Canada’s new crush

Growing up in Canada there was always one inalienable fact that I felt tied me to my fellow countrymen: not being American.
For years we held a position of moral superiority, looking to the States as cousins who, compared to our stalwart, peaceful, northern oasis, may have intermarried a few too many times. When Rick Mercer travelled south of the border in 2001 for his special Talking to Americans we all laughed about Jean Poutine, the Saskatchewan Seal Slaughter, getting our first Woody and felt a little better about ourselves. This baseline of who we are, so enshrined in Canadian values, is under threat. We are in the midst of a national identity crisis, we actually envy the United States.
When Barack Obama touched down on an airstrip in what the American media termed our “snow draped capital” up in the “chilly white north” it became frighteningly clear just how deeply in love we have fallen. A marked change from our reception of the previous President. When George W. Bush landed in Ottawa back in 2004, thousands came out to protest America’s wars and about everything else his government had done.
The Canadian cult of Obama worship has become endemic, his approval rating up here is 82 per cent, much higher than in his own country. This is a disturbing trend in a country where, according to Dominion Institute polls, a majority of us don’t even understand how our own government works. The cacophony of Obama T-shirts, pins, hats, graffiti, and WestJet’s Obama-themed airline discounts is reminiscent of some kind of unholy melding of Soviet propaganda and fervent materialism. Even Peter Mansbridge seemed to be caught in the slip stream as he excitedly recited the menu for Obama and Harper’s lunch date.
Obama may be one of the most charismatic, dynamic and beloved Presidents since Kennedy, but no matter how much we love him, he’s not ours. For better or worse, we are Canadians. We have a Prime minister, a Governor General, two official languages. We are not one nation under God, we are the true north, strong and free. While I have all the confidence that “Yes We Can,” we need to do it ourselves and stop looking for answers in a nation with one of the worst records of human rights abuse and a laundry list of foreign relations debacles, no matter whom their leader is. After all, we may have our problems, but if we invented instant mashed potatoes we can do anything.