Jeffrey Simpson
If Canada's so great and the world needs more of us, name the last great Canadian initiative
There was something rather nice about Canada, years ago, when it was a modest country, or at least when Canadians thought about their country in that fashion.
Today, if polls can be believed, Canadians are in love with their country - which is okay - but in love to a fault in that, apparently, almost 90 per cent of them believe they live in “the best country in the world.”
There are many admirable aspects of Canada, and we exult in them around Canada Day. But the dangers of thinking of your country as the cat's meow are hubris and, worse still, a stubborn inability to look problems in the eye or to learn from others.
If there is one assertion around which almost all Canadians would rally, it is that, as the Chapters Indigo slogan puts it, the “world needs more Canada.” The assumption supporting this assertion is that we Canadians are so worthy, morally upright and generally well-intentioned that the world would be a better place if it were more like, well, us. Which, in turn, leads Canadians to their deadliest sin: an unsinkable moral superiority.
We do lead the world in some instances. For example, we have the world's worst record among industrialized countries for emitting greenhouse-gas emissions that cause global warming. Of all the countries that signed the Kyoto Protocol, Canada's emissions rose the fastest - faster than even U.S. emissions under George W. Bush.
We are now parading ourselves at climate-change conferences proclaiming a goal of reducing emissions by 20 per cent by 2020 from a 2005 yardstick. Our previous record, however, is so bad, and the Harper's government's interest in climate change so ephemeral, that almost no country in the talks gives Canada much credibility at all.
Canada is almost alone in flogging asbestos around the world, or at least preventing more serious impediments to its export, all to protect some jobs in the Quebec town of Thetford Mines.
We club baby seals and give ourselves a black eye in Europe and elsewhere for an industry that, yes, has been around for a long time and, yes, forms part of the Inuit's traditional culture, but that brings in very little revenue in exchange for terrible publicity.
We have the tar sands, the defence of which no government will fail to try, without contemplating, let alone forcing, new ways of exploiting the resource in ways that might make it sustainable - except for a useful but far from adequate investment in carbon capture and storage.
The world trade negotiations, the so-called Doha round, are dormant, but when they showed some flickering life to liberalize trade, Canada was in the dark corner with France, some other European countries, Japan and South Korea - the usual suspects - blocking agricultural reform to preserve the protectionist supply management system.
Canada used to have a reputation as an honest broker with peacekeeping troops serving United Nations missions - a role that won kudos. But now our troops are committed to NATO's mission in Afghanistan, so very few are available for what Canadians used to think the world liked us for doing.
Put matters another way: If Canada is so great and if the world needs more of us, just what Canadian “initiative” can you think of in the past, say, four or five years, since Paul Martin suggested a G20 instead of a G8, an idea that matured into a reality?
Domestically, the country's greatest accomplishment was getting its fiscal house in order - which, in turn, led to excellent short-term results and positioned the country well for the aging of the population that will strain government resources. We also beefed up money for university research. But our productivity and competitiveness continue to lag.
The decline of manufacturing and the struggles of high technology reveal Canada for essentially being what it's always been - a hewer of wood and drawer of water, a country excessively dependent not on brain power but on natural resources.
To repeat: There are admirable aspects of being Canadian, and these have all been justly celebrated on Canada Day. But self-satisfaction can lead to a refusal to acknowledge weaknesses, to allow patriotism to curb critical thought, to refuse to face hard choices, and to cover a slow, albeit comfortable, slide toward international marginality and domestic mediocrity.
If Canada's so great and the world needs more of us, name the last great Canadian initiative
There was something rather nice about Canada, years ago, when it was a modest country, or at least when Canadians thought about their country in that fashion.
Today, if polls can be believed, Canadians are in love with their country - which is okay - but in love to a fault in that, apparently, almost 90 per cent of them believe they live in “the best country in the world.”
There are many admirable aspects of Canada, and we exult in them around Canada Day. But the dangers of thinking of your country as the cat's meow are hubris and, worse still, a stubborn inability to look problems in the eye or to learn from others.
If there is one assertion around which almost all Canadians would rally, it is that, as the Chapters Indigo slogan puts it, the “world needs more Canada.” The assumption supporting this assertion is that we Canadians are so worthy, morally upright and generally well-intentioned that the world would be a better place if it were more like, well, us. Which, in turn, leads Canadians to their deadliest sin: an unsinkable moral superiority.
We do lead the world in some instances. For example, we have the world's worst record among industrialized countries for emitting greenhouse-gas emissions that cause global warming. Of all the countries that signed the Kyoto Protocol, Canada's emissions rose the fastest - faster than even U.S. emissions under George W. Bush.
We are now parading ourselves at climate-change conferences proclaiming a goal of reducing emissions by 20 per cent by 2020 from a 2005 yardstick. Our previous record, however, is so bad, and the Harper's government's interest in climate change so ephemeral, that almost no country in the talks gives Canada much credibility at all.
Canada is almost alone in flogging asbestos around the world, or at least preventing more serious impediments to its export, all to protect some jobs in the Quebec town of Thetford Mines.
We club baby seals and give ourselves a black eye in Europe and elsewhere for an industry that, yes, has been around for a long time and, yes, forms part of the Inuit's traditional culture, but that brings in very little revenue in exchange for terrible publicity.
We have the tar sands, the defence of which no government will fail to try, without contemplating, let alone forcing, new ways of exploiting the resource in ways that might make it sustainable - except for a useful but far from adequate investment in carbon capture and storage.
The world trade negotiations, the so-called Doha round, are dormant, but when they showed some flickering life to liberalize trade, Canada was in the dark corner with France, some other European countries, Japan and South Korea - the usual suspects - blocking agricultural reform to preserve the protectionist supply management system.
Canada used to have a reputation as an honest broker with peacekeeping troops serving United Nations missions - a role that won kudos. But now our troops are committed to NATO's mission in Afghanistan, so very few are available for what Canadians used to think the world liked us for doing.
Put matters another way: If Canada is so great and if the world needs more of us, just what Canadian “initiative” can you think of in the past, say, four or five years, since Paul Martin suggested a G20 instead of a G8, an idea that matured into a reality?
Domestically, the country's greatest accomplishment was getting its fiscal house in order - which, in turn, led to excellent short-term results and positioned the country well for the aging of the population that will strain government resources. We also beefed up money for university research. But our productivity and competitiveness continue to lag.
The decline of manufacturing and the struggles of high technology reveal Canada for essentially being what it's always been - a hewer of wood and drawer of water, a country excessively dependent not on brain power but on natural resources.
To repeat: There are admirable aspects of being Canadian, and these have all been justly celebrated on Canada Day. But self-satisfaction can lead to a refusal to acknowledge weaknesses, to allow patriotism to curb critical thought, to refuse to face hard choices, and to cover a slow, albeit comfortable, slide toward international marginality and domestic mediocrity.
and the cost of making them happy is a wasteful cost to the economy.
