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Further to this you may be interested in the book:
Fire
and Ice: The United States and Canada and the Myth of Converging Values by
Michael Adams.
Adams runs Environics, a polling firm of some repute in
Canada. His sampling of opinion (over a very wide range of values/issues)
shows the differing values between Canadians and Americans and within the US
itself where there are surprisingly wide regional spreads.
arthur
Lawry:
Times are very difficult, and require a surer, more granular, and more
disciplined treatment than is normally the case. Missteps at this time can
create very bad results. I would hope that Canada's historical ability to see
the moral light and policy essentials will again prevail, and that Canada may
be able to help the US learn what it must, but by ignoring the US's mistakes,
but by guiding the US to their resolution.
My fear, Lawry, is
that Canada may also have lost its way and that our moral light has faded
since Pearson and Trudeau were Prime Ministers. Chretien, who is about
to leave the scene, is a very bright man, but a pragmatist, not an
idealist. To his credit, he kept us out of the "coalition of the
willing", but he has not offered anything as an alternative except the rather
tired idea that if the UN goes along with it, we'll go too, knowing full-well
that the UN would not. I read Martin, the incoming Prime Minister, as a
neo-con whose major concern will be keeping the deficit down and improving the
economy, including trade relations with the US. And to improve trade
relations with the US we have to pretend to support what the US Administration
is doing, don't we?
The light of higher
purpose still shines on in Canada, but you increasingly have to look for
it. One sees it in people like Romeo Dallaire, the general who almost
single-handedly tried to stop the blood bath in Rwanda, but I'm afraid we're
not going to find it in our politicians.
Ed
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, November 17, 2003 10:24
AM
Subject: RE: [Futurework] Be a good
little beaver for Uncle Sam!
Good morning, Ed,
The single most important task that lies ahead for the US is to learn
what it must learn so as to be able to start playing a positive and helpful
role in the world. At this point, we are doing the very opposite, so the
learnings will have to be profound and cognitively revolutionary. Any
reassurances that those who are the present creators of the US's current
policies receive, whether they come from other US citizens or from foreign
sources, will only serve to delay those learnings and ensure a continuation
of the present policies.
I
do not believe that is in the interests of anybody, whether US citizen or
citizen of some other country, for anyone to engage in behavior that allows
the current US policy-makers to believe that they have done
right.
Times are very difficult, and require a surer, more granular, and
more disciplined treatment than is normally the case. Missteps at this time
can create very bad results. I would hope that Canada's historical ability
to see the moral light and policy essentials will again prevail, and that
Canada may be able to help the US learn what it must, but by ignoring the
US's mistakes, but by guiding the US to their
resolution.
Many of us here in the US remember the help of Canada with the
hostages and Americans in Iran. We remember Canada's sterling record in
peace-keeping, and international development assistance. We remember the
contributions of Canadians to the arts and domestic life in the US. Canada
has a great standing in the eyes of US citizens, and it would be wonderful
if Canada could use some of this standing to help the US find its way to
becoming that better citizen of the world.
Cheers,
Lawry
There are times when, as a Canadian, I feel a little less than proud of
my country's political leaders. This is one of them.
I see by today’s local paper, the Ottawa Citizen, that Canadian Federal
opposition members are demanding that Prime Minister-to-be Paul Martin's
first order of business this week must be to phone U.S. President George
W. Bush to arrange a meeting that will begin the process of repairing
badly damaged Canada-U.S. relations. The softwood lumber crisis, mad cow
disease and the Iraq war are just three issues he should address with Mr.
Bush immediately, not to mention establishing a good personal
relationship, they say. Tory leader Peter MacKay said Mr. Martin should
not wait for Mr. Bush to call and congratulate him on winning the Liberal
leadership, but should pick up the phone first and do so this week. And,
says Alliance MP Deb Grey: "He needs to prove what he says about mending
relations with the U.S. -- on BSE, get the borders open, deal with
softwood lumber. We didn't want to get involved in Iraq -- so what are we
going to do on that front?"
Yes, what indeed? What might Bush want in return to favoring us with a
pat on the head? Well, he could grant us the privilege of joining the US
in sinking into the Iraqi quagmire. The Americans certainly need help
there. According to this morning’s Power and Interest News Report (PINR)
dispatch,
"… if the White House is able to corral a greater number of countries
into committing troops to Iraq, the president and his administration --
specifically the likes of Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld and his deputy Paul Wolfowitz -- will appear vindicated on
charges of unilateralism and anti-internationalism, which is one of the
most widespread and accepted criticisms of this White House's foreign
policy. It would be both an international and domestic political victory
over their critics if the Bush administration were able to create a true
coalition of military forces sharing constabulary duties in
Iraq."
Question for my fellow Canadians: Do we really want to help these guys
out even if it does mean getting a few more cows over the US border?
Ed Weick
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