Harzem Peter wrote:
On Jun 19, 2007, at 2:43 PM, Christopher D. Green wrote:
One is not allowed to accept foreign titles as a Canadian citizen,
which is why good ol' Conrad Black, Lord of Crossharbour, had to give
up his Canadian citizenship before becoming a member of the British
House of Lords. Apparently he now desperately wants to renew his
birthright because Canadian prisons are reputed to be nicer that
their America equivalents.
For a fellow so keen to make ethnic distinctions, your regular
assimilation of Canadian to British is disconcerting.
Chris,
This is interesting. Is that rule special to Canada?
I believe so.
It is not applied in, e.g. Australia, New Zealand, and others. I
would have thought it made good sense not to have a citizen of Canada
to hold a title that involves membership of a legislative body (House
of Lords) of another country, but why deprive one's citizens of
prestigious honors that represent their distinguished contributions to
various areas such as literature, music, humanitarian service, and the
like, and nothing more?
I am not sure how far it extends. I believe one can accept honors (such
as the Legion d'honneur, and the OBE) but not titles (such as Lord- and
Ladyships). It can be waived by the Prime Minister, but then-Prime
Minister Jean Chretien and Conrad Black (Lord Tubby of Crossdresser, as
he is sometimes known) so despised each other that Chretien refused to
waive it in Black's case.
On your second point, the concern you express goes beyond Canada.
Several of our colleagues in Mexico are not comfortable with the use
of the term 'American' specifically for citizens of the US. (They
correct me if fall into that error.) But then, they want to say
'North American' instead of American, thereby committing the error to
which they object, and overlook Canadians and others.
Once when my family was crossing the border into Canada once (before I
became a Canadian citizen), my father told the the border guard we were
"Americans," to which the guard pointedly replied "We are ALL Americans.
YOU are citizens of the United States."
Such distinctions and the very justified attempts to try to retain
one's cultural distinction are admirable but unfortunately complicated
matters. Just consider: at one time the US was referred to as the
'melting pot' which was a term of approval. Now, that is not quite
politically correct, and the US culture is in praise and pursuit of
'diversity'. Sigh! So it goes!
Canadians like to make a big deal out the fact that the preferred
ethno-cultural metaphor here is "mosaic" as opposed to the
assimilationist connotations of the US "melting pot."
Me, I think that more food and fewer guns usually make things better. :-)
Chris
--
Christopher D. Green
Department of Psychology
York University
Toronto, ON M3J 1P3
Canada
416-736-5115 ex. 66164
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.yorku.ca/christo/
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