The Canadian Contradiction

A recent piece by Hadley Arkas on Stevehayward.substack.com included the bit below:

But the real test of citizenship is whether one could give a moral defense of that regime that commands his loyalty as a citizen.

I'm Canadian, but I couldn't do that - and I've never met, heard of, or read anything by, a Canadian who could - although Conrad Black, in his History of Canada (Rise to Greatness) tries for something over 1200 pages, I read it as demonstrating the ruling elite's consistent commitment to mediocrity through the getting along of those who go along.

Ask a Canadian to justify any feeling of patriotism he or she may have and you almost never get a positive moral response: what you mostly get instead is un-self-aware moral preening: Canadians are better because Americans (or, in Quebec, Anglos) are evil -sentiments often first expressed by asserting personal moral and intellectual superiority over Americans in general and conservative American political personalities in particular and then, if pushed, by both assuming and asserting the moral superiority and performance of Canada's horrendously expensive and ineffective health care system over the American one.

What's particularly weird about this is that most Anglo-Canadians can, particularly if prompted a bit, give a moral defense of Canadian rights - rights they don't actually have, but believe in because they watch American news and entertainment while living essentially American lives: using the same language, wearing the same clothes, buying the same products, and relying on similar educational and municipal structures.

Canada has a Constitution Act, including a bill of rights, but all of it can be waived at the pleasure of the government in power without - as the Trudeau liberals demonstrated during the recent trucker protest- needing to fear any consequences. Canada has a Supreme Court which should uphold the act but the federal prime minister appoints its members and, while the media is full of reports of this province or that multi-millionaire filing a constitutional appeal, I'm not aware of a single case where the Court's ruling couldn't be predicted by looking at the political needs and relative socio-economic clout of the interested parties.

This then is The Canadian Contradiction: Canadians see themselves as morally better Americans but express their love of Canada mainly through anti-american cliche denigrating key American liberties including the freedoms of speech and religion, the right to self defense, and the right to participate in active markets for products and services including health care and politics - rights they want very badly to imagine themselves as having, but know they don't.