I agree with you that Coulter may have been thinking of Canadians who joined the U.S. military to serve in Vietnam - I'm not sure of the numbers (and bow to your superior knowledge of matters in this area). Or perhaps she was confusing Canada and Australia? ;-)
As to why Canada allowed them to serve in the U.S. - first of all, on a pragmatic level, how would one go about stopping them? It's a very large border, with vast numbers people crossing it every day. Second, I think Canada tends to be fairly relaxed about what its citizens get up to in other areas of the world as long as they're not actually doing something against Canadian law or major interest. We'll complain about them a lot - it's a news story here when some Canadian entertainer takes U.S. citizenship, for example - but it's not really our "style" to actively prevent it.
I think Prime Minister Martin is trying to re-establish the idea that Canada has principles with some of his recent U.N. and world tour public statements, but in many ways, it's probably time for Canada to accept that we're a small and not particularly relevant country, and just start doing the things we believe are right (foreign aid, supporting the U.N., doing what we can to encourage human rights issues) without trying to get all preachy and leader-ish about it. Actually, I think that's what we were doing back in the 60s under Pearson, and that's when we started getting the positive image we had for a while.
In the CBC interview with Coulter, the focus was actually on anti-Canada sentiment in the U.S. - we tend to be much more concerned on a day-to-day basis with what the U.S. is thinking about us than we are about what our image is in other countries, particularly since wide-spread negative sentiment in the U.S. could have serious consequences for our economy.
The report itself didn't look at red and blue states - which has been the common and quite mistaken interpretation - so much as conservative and liberal media and their influence on red and blue voters.
As for whether Canadians and Americans are different... now that question lies at least in part within my profesional area of expertise, as a market researcher/pollster. And every bit of evidence at my disposal indicates that there are significant cultural differences between Canadians and Americans. The differences do tend to be subtle - my ex-pat American partner, who has lived in Canada now for six years, keeps telling me that the differences become more obvious to him the longer he's here.
It's also hard to put them into simple, everyday words. I could give you (if it weren't propietary reseach, that is) a whole list of "value and belief statements" on which Canadians and Americans over time give responses that are different, to a high degree of statistical significance. These mostly cover such matters as respect for traditional family and gender roles (Americans strongly in favour, Canadians not nearly so much), preference for hierarchical patterns of organisation (Americans prefer them, Canadians not as much), interest in global issues and in other cultures (Americans not so much, Canadians significantly moreso), and other social trends.
I'd be interested in more of your perceptions of the cultural differences between Canadians and Americans. We've touched on these issues in previous discussions, and it's very interesting to me to get a perspective from someone who shares some very general cultural roots (the English colonial thing, and some degree of multi-cultural immigration) with both countries, but is not from either.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2005-01-29 09:15 pm (UTC)As to why Canada allowed them to serve in the U.S. - first of all, on a pragmatic level, how would one go about stopping them? It's a very large border, with vast numbers people crossing it every day. Second, I think Canada tends to be fairly relaxed about what its citizens get up to in other areas of the world as long as they're not actually doing something against Canadian law or major interest. We'll complain about them a lot - it's a news story here when some Canadian entertainer takes U.S. citizenship, for example - but it's not really our "style" to actively prevent it.
I think Prime Minister Martin is trying to re-establish the idea that Canada has principles with some of his recent U.N. and world tour public statements, but in many ways, it's probably time for Canada to accept that we're a small and not particularly relevant country, and just start doing the things we believe are right (foreign aid, supporting the U.N., doing what we can to encourage human rights issues) without trying to get all preachy and leader-ish about it. Actually, I think that's what we were doing back in the 60s under Pearson, and that's when we started getting the positive image we had for a while.
In the CBC interview with Coulter, the focus was actually on anti-Canada sentiment in the U.S. - we tend to be much more concerned on a day-to-day basis with what the U.S. is thinking about us than we are about what our image is in other countries, particularly since wide-spread negative sentiment in the U.S. could have serious consequences for our economy.
The report itself didn't look at red and blue states - which has been the common and quite mistaken interpretation - so much as conservative and liberal media and their influence on red and blue voters.
As for whether Canadians and Americans are different... now that question lies at least in part within my profesional area of expertise, as a market researcher/pollster. And every bit of evidence at my disposal indicates that there are significant cultural differences between Canadians and Americans. The differences do tend to be subtle - my ex-pat American partner, who has lived in Canada now for six years, keeps telling me that the differences become more obvious to him the longer he's here.
It's also hard to put them into simple, everyday words. I could give you (if it weren't propietary reseach, that is) a whole list of "value and belief statements" on which Canadians and Americans over time give responses that are different, to a high degree of statistical significance. These mostly cover such matters as respect for traditional family and gender roles (Americans strongly in favour, Canadians not nearly so much), preference for hierarchical patterns of organisation (Americans prefer them, Canadians not as much), interest in global issues and in other cultures (Americans not so much, Canadians significantly moreso), and other social trends.
I'd be interested in more of your perceptions of the cultural differences between Canadians and Americans. We've touched on these issues in previous discussions, and it's very interesting to me to get a perspective from someone who shares some very general cultural roots (the English colonial thing, and some degree of multi-cultural immigration) with both countries, but is not from either.