It should come as no surprise that I am very pro-American. However, most assume, incorrectly, that that means that I am anti-Canadian. Nothing could be further from the truth. It is my home and sacred land. However, for many years now I have sat back and watched Canadians consistently and continuously insult our neighbors to the South. The way I see it, many Canadians have a chip on their shoulder.

Imagine my surprise when I heard a speech made by Canada’s new Ambassador, and Former New Brunswick Premier, Frank McKenna, days ago. He criticized many Canadians for their attitudes concerning Americans, saying among other things, that we have a chip on our shoulder. My words exactly! He also went on to say that our “Self Righteousness” was not flattering in the least bit. Frankly, I’m glad somebody finally stood up and said what I was thinking.

Over the last several years I have noticed a profound dislike of Americans in students in many different locations. The time frames may have been different, but the message was loud and clear. Canadians are better than Americans, and we would be better off closing our borders. Now that’s what I call diplomacy.

For starters, I have always been a big fan of visiting the United States. Mind you, I’ve only made it as far as New Hampshire, but I like what I’ve seen, and would love to see more. It is so similar to Canada, but is just different enough to be interesting. One of my favorite things is just going to their grocery stores and picking up snacks that we can’t get in Canada like Spaghettios or Tab. I always have a good time, and people seem very friendly. It was during some of my later trips to the States that I started voicing my opinion more and more on liking the States when I noticed many of my peer’s orientation towards the other side. I offer my own personal experiences in Anti-American attitudes, and the events that led up to them. I would love to give an explanation from the other side, but nobody has ever given me reasons for their blind egotism and intense dislike.

I purchased a simple pen with the American flag on it in the Summer of 2000 from Heritage, Hew Hampshire. Its an American history museum-like establishment that I would encourage anyone to check out. Upon my return to High School, I was shocked by the reaction of more than a few of my peers. Some people would scoff, others would ask me why I was using an “American pen,” and one guy even took the pen and dropped in in front of me. To be fair, the pen was made in Japan. It’s just a pen with an American flag on it. Its not like I came to school dressed up like Uncle Sam burning the Canadian flag. Sadly to many it seemed, I may as well have been. Idiots.

In addition to my pen, I had also purchased a lapel pin with our two nations flags on it. I think people must have mistook it for a Nazi flag because once again, I was getting heat from people for something the size of a dime. Need I remind you people that we are ALLIES, and that we have the longest undefended border in the world?

We had one high school teacher that was basically a Communist. Except he’d be one of those Communists that exploited his power and basically would ruin the system. He wants to be a Communist, fine, because where I come from, we don’t persecute people because of their beliefs. Anyway, for our creative project, one of the top marks went to a gentleman that took an American flag and wrote something upside-down about Americans are ruining the World or something to that effect. I don’t care if you like them or not, defacing a country’s flag is wrong. They wouldn’t like it if they defaced a Canadian flag (Remember the 1992 World Series), so we shouldn’t do it to them.

In my first year at University, I brought both the Canadian and American flags to put up in my room. A number of people asked me, some rather rudely, what are you American or something? I would usually reply to them, would it matter if I was? Apparently the fact that I had an American flag somehow negated the Canadian flag that was RIGHT BESIDE IT! Just imagine if I had an Israeli, Mexican, South African, Japanese, or French flag in my room. I doubt anyone would have cared, or at least they wouldn’t have asked so contemptuously. And if they did ask so disgustedly, just think of the stink it would have made. Racism strikes St. Marys Univeristy. Racial slurs against students.

The tragedy that was September 11 will not be soon forgotten. I will always remember that many flights were re-directed to Halifax, and that the Red Cross was rounding volunteers, among them was myself. I’ll remember the folks at the Quinpool McDonalds making meal after meal intended for those stranded at the airports. And I remember some asshole in my American History class saying that they got what they deserved. Yes, they got what they deserved for going to work. They got what they deserved for attempting to rescue survivors. The children at the daycare especially got what they deserved. They got what they deserved for being Americans. Where I come from, that’s hatred. Just think of how you would be labeled if you said something to that effect about the holocaust and Jewish people, or slavery and blacks. You would basically be ostracized by all but White Supremacist groups. But since it is a well accepted hatred, like many around the world have for the Americans, not everyone was disgusted as me. That’s not to say that there weren’t others, but it seemed that too many were in agreement with the bastard. I remember how shocked an American student in the class was, as he had no idea that some Canadians felt that way.

I always think back to the first day of my 20th Century American History class and smile. That is because I was given a perfect example of Canadian ignorance and egotism in one bold question. So when will we be going over when we burned down their white house? That was awesome. The professor, an American himself, took one look at the student, smiled, and replied, we won’t because that was during the war of 1812, a good 82 years before we start studying. I’m not sure how I didn’t burst out laughing right then and there. Besides, it was really the British that did it, as Canada wouldn’t become a nation until 1867. Moron!

We have a special that runs on CBC from time to time called Talking with Americans. Basically a host and camera crew goes to various places in the states, and gets them to say stupid things like “Congratulations Canada for getting running water”. I guess its supposed to be funny because they are so dumb and don’t know anything about us. Does anybody have any idea how stupid the average person is? They do the same trick on Jaywalking and those idiots get tons of simple things wrong. Plus it could just be nervousness that they’re going to be on TV that could lead them to make stupid remarks. I’m sure they’d agree with anything that a guy with a microphone is saying. I’m sure that if they did something like that here in Canada, we wouldn’t do that well either. I knew a girl that thought that the capital of Canada was Ontario! And she was Canadian too! They did get President Bush during his 2000 campaign, and had him congratulate Canadian Prime Minister Jean Poutine, which led a number of Canadians to laugh hysterically. See, here’s the problem with that, Bush has never met the guy, and French names probably sound the same to the Texas native. And even then, it’s not like it’s a great feat to trick the guy anyway.

This comes back to the issue that Canadians are more worldly than Americans, and aren’t as ethnocentric. In a Q&A in my Strategic Management class, our Prof gave us a quiz to see if we could name the G8 leaders. The idea was that to do business in international markets, you must be familiar with the local territory. Most Canadians in the class could answer about 2 or 3 of the 8. I could only name 5. The German and Japanese students had no problem answering all 8. Looks like were not as smart as we thought. Just think how we would have chastised Americans who could only name 2 or 3.

A real problem that I have in addition to defacing a country’s flag is booing a national anthem. Last year, Halifax hosted some Hockey championship, in which an American team was involved. During the playing of their national anthem, the Metro Center erupted in boos, upsetting many Americans in the audience. I know this because many expressed their opinions to my sister, who worked for Nova Scotia Tourism. Some even threatened to never return to Nova Scotia because of the incident. That’s clever folks, host a hockey tournament, and insult your guests. Its not like Nova Scotia relies on tourism anyway. And its also not the first time that such an event would occur. For a nation that has such a good reputation for being polite, we sure act like jerks. Its like the guy that is nice to your face and then talks about you behind your back.

In late 2004, President Bush wrapped up a trip to Canada by coming to Halifax. This was a very important meeting between Bush and Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin, as Canadians have been eager to export beef and softwood lumber back into the States. He made a speech at the airport and at Pier 21 thanking us for our support during 9/11, as well as other political issues. How did the people of Halifax respond? By saying that he wasn’t welcome and staging protests. How childish. I believe that one protest held a mock trial, and burned an effigy of President Bush. Real neighbor-like. Besides, he wasn’t thanking you lazy hippies, he was thanking those Red Cross volunteers and those McDonalds workers, who made a difference to everyone stranded in Halifax. I remember there being posters set up at St. Mary’s and me thinking, I wouldn’t go anyway, but even if I thought of going, I have classes to attend. Later that day as I walked down to my favorite comic shop, I had the misfortune of running into a large demonstration on Halifax’s busiest street. There I was, deep in the middle of Hippie central. I contemptuously stormed through the idiots in my way, and took a look at their signs. Simple slogans like “Shave your Bush” and the way to nazi and pirate symbols on the America flag. Oh and lets not forget the upside-down flags as well. Another sign said something to the effect like Afghanistan, Iraq, who’s next? Yeah, cause Afghanistan was doing so well before. The atrocities against women alone going over there are sickening. And don’t forget, we have Canadian Peacekeepers over there as well, so we are just as involved as they are. Just don’t tell the hippies that. They start throwing granola at you. They’re all for freedom of speech until you say something you don’t like.

I’m only going to briefly go over the war in Iraq, because we all know it was a mistake. But lets not forget that that place wasn’t exactly the land of milk and honey either. Regardless, there are troops over there, that are away from their families, so the least we can do is support them. Plus that is one of the major reasons why some Canadians don’t like Americans, even though a significant portion of them are against the war too.

Back to rudeness, in a 1986 trip to Canada, one of my favorite people, President Ronald Reagan was heckled during a speech at the House of Commons. Sounds more to me like the same maturity that you would find in a high school classroom. He responded by saying something along the lines of “Is there an echo in here?” Awesome! Just imagine the uproar if that had happen to a Canadian Prime Minster in Washington.

It really comes down to diplomacy, and the fact that people need to use it. You may not agree with the person’s ideas, but at least give them the same respect that they give to you. I always think back to a quote from Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau on being neighbors with the Americans. He compared it to sleeping with an elephant. No matter the movement it makes, for better or for worse, it is still going to be noticed by us. I couldn’t have said it any better myself.

So when it comes down to it, I can’t think of reasons why Canadians dislike Americans so much. Are there American jerks out there? I’d be willing to bet that there are millions of them. I sure know a lot of Canadian jerks too. Perhaps there are jerks in England, Japan, Egypt, China, Spain, Argentina, New Zealand, and every other country on Earth. Its like I’ve been saying for years, assholes have no nationality. They are everywhere, and you have to deal with it, without judging the entire population.

Another possible reason could be their patriotism. Americans are a proud people, and they have so many symbols of their country. Canadians don’t have as many symbols, and most get their patriotism from beer or coffee. Just because we take our country for granted while they celebrate their’s shouldn’t be a knock on them. They are allowed to have as many national anthems as they like. When immigrants come to Canada, and become citizens, they are still Canadians second. It is just the opposite in the States, and from which their pride grows.

When it comes down to it, we are allies. They are our largest trading partner, and they are likewise. They are a little more conservative, while we are liberal. Mind you at least they get to vote on things like Gay Marriages and legalization of marijuana, while our governments pass them when nobody is looking. I’ve always compared Canada to a younger sibling that hates being told by their parents that they are getting to be so much like their older sibling. After all, our two nations are more similar than any others on the planet. Sure we know more about them than they do us, by we are bombarded so much more by their programs than they are ours. Deal with it!

I would like to close with an event that I observed back in 1998. The Pizza Delight in St. Stephen, New Brunswick had caught on fire and firefighters rushed to the scene. In addition to the St. Stephen team, the Callais, Maine firefighters came across the border and the two teams worked together to quickly put out the blaze. Border town relationships like that are common across the whole Canada/US border, and that’s how it should be. Neighbors working together for the betterment of all.

Now I realize that some might think that I made generalizations in this article about those with anti-American beliefs. Obviously the events do not reflect the opinions of all Canadians, and these what I’ve seen through my own observations. I call them as I see them.