Thanks, I guess

I'm not going to say much about this quote, except to tell you that it's from Andrew H. Malcolm, a respected writer for the New York Times, who served as a foreign correspondent in Canada for several years.

It's going to be a great country when they finish unpacking it.

That's definitely what you would call a "backhanded compliment"!

Don't call us ----

Helen Gordon McPherson, a Canadian writer, made the following perceptive observation about Canadian "identity":

Canadians have been so busy explaining to the Americans that we aren't British, and to the British that we aren't Americans that we haven't had time to become Canadians.

It has been said that Canadians define ourselves more by negation (what we aren't) than by affirmation (what we are). This is somewhat analogous to describing yourself as someone who doesn't like horror movies, doesn't play tennis, and doesn't speak Russian - kind of strange, right? What do you think? Is what you aren't just as important as what you are?

A Hard Question

One of the most frequent questions I (and other Canadians) get asked while traveling abroad is, "How does Canada feel about the United States?" As you can imagine, this is a very difficult question to answer. Our two countries are joined by over 300 years of history, as well as innumerable social and economic factors. But if I have to give a brief answer, I like to use a quote from Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Canada's prime minister from 1968-1984. In a 1969 speech to the Press Club in Washington D.C., Trudeau said:

Living next to [the United States] is in some ways like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast, one is affected by every twitch and grunt.

I like it because it's a great summary. For better or worse, Canada is affected by everything the United States does. It doesn't mean we can't be friendly and cooperative, it just means the relationship between our two countries is confusing, ambiguous, and sometimes tense.