture of pride does not make for a country that is ambitious, innovative, or charitable, since vanity is a corrosive emotion that numbs instincts of drive, empathy, and self-criticism that animate productive and successful behavior.

Canada is a small country that has become comfortably prosperous thanks to American trade, technology, and protection.  What we have produced on our own, be it in the realm of science, culture, or democracy is not terribly impressive, and for a long time it was assumed awareness of this fact would give Canadians a naturally humble disposition.  In today's Canada, alas, where self-awareness has taken a backseat to chauvinistic showboating, modesty is merely one more thing to brag about.

Written by J.J. McCullough

The views, opinions and positions expressed by columnists and contributors are the author’s alone. They do not inherently or expressly reflect the views, opinions and/or positions of our publication.