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Anti-Canadianism
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Anti-Canadianism represents a consistent hostility towards the government, culture, or people of Canada.
This may or may not include general anti-Western sentiment incidentally directed against Canadians, such as the kidnapping of Canadian oilpatch workers in South America, or the kidnapping of Canadian journalists in Afghanistan by the Taliban.
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One person commonly thought of as an anti-Canadian thinker was Voltaire, who is generally quoted jokingly as saying Canada was "a few acres of snow."[1] He was in fact referring to New France as it existed in the eighteenth century. The quote meant that Canada was economically worthless and that France thus did not need to keep it. It is not clear from the full quote whether Voltaire was truly anti-Canadian or not. In fact, many believe Voltaire's statement to be more an indictment of conquest in general.[2]
Antipathy towards Canada dates from the days of New France, when anti-Catholic and anti-French sentiment was common in the Anglo-American colonies. American militias were vital in helping the British capture Quebec. After Canada was brought under British control, the American colonists had hoped that former French land would be given to English settlers, and English common law would be instituted. Instead the Quebec Act maintained French civil law and expanded the boundaries of the new British Province of Quebec all the way to present-day St. Louis, Missouri. The Quebec Act was one of the Intolerable Acts that helped spark the American Revolution.
- See also: Foreign relations of Canada
- See also: Canada-United States relations
In the United States, Canada is often a target of conservative and right-wing commentators who hold the northern nation up as an example of what a government and society that are too liberal would look like.
"Soviet Canuckistan" is one unflattering epithet for Canada, used by Pat Buchanan on October 31, 2002, on his television show on MSNBC in which he denounced Canadians as anti-American and the country as a haven for terrorists. He was reacting to Canadian criticisms of US security measures regarding Arab Canadians.[3] However, the term has probably been around a lot longer, and was previously used by white supremacists to describe their distaste of censorship of racist and hate speech. At least one reference to the term can be found on-line as far back as April 2001.[4]
Buchanan has a history of unflattering references to Canada, having said in 1990 that if Canada were to break apart due to the failure of the Meech Lake Accord, "America would pick up the pieces." He said two years after that "for most Americans, Canada is sort of like a case of latent arthritis. We really don't think about it, unless it acts up."[3]
In the wake of Canada's refusal to participate in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, as well as its turning down of the Missile Defense Plan, Ann Coulter has recently become another prominent American critical of Canadian policies. She has often, in an off-handed manner (usually during interviews) proposed extreme solutions to Canadian dissent, such as a military invasion of Canada[5], and has said that Canada should be grateful that the US "allows" it to exist on the same continent.
In 2006, right-wing American strategist Paul Weyrich said Canadians are "so liberal and hedonistic" that they have a philosophy of "cultural Marxism".[6]
Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church is strongly anti-Canadian. He operates a website entitled "God Hates Canada," criticizing gay rights in Canada.[7] Phelps is a highly controversial figure who also claims that God hates the US, homosexuals, Sweden, and others.
There also exists a tendency in the United States to apply anti-France stereotypes to Quebec. The province is sometimes unflatteringly called "Western France", and anti-French slurs (such as "frog" or "frenchy") are applied indiscriminately by Americans to both French Canadians and people from France. Prominent examples include the controversies created by comedian Conan O'Brien and radio DJ Howard Stern, when both made fun of French Québécois by applying misplaced anti-French stereotypes. The Quebec sovereignty movement is also sometimes misunderstood by Americans as arising from loyalty to France, rather than from political and cultural conflicts within Canada.
One place where anti-Canadian sentiment has been observed is Brazil where people boycotted Canadian goods to protest a Canadian ban of Brazilian beef imports, reportedly because of fears of mad-cow disease, of which the country has had zero cases[8], but which many Brazilians believed were motivated by an unrelated trade dispute between the two nations. Canada's subsidies to aircraft manufacturer Bombardier and Brazil's subsidies to Bombardier's Brazilian rival Embraer have been a source of much tension because they are said to interfere with each others' business.[9]
Sometimes Canadians accuse each other of being anti-Canadian: For example, Manitoba Premier Gary Doer (NDP) accused the governments of Ontario and Alberta of being "anti-Canadian" due to their dislike for equalization payments. Doer's assessment is disputed, with one Calgary Sun columnist writing, "Get a grip, Gary."[10] Such pronouncements are not infrequent and should not be taken to indicate serious questioning of patriotism. Proponents of various policies, for example privatized health care, are often portrayed as "anti-Canadian" despite a lack of evidence.
Some anti-Canadian criticism from a few in the right of the political spectrum is coupled with proposals that the conservative province of Alberta secede from the country to form a new nation, either on its own or with other Western provinces. A separatist party obtained more than one tenth of the vote in the 1982 Albertan general election although no other separatist party in Western Canada has obtained a similar share of the vote in a provincial election before or since 1982.
Such criticism most commonly comes from libertarians, who criticize significant facets of Canadian life as being socialistic, or from social conservatives, who couple it with criticism of issues such as same-sex marriage or abortion.
Some communist organizations in Canada view a Canadian nationalist or isolationist line as revisionist, anti-communist and pro-nationalist in itself. They believe the communist view of the national question in Canada should be internationalist and consider that other nationalities exist within the nation-state, such as the Québécois, First Nations and Acadian peoples; as well as the borders being artificial boundaries put in place during the colonial period and held in place under capitalism. These views are usually held by Maoist, Trotskyite and other revolutionary groups that tend not to participate in mainstream activities such as elections. Such alternative views can be viewed as anti-Canadianism by more nationalist tendencies on both the left and right.
In Quebec, some people, including some within the nationalist and sovereignty movements, harbour feelings of resentment towards English Canada or the Canadian federation in general. Alleged reasons include historical injustices such as the initial British military conquest of New France and the following historic centuries-long discrimination towards French Quebecois by English Quebeckers and Canadians. Front de Liberation Quebecois terrorist Pierre Vallières wrote a notable book called Nègres blancs d'Amérique (White Niggers of America) in which the situation of French Quebecois is paralleled with that of the blacks of the south of the United States.
Also, until the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s, the economy of Quebec and its high-ranking positions were controlled by the English minority in Quebec, despite the fact that the French Québecois comprised 90% of the province's population at the time. This led nationalist thinkers to denounce a colonial phenomenon that, as they believed, was at work between Canada and Quebec; some hold that residuals of this are still there in the present relationship. Journalist Normand Lester published three volumes of The Black Book of English Canada detailing events of Canadian history he saw as being crimes perpetrated by the majority on the minority.[11]
Furthermore, other current sources of rancour include the fact that English Canadians are less bilingual than Québécois, the perception that English Canada is more conservative than Quebec and perceived paternalism and arrogance. Québeckers are also known for resenting the higher average productivity, wealth, and employment which English Canadians enjoy, thus creating intensive demands among Québecers for asymmetrical financial transfers to their province.
Up until November 27, 2006, one such source of rancour was the refusal of an important part of the English Canadian population and political elite to recognize Quebec as a nation, or a "distinct society". However, a motion presented by Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper recognising Quebec as a nation was passed on that day.
When the PQ introduced its Quebec Identity Act, restricting citizenship rights to those with French-language competence, the reaction from all sectors (English and French, both within and without Quebec) was withering. LCN published a piece alleging that the bill was widely called "racist, fascist and totalitarian" throughout the English Canadian news media, when it was in fact restricted to a single misquotation on a talk radio website blog.
Lucien Bouchard famously said that Canada wasn't a "real country" sparking outrage across Canada. He later apologized for the remark.
Many in Newfoundland harbour an ambiguous attitude towards Canada. Many blame the federation for economic difficulties experienced since the dominion joined confederation in 1949. Some Newfoundlanders perceive a disrespectful attitude toward them from the rest of Canada, and Newfie stereotypes and ethnic jokes that depict Newfoundlanders as stupid and/or lazy are a source of ire. There is also a fear that Newfoundland culture and Newfoundland English are diminishing and will disappear because of insensitivity and ignorance from the rest of Canada. Newfoundland premier Danny Williams notably ordered all Canadian flags removed from provincial buildings during a dispute with the federal government in 2004. [12] Williams was, and remained, personally popular in Newfoundland, at times receiving as much as 75% support in polls.
As for indigenous peoples, some First Nations call Canada an illegal nation state built on stolen land. One term used by some Native activists for non-aboriginal residents of Canada is "settlers".
On June 2 and June 3, 2006, police and security agencies in Ontario, Canada carried out a series of counter-terrorism raids in the Greater Toronto Area that resulted in the arrest of 17 alleged members of a purported Islamic terrorist cell. Canadian authorities and law-enforcement agencies allege the men had been planning a series of major terrorist assaults on targets in southern Ontario out of a "hatred for Canada."
Humorous anti-Canadianism often focuses on broadly-known attributes of Canada and Canadians (such as cold weather or public health care),[13] as the finer details of Canadian culture and politics are generally not well known outside Canada. Consequently, such humour is often made at the expense of accuracy outside Canada. However, these broad targets are more accurately caricatured within Canada itself. The fact that Americans especially but also others are perceived to know surprisingly little about Canada is a frequent theme in Canadian Humour and such examples of self-deprecating humour are nearly universal among Canadian humorists. In keeping with this attitude, some genuinely critical anti-Canadianisms (such as "Soviet Canuckistan") are embraced by Canadians as humorous, in defiance of the original intent.
- "Blame Canada", a song from the film South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut in which the town's parents blame Canada for the trouble their children have been getting into, was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Song. The song was, however, generally understood to be using anti-Canadian statements as a parody of American cultural values, such as a perceived tendency toward scapegoating, rather than a statement of actual anti-Canadianism.
- "Canadian Idiot", by Weird Al Yankovic. A parody of a song by Green Day, this song is a friendly critique of Canadian stereotypes.
- ^ Will Ferguson, Bastards & Boneheads: Our Glorious Leaders, Past and Present, October 1999.
- ^ Jean-Yves le Branchu, "The French Colonial Empire and the Popular Front Government," Pacific Affairs, Vol. 10, No. 2. (Jun., 1937), page 125.
- ^ a b Nancy Carr, "U.S. talk-show host Pat Buchanan calls Canada 'whining,' 'freeloading' nation," Canadian Press, November 1, 2002.
- ^ Letters from Readers, American Renaissance, Apr. 2001.
- ^ "Coulter: Canada is 'lucky we allow them to exist on the same continent'; Carlson: 'Without the U.S., Canada is essentially Honduras'," Media Matters for America, URL accessed 29 June 2006.
- ^ "Canadians 'liberal and hedonistic' but can change, U.S. right-winger says," CBCNews, 27 Jan 2006.
- ^ http://www.godhatescanada.com/.
- ^ http://canadaonline.about.com/library/weekly/aa020501a.htm
- ^ Robert Westervelt, "Potash Firms Caught in Brazil-Canada Trade War," Chemical Week; February 28, 2001, Vol. 163 Issue 9, page 16.
- ^ Link Byfield, "Far from equal," Fri, June 16, 2006, URL accessed 20 December 2006.
- ^ Description of The Black Book of English Canada, Amazon.com, URL accessed 29 June 2006.
- ^ http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2004/12/23/williams041223.html
- ^ See Canadian Bacon for jokes about the weather and health care, and The Simpsons episode "The Bart Wants What It Wants" for jokes about Canadian health care