Canadians vs. Americans: Grownups vs. Children
(posted by Jennifer Abel)
Greetings from an undisclosed spot somewhere in Atlantic Canada, where I’ve spent the last week dumping soon-to-be-worthless American dollars into the local economy. This is my third or fourth trip to our northern neighbor, where I like to play amateur sociologist between tourist-trap visits, and I’ve reached the following conclusion: the Canadian government trusts its people far more than the American government trusts theirs.
I’m not arguing that Canada’s some libertarian paradise. Far from it: even ignoring their high taxes and socialized medicine, there’s the fact that Canada, in lieu of a right to free speech, has an apparent “right to never have your feelings hurt” upheld by the kangaroo courts of its notorious Human Rights Commissions. (Are you a newspaper publisher who wants to reprint the notorious Danish Mohammed cartoons? Don’t do it if you’re Canadian.)
And yet, in day-to-day matters there seems far less assumption of criminal intent. For example: a few days ago my Traveling Companion and I visited the Halifax Citadel, an 18th-century fort overlooking the city. We spent a couple hours exploring the place, poking into rooms like the schoolroom where garrison children were educated and the underground chambers where soldiers slept – and we viewed them alone. I can’t remember ever visiting an American historic site where I wasn’t under a guard’s watchful eye at all times.
The walls of the Citadel are topped by grassy embankments where cannons once stood. If you climbed atop these embankments you’d get spectacular views of the harbor and city, but you’d also risk a fatal fall so there are signs telling you not to do it.
Signs. That’s all. An American equivalent would have ugly chain-link fencing keeping people away. About half an hour into my visit, an old man climbed atop an embankment and a Citadel staff member on the other side of the fort repeatedly yelled “Get off the wall! Get off the wall!” until the man heard him and climbed down. As an American woman accustomed to American authority figures, I waited to see if the man would be kicked out of the Citadel, arrested, Tasered or shot (for his own protection, of course); the answer was “none of the above.” He just climbed down from the wall and continued his visit. Fifteen minutes later another intrepid climber inspired fresh cries of “Get off the wall!” And then he too continued his visit unmolested.
When I visited Niagara Falls a few years ago I discovered that some entrepreneur carved a tunnel through the rock behind Horseshoe Falls; for a small fee I rented a rainslicker and walked through the misty tunnel. Halfway through there’s a smaller tunnel, about four feet off the ground, four feet wide and ten feet long, and when you look through that second tunnel you can see the water of Horseshoe Falls pounding down.
And that’s all you can see: tons of pounding water. In America you’d see several layers of metal grating designed to ensure that anyone who wants to commit suicide at the Falls has to jump off the top rather than get smashed under the bottom.
Sigh. I wonder if my European ancestors emigrated to the wrong part of North America?
October 7th, 2008 at 7:24 am
Canada also sells awesome candy bars you can’t find in America. I bought three cases of “Big Turk” chocolate-covered Turkish delight bars at a local Costco, which might well have been the highlight of my trip.
October 7th, 2008 at 11:47 am
[...] — especially with regard to their disgraceful “Human Rights” tribunals. However, this post by Jennifer Abel deserves mention. This is my third or fourth trip to our northern neighbor, where [...]
October 7th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
I dunno, as someone who has spent part of many summers in the Bridgewater/Lunenburg area, I find they can be as nanny state as any random cross-section of New Englanders, their cultural bretheren. What they have is such a low population density that ‘being left alone’ has to be a default position. (And a demographic trend where there’s vanishingly few kids to nanny; all the 20-40 year olds have moved to halifax or mostly to the central/western provinces for work, like all but one of my cousins.)
And you picked a good time; nothing is better than Nova Scotia in the fall. And the (US) dollar is actually at its highest point in over a year; this summer was tough (for the US visitor) when it was below parity.
October 7th, 2008 at 1:27 pm
although to be fair to your point, I do think this would have a tough time operating as a private concern in the US due to the liability.
October 7th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
I would love for the US to be less ligitinous AND more open to big gubmint healthcare. Should I just apply for citizenship up north instead? I do have relatives there….
October 7th, 2008 at 5:51 pm
I recall a friend of mine who’s immigrated here from Finland, who complained a lot about the relative “nanny state” feel of the US when it comes to exactly what you’re describing here: not the big picture things we (as Americans) tend to see as what makes countries “socialist,” but the myriad of little things: fences and warning labels and security guards and on and on. “In Finland we don’t put up railings in parks to keep you from falling in the water,” he would say. “You’re just supposed to be smart enough not to fall in.”
I’ve read surveys and polls which suggest that most Europeans are generally happier with their Big Government than we are with ours, even though theirs is supposedly more intrusive and socialist and so on. It’s hard not to wonder if it’s because a greater proportion of our tax dollars are going to vast bureaucracies designed to enforce and maintain Small Annoyances For Our Protection, whereas a greater proportion of theirs may be going to actually useful services.
October 7th, 2008 at 10:24 pm
I’ve got no use for nanny statism, but compared to the Iron Heel the U.S. has been falling under with the drug war for thirty years, and the war on terror for the last ten, old fashioned New Deal nanny statism by way of comparison would be like being put in the comfy chair by the Spanish Inquisition.
As I’ve said many times, the opposing coalitions of big capital that our two parties represent are like two farmers. One thinks he can get better productivity out of his livestock in the long run if he takes adequate care of them and gives them good food and enough space to exercise, and works them moderately. The other thinks he’ll come out ahead by working them to death and replacing them. Either way, we’re viewed as livestock whose purpose is to serve the farmer, which I don’t like. But if I’ve gotta be treated like livestock, I know which setup I’d prefer.
I’ll take being smothered with kindness by Huxley’s World Controller, over having a boot stamping on my face in Oceania, any day of the week.
October 8th, 2008 at 6:58 am
Kevin,
While I agree that your description of the two parties as rival coalitions of big capital is an apt one, and I would also agree that, all things considered, Brave New World is probably preferable to 1984, I’m not convinced the Democrats are necessarily any more inclined to use the carrot over the stick than the Republicans.
Reagan/Bush Sr.’s drug war continued unabated under Clinton. His administration did zero to slow it down, and the number of people in US prisons increased exponentially during his presidency. The Clinton administration pushed the “anti-terrorism” legislation that was the prototype for the neocons’ war on terror. I can’t really see how Diane Feinstein, Charles Schumer, Joe Biden, Janet Reno, Hillary, et.al are any less fascistic than the Bush crowd. In fact, it was Biden who was instrumental in pushing mandatory minimums back in the 80s. And remember Blowjob Bill’s speech about “you can’t pretend to love your country and hate your government”, yadda, yadda, yadda?
On the economic front, this piece by Paul Craig Roberts shows show how Bush’s economic policies have been a continuation of trends begun by the Clintonistas:
http://vdare.com/roberts/081005_bailout.htm
October 8th, 2008 at 11:59 am
I’m currently living in Norway and recently I visited this waterfall that had tons of slippery rocks. All there was there was a fence keeping you from the most easy slips…no security guards and all the gates were unlocked, which is consistant with the country’s “freedom to roam” laws. I also visited a mine in Sweden that was pretty slippery and thought about how it would have been shut off from tourists ages ago in the US. Needless to say, it was awesome visiting both places and I envy this freedom that they have here.
October 8th, 2008 at 9:34 pm
Keith: I agree Bush has been going in the same direction as Clinton, but he seems to be pushing a bit harder. OTOH, for a bit of thought-provoking alt history, Ken MacLeod’s The Execution Channel is set in a world where Al Gore won in 2000, and pushed things far more toward fascism than Bush ever dreamed of in response to Al Qaeda. And Bush’s name appeared on a bunch of ghost-written attacks on Gore’s adventurism.
October 8th, 2008 at 9:49 pm
Well, from what I’ve observed, these things just continue to escalate no matter which party is in power. It really got started with Reagan, then got worse with Bush, and even worse with Clinton, and still worse with Bush II.
McCain seems even more personally unhinged than Bush, and Obama seems like an opportunist who uses and discards whomever he needs to, and is moving closer to neocon-like thought all the time. I don’t see Barack undoing anything the Bushies have done.
October 9th, 2008 at 8:39 am
The thing I thought the funniest when I went to the US was the presence of smoke detectors in every house. I laughed at people having to leave their own places when they wanted to smoke (and it would be impossible to cook without a stove hood).
October 11th, 2008 at 9:02 pm
I don’t know whether it’s relevant, but having lived in both countries, I find that Canadians are generally a lot more docile and obedient than Americans. Put a sign in a Canadian park that says, “don’t walk on the grass,” and people won’t walk on the grass. Put the same sign in an American park and people will not only walk on the grass; they will invite a few dozen friends over for a barbecue.
October 13th, 2008 at 5:36 pm
That link about the Canadian Human Rights Commission is obsolete. The essay (by Mark Steyn) was written in Jan ‘08, and the CIC’s complaint against Maclean’s was dismissed by the HRC in June. And the Section 13 cases that Steyn is complaining about constitute about 2% of the “notorious” HRC’s caseload. So maybe Canada isn’t the censorious hellhole that right-wingers have been claiming it is.
I’m not saying that Canada’s anti-hate speech laws don’t conflict with free speech principles — they clearly do. I’m just pointing out that Steyn has an axe to grind, and has exaggerated the scale and seriousness of the issue.
October 13th, 2008 at 6:05 pm
All the more reason for me to wish I were Canadian, then.