CANADA DAY BAH HUMBUG
WHY CELEBRATE - WE'RE IN SERIOUS TROUBLE
July 2, 2005
By MICHAEL COREN, TORONTO SUN
ON CANADA Day weekend I am supposed to behave like a good Canadian columnist. To say how wonderful this country is and how great and grand it is to be Canadian.
Sorry, not going to do it. I love Canadians, I love what this country has done for me, but I cannot serve it well if I play the game of adulation. Simply put, we're in big trouble.
The notion that this is the greatest country on Earth and that our cities are "world class" is, frankly, quite ludicrous. We have little history, few passable museums, mediocre galleries and minimal national pride. Our cities are mediocre at best and pale into insignificance compared to genuinely world-class centres like New York, Paris, London or Rome.
We do have natural beauty, but our summers are now clouded, in all senses, by smog warnings and endless housing developments are darkening the light of what was rural splendour.
We used to be a safe country. Not now. Gunplay is increasing at an extraordinary rate and, if we are to believe many street cops, at a much faster pace than we are told by various politicians and police chiefs. Some of our inner cities are becoming virtual no-go areas and the culture no longer has the courage to fight back.
Contrary to what you might be told, we are not particularly respected internationally. It is true that nobody hates us, but the reason for this is not affection but indifference. We are found amusing rather than admirable, a huge and empty country where lumberjacks and Mounties play in the snow.
We thump our chest and say we are revered abroad as keepers and makers of peace. Not at all. Our recent battle honours are Somalia and Rwanda. Hang your heads in shame.
Corporations and media ownership is concentrated in fewer hands than in the United States, access to democratic procedure is more limited than in the United States, freedom of speech is less guaranteed than in the United States.
But we think we're freer, better, more open and equal than, yes, the United States. Remember, hundreds of millions of people in the rest of the world assume we actually are part of our great enemy to the south. They don't know and don't care. Hey, why should they?
Our medical system is supposed to define us, but in fact cannot be sustained and is even now breaking apart. Ask Paul Martin. His own personal doctor operates a private clinic. Legions of the rich and famous in this country pay to use private health care services. The idea that Canada is egalitarian is far more amusing than any of our alleged comedy shows.
That's not difficult, of course. We make dreadful television and movies, whether they are funny or not. There are diluted versions of American and British programs and politically tendentious films that are instantly identifiable. They're characterized by bad acting and unfailingly lugubrious plots that often include a hackneyed and out-of-context gay relationship.
We boast a national sport, but do nothing as big business and selfish skaters deprive us of it for a year. We claim to be multicultural, but power is still as white as can be. No Oprah or Condoleezza Rice in the true north.
SELF-OBSESSION
We claim to lead and inspire the rest of the world. Really? Hardly the stuff of the ancient Greeks or Romans. More Degrassi than democracy.
Ours is a political culture incarcerated by the self-obsession of our francophone brethren, the ideal of progress smothered by commitments to assorted sexual subcultures and a lack of vision that makes Mr. Magoo appear perfect-sighted. (Whoops, I'm probably in trouble with the "sightless" community, who, if they don't yet receive some sort of federal funding for their cause, really should get in line before it's too late.)
Now I will receive a flood of e-mails calling me a traitor and telling me to go home. I will. Home is a nice house in nice Toronto in nice Canada.
Thing is, I want more than "nice." I want good, noble, moral, selfless and proud. Happy Canada Day weekend.
WHY CELEBRATE - WE'RE IN SERIOUS TROUBLE
July 2, 2005
By MICHAEL COREN, TORONTO SUN
ON CANADA Day weekend I am supposed to behave like a good Canadian columnist. To say how wonderful this country is and how great and grand it is to be Canadian.
Sorry, not going to do it. I love Canadians, I love what this country has done for me, but I cannot serve it well if I play the game of adulation. Simply put, we're in big trouble.
The notion that this is the greatest country on Earth and that our cities are "world class" is, frankly, quite ludicrous. We have little history, few passable museums, mediocre galleries and minimal national pride. Our cities are mediocre at best and pale into insignificance compared to genuinely world-class centres like New York, Paris, London or Rome.
We do have natural beauty, but our summers are now clouded, in all senses, by smog warnings and endless housing developments are darkening the light of what was rural splendour.
We used to be a safe country. Not now. Gunplay is increasing at an extraordinary rate and, if we are to believe many street cops, at a much faster pace than we are told by various politicians and police chiefs. Some of our inner cities are becoming virtual no-go areas and the culture no longer has the courage to fight back.
Contrary to what you might be told, we are not particularly respected internationally. It is true that nobody hates us, but the reason for this is not affection but indifference. We are found amusing rather than admirable, a huge and empty country where lumberjacks and Mounties play in the snow.
We thump our chest and say we are revered abroad as keepers and makers of peace. Not at all. Our recent battle honours are Somalia and Rwanda. Hang your heads in shame.
Corporations and media ownership is concentrated in fewer hands than in the United States, access to democratic procedure is more limited than in the United States, freedom of speech is less guaranteed than in the United States.
But we think we're freer, better, more open and equal than, yes, the United States. Remember, hundreds of millions of people in the rest of the world assume we actually are part of our great enemy to the south. They don't know and don't care. Hey, why should they?
Our medical system is supposed to define us, but in fact cannot be sustained and is even now breaking apart. Ask Paul Martin. His own personal doctor operates a private clinic. Legions of the rich and famous in this country pay to use private health care services. The idea that Canada is egalitarian is far more amusing than any of our alleged comedy shows.
That's not difficult, of course. We make dreadful television and movies, whether they are funny or not. There are diluted versions of American and British programs and politically tendentious films that are instantly identifiable. They're characterized by bad acting and unfailingly lugubrious plots that often include a hackneyed and out-of-context gay relationship.
We boast a national sport, but do nothing as big business and selfish skaters deprive us of it for a year. We claim to be multicultural, but power is still as white as can be. No Oprah or Condoleezza Rice in the true north.
SELF-OBSESSION
We claim to lead and inspire the rest of the world. Really? Hardly the stuff of the ancient Greeks or Romans. More Degrassi than democracy.
Ours is a political culture incarcerated by the self-obsession of our francophone brethren, the ideal of progress smothered by commitments to assorted sexual subcultures and a lack of vision that makes Mr. Magoo appear perfect-sighted. (Whoops, I'm probably in trouble with the "sightless" community, who, if they don't yet receive some sort of federal funding for their cause, really should get in line before it's too late.)
Now I will receive a flood of e-mails calling me a traitor and telling me to go home. I will. Home is a nice house in nice Toronto in nice Canada.
Thing is, I want more than "nice." I want good, noble, moral, selfless and proud. Happy Canada Day weekend.
