This week, President Obama addressed Canada's parliament as part of the "Three Amigos" summit of the leaders of Canada, the US, and Mexico. Or, as it was known this year, the "We Aren't So Bad Area We?" summit. As you would expect from a Democrat president in Canada, it was very positive and complimentary. And notably, it included the phrase, "the world needs more Canada." I guess that's a big compliment, since it implies that there may be good things in other countries, which is a pretty bold point for an American politician to make.
I don't know who came up with that phrase. The first time I remember hearing it was from Bono in the early 2000's. That was at the start of the Paul Martin years, when Canada seemed to be winning at everything important, while still losing at sports. It was like Clinton-Era America, but without the scandals.
Variations on "the world needs more Canada" got repeated in the next few years; I remember seeing it on sales stands at Chapters when they were featuring Canadian books. By then I was cringing every time I heard it. We were into the Harper vision of a harder-edged country, and references to that old, actively-nice Canada felt misplaced. Really, we were just coasting, quickly spending our reserves of goodwill.
Now the old nice Canada is back with what less-civilized people would call vengeance. So, we're getting praise again, but I have mixed emotions about it. Having seen the bitter apathy this country is capable of, I'm reluctant to hold us up as an example. In a literal sense, we use resources so fast, the truth is that the world can barely cope with the amount of Canada it already has.
On the other hand, with the rest of the western world in white-hot-anger mode, it's hard not to think we've got something unique here when it comes to tolerance. Sure, the world could use more of that. So my mixed emotions are perhaps very descriptive of Canada: We're better than most, but you can't help thinking we should be doing better.
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