Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site hcrvx2.UUCP Path: utzoo!hcr!hcrvx2!jimr From: jimr@hcrvx2.UUCP (Jim Robinson) Newsgroups: can.politics Subject: Re: What is Canadian culture, $$ Message-ID: <2751@hcrvx2.UUCP> Date: Mon, 23-Feb-87 19:17:12 EST Article-I.D.: hcrvx2.2751 Posted: Mon Feb 23 19:17:12 1987 Date-Received: Tue, 24-Feb-87 03:37:20 EST References: <183@fornax.uucp> <840@mprvaxa.UUCP> <188@fornax.uucp> <5292@watmath.UUCP> Reply-To: jimr@hcrvx2.UUCP (Jim Robinson) Distribution: can Organization: HCR Corporation, Toronto Lines: 160 Summary: In article <5292@watmath.UUCP> imprint@watmath.UUCP (Imprint) claims: > > Canadian Culture: > > What is it? A definition. Finally, we start to deal with specifics. > What is Canadian Culture? What is American Culture? Space >limitations being what they are, here are a few elliptic suggestions. > > Paul Revere, the American Revolutionary Hero warns: "The Redcoats >are coming! The Redcoats are coming!" I keep having to point out to my >American friends, "I am a Redcoat!" > > Think about that. The RCMP, still wearing the old standard >British Army Scarlet are heroes of Canadian folklore. But in America, >the same institution of Imperial authority is anathema. Americans >worship freedom, Candians look to peace order and good government. >(P.O.G.G.) Somehow, I don't think free trade will require the Mounties to trade in their uniform (:-). I also do not see why free trade would change the Canadian tendency to POGG as opposed to freedom worshipping. Since we are already inundated with US TV, such a change would have happened a long time ago if it was ever going to occur. [BTW, am I the only one that's wondered what's happened to the GG part of POGG for the last 10 or so years] > Canadians tend to respect authority. (In sociological studies, >more so than almost any nation except USSR) Americans lionize the >rebel, the savagely independent hero. While you will find numerous >individual exceptions, this is the tendency. Same rebuttal as before. If Rambo couldn't change things then *nobody* can :-). > Compare the Canadian attitude to social services to that of >America. Look at Medicare and Unemployment Insurance, for which the US >has no equivalent. That is an expression of a cultural value. Compare >the CBC, for which America has no equivalent, that is an expression of >a cultural value. Compare the crime rates and the rates of ownership >of handguns, and again you see cultural values being manifest. >Underlying these surface manifestations are deeper ideas about what a >society is, what a man is, and what a leader is. Underlying that is an >idea about what a man (or woman 8-)) owes another. The US does have unemployment insurance. It may be that they are smart enough to not make it available to seasonally unemployed - but that's a different story altogether. They do also have a form of medicare for seniors at the federal level, and I believe that some states have medicare programs for their poor. Needless to say, the Canadian medicare system is far more comprehensize and would thus be deemed "better" by many people (including me). At any rate, there is *absolutely* no chance whatsoever that the PCs will trade away medicare for a free trade agreement. Medicare is very highly ingrained in the Canadian psyche and only a government that wished to be banished to opposition status forever would even consider getting rid of it. Yep, there is no American equivalent to the CBC. So far nobody has suggested (including the US) that the CBC should be on the bargaining table. (Note that PBS does receive grant money from the US government). Handguns are effectively illegal in Canada so it seems rather unlikely that Canadians would magically develop an affinity for them due to free trade; especially since this country was not borne out of a revolution nor did it have a "wild west" frontier type past. I would also imagine that as long as a reasonable social safety net is kept in place there is no reason to believe that free trade would increase the crime rate. > Compare the foreign policy posture of Canada and the US, re: >South Africa, Cuba, Nicaragua, and you will find cultural differences. And now we come to an apparent paradox. Free trade would probably *strengthen* Canada's ability to form an independent foreign policy. Under a free trade agreement there would be no linkage of trade with foreign policy. I.e. it would not be possible for the US to tell us that we had better toe the line with our foreign policy or expect to suddenly find out that our steel (for example) was not going to be allowed into the country. Under the present system there is nothing to stop such linkage. I wouldn't doubt that Trudeau went along with Cruise missile testing because of such threats of economical reprisal. > Compare the educational system in the two countries. In American >schools they teach American History. In Canadian schools you find the >teaching of History. There is a difference. America is unique in the >family of nations in boasting of its ignorance of foreign countries. >Most other places in the world are eager to find out about their >neighbours. Most Americans know next to nothing about Canada. Yet most >Canadians have travelled more extensively in the US than Americans >have! Due to the fact that Canada is a middle power there can be no doubt that Canadians will always learn History and not American and/or Canadian History in their schools. Smaller countries do not have the luxury of being ignorant of the rest of the world. > Canadians are travellers, second in the world after New >Zealanders. Sixty per cent of Americans, on the other hand, have NEVER >LEFT THEIR HOME STATE!!!! I know it's hard to believe, but it's true! Again, I see no reason why free trade would encourage Canadians to refrain from travelling. > Look at post-secondary education. In America there is the rivalry >of the public vs. private schools. Private for the rich, public for >everyone else. In Canada the universities are all publicly subsidized >because education is a priority. Universal Accessibility is sacrosanct >-- and whether you like it or not, this represents a real cultural >difference. I'm starting to sound like a broken record, but why would free trade change this? The real difference between the US and Canada is that in the US university education is state funded whereas in Canada it's primarily federally funded. Thus, it depends on the individual state how much resources are devoted to higher education. The result is that some states have not so wonderful universities, whereas others, such a California, have excellent public systems. [BTW as an exercise get out your latest university calendar and see how many of your Canadian professors went to a private US university - kinda seems unlikely that they were all rich.] > Just take a stroll in ANY American city after 10:00 p.m. and >compare that with a comparable stroll in ANY Canadian city at the same >time. This might well blow your mind (be careful). No doubt about it - large US cities have a much higher crime rate than large Canadian cities. How would free trade change this? > To top it all off, remember that the Americans ELECT JUDGES!! >Can you believe it? The Judiciary is elected. This just blows my mind. Horrors upon horrors!! I bet those savages elect their leaders too!! You know, the ones that *make* the laws that the judges *interpret*. Nevertheless, you can rest assured that an elected judiciary is not on the bargaining table. > Free trade, too, it must be remembered, has been flirted with >periodically since this country was established. It appeals to >mercantile sentiments who see the success of US enterprises and wish >to emulate. What the merchants forget (though the rest of us >remember) is the cost. "For what does it profit a man to gain the >whole world, and forfeit his soul?" [Mk 8:36] Free Trade has always >died a death of American insensitivity. They just don't understand. Now I know I must seem a bit dense to some of you people, but I just don't see why free trade will increase our crime rate, cause our educational system to deteriorate, turn Canadians into gun-toting fanatics, result in the loss of medicare, and force us to stop travelling. Could it be that anyone who suggests this is being just a touch paranoid? Prove to me that the cultural differences described above will likely disappear due to free trade and I'll change my opinion. So far the only things I see that might go as a result of free trade are mediocre Canadian films and TV shows, which I can easily live without. J.B. Robinson