The following letter was taken from a British Columbia newspaper (The Daily Courier, 31st Dec. 2004). It tells of Americans imitating their oft-derided neighbours to the north......
Wow! Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!
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Ugly Americans and Fake Canadians LOL!!!
CANADA-UNITED STATES RELATIONS
Fake Canadians a bad sign
I cannot begin to describe how pleased I am to have been born a Canadian. I take every opportunity to describe to my kids the many, many things we have to be thankful for; to live in one of the best countries in the world.
We are an all inclusive society that readily welcomes people less fortunate than ourselves to become citizens and to share in our good fortune. We are viewed by the people of most nations of the world as being an enviable society that deals fairly with all we come in contact with.
Recently on the TV news, there was a story about an individual marketing Canadian travel gear and clothing with Canadian logos to Americans. It appears that we are far more popular than our neighbours to the south when travelling to foreign destinations, and their being identified as Canadian assures their safer passage.
In typical Canadian fashion, this news was viewed with some titillation here at home.
Inasmuch as this imitation is flattering, I think it Shbuld also set off some alarm bells.
It has often been said that we deserve the government that we elect, and I believe this is true on both sides of the border. We, in Canada, have traditionally elected govern-ments that are peacekeepers and peacemakers. American governments, having been far more hawkish in their dealings with others, have frequently taken unpopular stances when dealing with other countries.
Having spent a number of winters in thesouthern United States, I have known numerous Americans, most of whom are wonderful people, but they do seem incapable of intro-spection. We are not so-called "loony-lefties". Like so many peace loving people of the world, I often feel quite uneasy with policies set by the U.S. federal government.
It seems to me that Americans identifying themselves as Canadians when travelling is not too dissimilar to your neighbour, taking advantage of your good credit rating, taking out a credit card in your name in order to not take the responsibility for his own misdeeds.
I have a concern that those foreign nationals who do view Americans in a disfavourable light, will begin to view us all as counterfeit.
Len Straub,
Westbank
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