Asymmetrical Information

Good point. Honestly, I think the main issues among Canadians are the Quebecois and the futile attempt to retain a cultural identity distinct from their neighbors to the south. Not necessarily in that order.

Jan, did you ever think, Jak (jaksblog) just might be an american expat?

Canada's national identity is "not the U.S," so the obsession with all things American is only to be expected.

I think a more likely explanation is that U.S. foreign and domestic policy has a huge impact on Canada, but not so much the other way around. I think this is the main reason most people around the world are far more aware of our politics than we typically are of theirs (I imagine that there are a lot more Italians that know George Bush than there are Americans that know Silvio Berlusconi). That and the American tendency to think that we act alone in the world and don't need to pay attention to those other people.

Eh, you write what you're interested in, and what you think you know about. I can't imagine writing a blog highly focussed on economic issues, because I don't feel like I know enough to follow with the jargon. But maybe he has relatives here, or maybe he used to live here. Or maybe he's a political science major. Or maybe he's a communist, and thinks he's an authority on Amerikkan kapitalism.

Maybe he just finds America more interesting than Canada. (Maybe because it is.) :-P

Seems a lot of Canadian lefties are that way. I finally posited to one of them whether his was an example of what Bush gets accused of so often: Using international politics to distract from domestic problems.

i think doug-e-fresh is on the money. when i came to this country and settle in the ny area, nyc was the centre of the universe. it still is. i think that americans tend to forget just how big a footprint they leave. since america really matters, and its actions matter, it makes it easy to want to talk about it--because people like to talk about things that really matter...

I live in Canada and to me the answer is obvious. Far too many Canadians define their Canadian identity in negative terms - in terms of how they differ from Americans. This leads to the obsession with America that you noted, and to the annoying way that some Canadians make such a big deal out of the trivial differences that do exist between the two countries. This obsession with trivialites is understandable, of course. When two peoples are in fact very much alike, but when one of them sees itself as fundamentally different, its members will make a big deal out of the trivial differences that do exist, since they are the only things they can use to justify that feeling of difference. So, for example, you will find many people in Canada who feel smugly superior to Americans because we spell words like "colour" with a "u".

There is another reason for it, which is more fundamental. Decades ago Dean Acheson, U.S. Secretary of State, described Canada as "the stern voice of the daughter of God." Acheson, whose parents were Canadian, was referring to the smug attitude of moral superiority that many Canadians have towards America and the world. That attitude persists today, except now it is held by left-leaning Canadians who see Canada as an embodiment of their "progessive" egalitarian, multiculturalist ideals, as contrast to the United States, which they see as a reactionary nation.

Of course there are large numbers of Canadians who don't share this anti-American viewpoint. The unfortunate thing today is that the ruling Liberal party does share it, which is why Candian government policy seems sometimes to be designed to deliberately irritate the Americans.

Maybe there's nothing left to write about in Canada

Maybe there's nothing left to write about in Canada

As a Canadian I can tell you this is pretty standard stuff for the typical leftists. Anti-american, anti-capitalist stuff is just the standard. But Republican governments send them right off the deep end and into paranoid fixations to the exclusion of all logic or reason.

Not all of us are like that. Alas, there is a strain of it running through our federal government, and especially our national broadcaster, the CBC. Any difference from Americans is the source of their self-esteem, so they need to constantly find things to bash. Writing about things Canadian tend only to happen if they can contrast them with the unenlightened American approach. It's pathetic.

Regarding CrudeBoy above: its the first time a double posting has made me LOL. :)

The reasons Canadians write about America is that Canada is not fully independent. Canada is economically dependent on the U.S. and militarily a protectorate of the U.S.

The result is a Canadian talking about the U.S. government is much like a Puerto Rican talking about the U.S. government; an American talking about the Canadian government is much like a New Yorker talking about the government of Puerto Rico.

The reasons Canadians write about America is that Canada is not fully independent. Canada is economically dependent on the U.S. and militarily a protectorate of the U.S.

The result is a Canadian talking about the U.S. government is much like a Puerto Rican talking about the U.S. government; an American talking about the Canadian government is much like a New Yorker talking about the government of Puerto Rico.

Doug-E-Fresh seems right to me.

People all over the world write about U.S. foreign policy because our foreign policy has a significant impact on world events.

Canada's foreign policy doesn't.

Well, Matt Yglesias and I seem to be in a competition to be the American bloggers who talk about Canadian politics the most (I think he's winning, by the way).

But if it's even 5% of either of our content I'd be very surprised.

I'm also a Canadian, and I would have to agree with most of what's written above (although calling us a protectorate may be going a wee bit too far - half of the Liberal caucus would crap themselves if they heard that. Not that that's a bad thing).

As the world's most powerful and influential nation, America is bound to get more than its fair share of attention from people in all countries. Plus, as noted, Canada's close ties to the US tend to make many of us both more aware you and slightly resentful. And it really is a one way street.

A common complaint of Canadians is that we know so much more about Americans than they know about us. Well, d'uh. Considering 90%+ of the movies and television we watch is set in the US it would be hard not to learn something about you. But learning US history and geography from the Simpsons does not necessarily make us morally superior. I'd be more impressed if a few more Canadians knew anything about anywhere outside the US. God, most people are suprised to find out things like Miranda rights and "taking the fifth" don't apply in Canada.

Jim: "Canada's foreign policy doesn't." If you can actually identify anything that can be called a Canadian foreign policy under the current government, then you're doing better than most Canadians. In the last few months it seems the PM has been going out of his way not to have a coherent foreign policy.

(Sorry, I feel like I'm starting to ramble but this is touching on a few sore spots of mine. The attitude of a lot of Canadians regarding the US really pisses me off).

I also think Doug-E-Fresh's post hits the nail on the head.

Greg Shoom, Canadians have a long way to go before they rival American conservatives for smug attitudes of moral superiority.

I understand the foreign policy part, but why does he care how our military procurement system and our voting machines work?

Voting machines affect how our government is elected which in turn affects foreign policy.

I don't subscribe to the belief that the 2000 presidential election was a fraud or the result of error, but the shenanigans in Florida did call the results of the election into question for a time. If the administration in power as a result of the 2000 election goes on to make sweeping changes in foreign policy (see the new National Security Strategy document), then foreigners might well be interested in how U.S. voting machines work and other mechanisms of our electoral process.

Military procurement is a bit iffier, I'll grant you. :)

Though on second thought, it probably has to do with theories on the military industrial complex. There are some implausible conspiracy theories out there regarding the MIC, but that doesn't mean the entire idea is bunk, or that there's absolutely no reason for a foreign person to care about how the U.S. military awards contracts.

Sean E: I don't know what's so incoherent about Canada's foreign policy. Clearly the Canadians are either with us or against us. ;-)

People all over the world may write about U.S. foreign policy because our foreign policy has a significant impact on world events, but you can spend days and days in most countries without hearing a word about American politics (at least you could before the recent situation.)

Canadians and the English just will not shut up about the US.

At least the Canadians don't fret about not having a space program. If you want free drinks in an English nightclub, bet the person next to you the one of the next two comics will mention the moon walk. Skoal!

Jane, the voting machines business is probably harking back to the 2000 election. In the Australian press there was a great deal of squawking about how (shock, horror!) voting procedures are not standardized throughout the country, and are (gasp!) left up to local control. That's (smirk) very inefficient, and (self-righteous huff) means that poorer districts don't have the money to buy modern machines, but must make do with those (titter) chad-impregnating types. (Such as, for example, those living in the grinding poverty of Silicon Valley.)

He doesn't always write about the U.S. -- sometimes he writes about how Israel is so bad that it reminds him of early U.S. He did body counts for half a year. He periodically trolls sites that tend toward conservative politics. I would guess you've had mail from him at some point.

It's a stretch to link him with Canadian tendencies. Ask Colby -- Jak isn't Canadian in his obsession with the U.S. Canadians gripe about the U.S. -- Jak foams at the mouth. I wouldn't describe his posts on the U.S. as discussions of U.S. foreign policy -- that's bit of gilding.

He came to Canada from the UK. His fundamental take on Islamic culture formed during his days blowing dope in Morocco as a young man. A peaceful, serene people happy with their simple life and a little 'pipe' of an evening. The U.S. imperialists will take it all over, though, because Bush the Butcher, wants to make money from their oil. When it launches, Jak will start the body count again.

There is a U.S. citizen he thinks very highly of, however, so he isn't against everyone -- he likes Noam Chomsky.

As an American formerly married to a Canadian (semi) lefty, I spent a considerable amount of time examining this matter.

It's very, very true that anglophone Canadians — even non-lefty Canadians — define themselves in very "We're not USAians" terms. It can be very odd for an involved onlooker like myself.

It's also true, as Acheson's lovely quote implies, that they're quite annoyingly smug. It can be amusing, though, to hear white middle-class Canadians talk about American racism and then, in the next breath, talk about "those Chinese" in Toronto and Vancouver. No cognitive dissonance there. Nope. None.

It's also amusing to watch central Canadian anglohones (read: Ontario) desperately cling to the bicultural ideal of Canada while the francophones couldn't possibly care less. Hee!

Finally, what's really interesting is how much Canadians don't really know about the US. Like I've heard from a lot of foreigners who've spent a lot of time in the US, Americans aren't really as "American" as they were led to believe. Especially regarding things like violence, guns, the South, etcetera. Even Canadians accept a lot of caricatured views of the US without question, and that's sort of surprising.

Having said that, though, I'm kind of fond of Canadians. They are the conscience of North America, and I'm glad they're there. And I'm glad that they are globally irrelevant enough that they can afford to be so conscientious.

Sean E:
> (although calling us a protectorate may be going
> a wee bit too far - half of the Liberal caucus
> would crap themselves if they heard that. Not
> that that's a bad thing)

OK, I hereby resolve to call Canada a protectorate of the US at least once a day. Will that help? :-)

Keith M Ellis:

> Canadians...are the conscience of North America

Uhh, speak for themselves! I don't really feel like I need someone else to be my conscience (nor would it do me much good if I did.)

hey lots of canadians are interested in the us... but jak's an anarchist, which is why he's insane...

otherwise.. the us is dynamic, actually does stuff, and has open politics... canada is just depressing, closed, small, and can't do anything...

as for foreign policy... according to the chretien government, we're both for and against the US at the same time (cabinet fights are fun, especially in public)... incoherence they name is chretien!!

Andrew Coyne had an excellent column in the National Post a while back about the incoherence of Canada's foreign policy as it related to Iraq, if anyone is interested (link is to a NRO reprint):

http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-coyne040303.asp

I also should make clear that I love Canada. I think it's a great country with wonderful people and is a terrific place to live, winters and all. But the prospect of consecutive Liberal governments stretching out before me for the rest of my natural life has a tendency to make me cynical about the future.

re: voting machines. He doesn't care about your voting machines. For an America-basher, bashing is the message. They just reach into a barrel of current events to keep the message current without actually changing it. Voting machines, museum looting, whatever. You just grab stuff out of the news, apply a condescending blame-America sneer and throw it.

As someone once said "Americans are benevolently ignorant about Canada, while Canadians are malevolently well-informed about the United States." This is particularly true of the Left.

It's all part of the Canadian attempt to reconquer the U.S. Southwest.

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