There is a place on earth that most Americans never think about—a vast, strange land where the days can be cold, but the people are friendly and the health care is free. We remember this place exists only occasionally: when we find out our favorite comedian was born there, or when someone we know decides to move there for college. For the most part, though, it hardly enters into our conception of the world. Canada is there, and it isn’t.
But there is a new and unfamiliar wind blowing in the North—one of national ambition and passionate, even aggressive, patriotism. Its proponents seek to transform Canada from the polite and accommodating country it’s been for most of its history into a major, muscular force on the world stage. The Canada they envision will be powerful, rich, and influential. It will never again be ignored, or dismissed sneeringly as “America’s hat.”
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One reason for this growing confidence and assertiveness in Canada is its economic success during recent years. The Canadian dollar is strong, its banking system weathered the global recession almost unscathed, and its natural resource exports have boomed. Another reason is that political leaders in Ottawa and some of the provinces have cut public spending and debt and have cut business taxation. The U.S. would do well to imitate the "progressive" Canadians (and Swedes) by lowering tax rates, cutting public expenditures and reducing budget deficits.
I do a lot of work across the border in 'our sleepy neighbor to the north'. When people hear this their first response is, "Oh people from Canada are so nice." ...B.-S. If you think Canadians are kind, gentle and polite, I have one word for you: Hockey. If that's not enough to give you reason to rethink your stance, try this: Some Friday afternoon in the summer, get on route 400, and head from downtown Toronto up to the lakes region two hours north of the city...you think Boston drivers are crazy and rude, you ain't seen nothin' yet, eh?
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I've visited small towns in Newfoundland where the entire generation of young men who came of age in WWI was wiped out, in a single attack. Never underestimate the contributions, and sacrifices, that "America Jr." has made for the cause of freedom.
There is sufficient data to support predictions that global climate change will both seriously damage the American grain growing areas, by heating and drying them out, as well as move the prime grain growing areas much further north into Canada. The Canadians are likely to find themselves becoming even more important as an agricultural power and breadbasket for the world. So, the possible benefits to Canada of global climate change go far beyond what has been noted here. It is already clear that North America will not stay the same in very fundamental ways.