Waging a War on Anti-Americanism

I wholeheartedly recommend that you think this through first before you make any decisions … whether you’re going to Canada on trip or moving there. I’m not trying to talk you out of it, but there are a few things that you should know that the American media won’t tell you.

Many Canadians hate Americans. I’ve mentioned some things that they dislike about us in this post. But that’s not even the tip of the iceberg.

Someone on Yahoo Answers who’s currently living in Ontario posted a question, “Why do Canadians Hate Americans?”

I have lived in Ontario for a while now, and I am tired of having everyone tell me that all Americans are illiterate gun-toting hicks. Not that they mean me personally, but they mean all of my friends, family and everyone else I ever knew.

Someone named, “Sadealz” replied,

I never knew they felt this way about americans.

Actually, MOST Americans don’t know this. Keep in mind, the US relies heavily on Canada and Canada relies heavily on us in terms of trading. Do you think our government would allow our media outlets to tell Americans how poorly they think of us and how many Canadians celebrated and applauded 9-11 and felt that we deserved it? (Hypocrisy: Those same Canadians also claim to be against the death penalty and all about being “peace-loving”)

One of the last commenters from this blog post above replied,

(sic) I am attending an international school in Grenada. For the first time in my life, I have Canadian students for classmates. I never new that our [america] neighbors hated us so much. I know the rest of the world hates America, but I never expected out of the Canadians.

Another person (Jade) replied:

Seriously, I also think alot of their press tends to point fingers at us and call us bad names. (Because Canada is SOOOOO great and all and we are the wild, rouge, cousin to the south.) My Uncle lives in Ontario and he says the press really makes us out to be heathens. No wonder why people think that when that is what they see and hear all the time without having experienced it first hand. People always assume the worst.

Makes perfect sense after reading, this, this, and this. And we know that the BBC and Der Spiegel aren’t any less guilty.

Indeed you are correct, nothing is ruder than an Eastern Canadian realizing you’re an American visiting their country. When my family took a summer vacation in Nova Scotia the populace could not have been more rude or mocking of us- our accents, our clothes, our careful review of the currency that wasn’t ours. Most often it was guys in plaid shirts calling us F___s for wearing t-shirts!? I never again will spend money in Canada. Their rudeness is only matched by their lack of self-awareness regarding their rudeness. In the Maritimes. I’ve been told Vancouver is more open, but still, more provincial and monocultural than any US city. –DCER (reply #27)

Randall who lived in Montreal replies,

I’ve noticed this too! I live in the United States but go to school in Montreal, and it really does seem that all Canadians hate Americans. Part of it is that they seem to feel like they are culturally superior to us, i.e. Americans are all sort of uncultured swines, but they have culture. A lot of it has to do with the media, too. Americans and Bush in particular are given a really bad rap by Canadian and other international news broadcasts and newspapers. They also feel like they are politically ahead of us because of their laws on many social issues. Some of it must be jealousy though as well because when does Canada get any recognition in the world? And, let’s face it, Canada is very dependent upon America for all sorts of things and if America were to go down, Canada would go with it. Canadians don’t like this dependency upon another nation.

I never could understand why some throw the “culture card” at us. It makes no sense. But I attempted to explain it here. If you don’t want to read the entire post, you can just scroll down to the part of the entry where I talk about “culture”.

The Anti-American Canadians do have a long list of inane complaints about Americans (that have nothing to do with Bush, Gitmo, Abu Ghraib, and the Iraqi War, by the way) which I’ve discussed in great length on my blog, so to avoid being redundant, I won’t get into everything here. However, these two posts will give you an idea of the over-the-top Anti-Americanism in Canada:

• Canadians and Americans Speak Up Part I
• Canadians and Americans Speak Up Part II

Here’s something else to look at: Anti-Americanism is spoonfed to Canadians in grade school.

It’s not just overreaction or Yankee imagination. Anti-Americanism is not only alive and well, it’s spoon fed in Canada.

The Three `Rs, Canada style, have been teaching school children as young as grade school an image of Americans as dishonourable, churlish and even bullying. This less than admirable image emerges in a presented this week to the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, hosted by the University of Manitoba.

Down through the decades, in Canadian textbooks American society has been portrayed as revolutionary and lawless. America’s contribution to World War 1 is dismissed, textbook form, as coming late, when the tide had already turned.

America’s children are portrayed as being brought up in “filthy tenements, driven out upon the streets to play in `gangs’,” according to a 1934 textbook that was prevalent in Canadian classrooms of the day.

In contrast, Canadians are depicted as orderly, harmonious and gentlemanly.

States the study author: “After the Second World War, the United States emerged as a champion of democracy around the world. This allowed Canada to trumpet its status as middle-power to negotiate and compromise in a way that the United States couldn’t.”

This explains where little Paulie (Martin), little Johnny (Chretien) and the plethora of anti-American Canadian journalists got their base for Yankee bashing. They, too are among the masses, which were educated in Canadian classrooms.

Running for re-election in the Canadian June 28 federal election are Carolyn Parrish, a Liberal MP who stated publicly “I hate those American bastards” and MP Colleen Beaumier, whose visit and sympathies for Iraq earned her the nickname “Baghdad Beaumier“.

Meanwhile, while anti-Americanism flourishes in America’s next door neighbour, the U.S. is Canada’s number one trading partner and because of Canada’s marginalized Armed Forces, its chief protector.

Clearly there’s some indoctrination going on there. Nobody can deny that. However, most interestingly enough, that’s one of their big criticisms against the US as noted in the comment section of this article:

How can I continue or have respect for a nation of citizens who choose to be (sic) indoctinatred on their own free will? Who are letting their system of government slide towards fascism without lifting a finger?

Insanity! We have just as much control over Bush being elected twice as they do have control over Harper and any other prime minister that submits to Bush. On just about every account, there’s much hypocrisy to be noted. Canada turns a convenient blind-eye to themselves. I don’t know about the Canadian system of voting, but in the US, we have an electoral system where not the popular vote wins, but the electoral college vote wins. And for the record. Al Gore won the popular vote back in 2000 - *not* Bush. Fifty-one percent wanted Bush back into office in 2004, and at that time, he did win the popular vote. I cannot understand how Anti-American Canadians think that we’re “not lifting a finger” after several attempts to get him impeached. This is further proof that Canadian Anti-Americanism is not only hypocritical and selfish, but also ignorant.

Many Americans are brainwashed by the media over here. But just as many Canadians are brainwashed by their own media systems. Ignorance is on BOTH ends. So is stupidity.

And if that wasn’t enough….

This particular article hit me the most of all: “Before You Flee to Canada, Can We Talk?”

…So I could certainly identify with the disappointed John Kerry supporters who started fantasizing about moving to Canada after Nov. 2. But after nearly four years as an American in the Great White North, I’ve learned it’s not all beer and doughnuts. If you’re thinking about coming to Canada, let me give you some advice: Don’t.

Although I enjoy my work and have made good friends here, I’ve found life as an American expatriate in Canada difficult, frustrating and even painful in ways that have surprised me. As attractive as living here may be in theory, the reality’s something else. For me, it’s been one of almost daily confrontation with a powerful anti-Americanism that pervades many aspects of life. When I’ve mentioned this phenomenon to Canadian friends, they’ve furrowed their brows sympathetically and said, “Yes, Canadian anti-Americanism can be very subtle.” My response is, there’s nothing subtle about it…

Read the full story here.

Need more proof? Just check my link section under “Anti-Americanism” and take a good long look at my sidebar which features too many accounts of Canadian bigotry toward Americans.

Visit Canada if you like. Go and live there. Maybe you’ll experience something different. The purpose of this post is to prepare YOU for what you may encounter. I remember in my college days that I decided very early on that I wanted to live in Japan. Most of my friends in college were Japanese. If they warned me once, they warned me dozens of times of what negative things I could expect from living there. Figuratively speaking, I was “well-armed” (typical yank, right? ) when I got there. However, not everything they said was spot on - even though the warnings came from Japanese nationals, themselves. Nonetheless, I was very grateful for all the advice I received.

We need to be more aware of how the world see us, anyway.