I don’t get it. Every time Americans look for a solution outside of the U.S., they look to Europe. If ever they ask, “What country is remarkably similar to ours, maybe even on the same continent, but has tried different policies with different outcomes?”, the answer is inevitably Sweden.
Sweden, Finland, Germany, France... for some reason, they all get more attention than Canada when it comes to country comparisons. I’m starting to think they believe we’re a carbon copy of them. Not as bold and defined, but if you look closely enough at our dull, faded appearance, you’ll see we’re nearly identical.
Not so! I mean, have you been following the news?!
Sure, we’re influenced by them more than most other countries. But we often do the opposite of what the U.S. is doing simply to not be American.
We accepted draft dodgers during the Vietnam war. We refused to join the Iraq war. We invest public dollars into healthcare, childcare, pharmacare and dental care. We even take pride in being subjugated to a monarch. We’ve got King Charles reading this spring’s Throne Speech, for goodness’ sake!
Sure, there’s a small percentage of Canadians who wouldn’t mind if we melded with our American neighbour, but this is more about politics than anything. The U.S. tilts to the right and, since Canada tilts to the left, many conservatives feel their voices go unheard in this country. Meanwhile, the U.S. is killing it right now when it comes to right-wing rhetoric. I get that.
It’s how most Canadians feel about our relationship with the U.S. We're largely ignored. So much so that we get excited (at least I do) when a prominent American mentions Saskatchewan. Never have I heard an American let Saskatchewan roll off their tongue so effortlessly as Rainn Wilson, the actor who played Dwight Schrute in The Office. (Can’t remember what he was talking about, but he referenced us!)
For the most part, most Americans have no idea what our provinces are called or how we’re governed. This week I listened to an American commentator, who once worked for George W. Bush, talk about the president of Canada.
Unsurprisingly, their current president doesn’t understand Canada either. He’s still interested in annexing us, based on his recent meeting with our prime minister, but has no idea what he’d be getting into. We'd vote him out of office in a heartbeat!
He also doesn’t understand our two countries’ interdependence. As our prime minister noted, we buy the most American stuff out of all the countries in the world, importing $348 billion worth of American goods and services. Mexico imports the second most at $334 billion and China comes in a distant third at $143 billion. Every other country imports less than $100 billion.
If you remove oil and gas, Canada has a trade deficit with the United States. We loved buying American! Until now.
Conversely, Americans benefit from our cheap oil and gas, cheap lumber, and cheap everything thanks in part to the exchange rate. The U.S. dollar gives Americans the power to buy from other countries at lower cost, while also affording them lower interest rates. This might change, thanks to Trump’s trade actions, but for now they benefit from controlling the world’s reserve currency.
It can be hard to understand how good you have it when you’ve always been on top. Canada, which produces 72% of the GDP per capita as the U.S., isn't taking advantage of the world's superpower, as Trump claims. We’re barely keeping up.
We may be a less wealthy society, but a fairer one.
Other than to Bernie Sanders, this too doesn’t appeal to Americans very much.
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