The administration team is currently searching for Canadian expatriates who would be interested in contributing to the Expat Blog. The subject matter is wide open, but must remain family friendly.
If you are interested in joining our blogging team, please send an email our way!
Thank you!
Posted by Admin
Wednesday, March 30, 2005
Attempting to Smooth Over Canada-US Relations by Expat
While the American media continues to put a very much "anti-Canadian" spin on its news coverage, there is concern amongst Americans that Canadians are largely "anti-American".
Frank McKenna, who became Canadian Ambassador to the United States on March 8th, is working to change this. Today he appeared on a C-SPAN call-in show in an attempt to ease Canadian-American relations. He discussed terrorism, defence, soft wood lumber, and the beef industry. McKenna maintains that Canadians, by and large, are not "anti-American" and concedes that Americans "have also said some pretty nasty things about Canada".
You can catch the half hour show here. It does take some time to load.
I happened to watch this on C-Span this morning. I am American, but some of the calls (especially from the southern United States) made me embarassed to share this country with those people. One lady ranted about Canadians being overwhelming "Anti-American" (in her opinion)...and in the same sentence managed to spew quite a bit of "Anti-Canadian" venom. It bothered me quite a bit to know hypocrites such as this lady are NOT uncommon in America, especially in the deep south. With the ignorance and arrogance in this woman's voice, I had my doubts about whether this woman would even be able to pick the country of Canada out on a map.
I had the opportunity to spend two months in southern Arkansas, Louisiana, and Alabama. I was very surprised and greatly saddened to realize that attitudes such as those you described and those featured on the call-in show are not the minority in that area of the country.
I have to agree with you that there appears to be a direct correlation between ignorance of other nations and the viewpoint that other nations are "anti-American".
I am now stepping into my flameproof suit, as I am sure that there will be some (particularly those that I just grossly generalized) who will disagree with me.
On April 29, 2005, Canada has officially opened a new building designed to house Canada’s Embassy in Berlin, Germany. Located in the heart of the city, the Embassy has been designed and built to reflect Germany ’s importance to Canada as a G8 partner and a central player in the European Union.
>> ... message on the opening of the Embassy building by Ambassador Dubois
Posted by Admin
|| Permanent Link || Comments (3)