Auchtoon!I Thought Canadians Were Supposed to Be Nice
Originally published in the Ann Arbor News, Bay City Times, Flint Journal, Grand Rapids Press, Jackson Citizen Patriot, Kalamazoo Gazette, Muskegon Chronicle, Saginaw News
March 9, 2014
It has got to be frustrating to be Canada sometimes. We (the United States) often take Canada for granted. At worst, we treat them like our northern territory. At best, we acknowledge them as a sovereign nation, but assume they have no national priorities of their own. Case in point, the Canadians have been leading an effort for some time to build an additional bridge between Detroit and Windsor to make trade easier, faster, less costly. And for some time, we have been less than enthusiastic about it. The latest example was the proposed budget by the Obama Administration for the coming year — no money is slated for building a customs plaza on our side, literally the only part we would be responsible for. Of course, it’s just a proposed budget (Congress decides whether to appropriate money), so it may just be Obama’s attempt at reverse psychology (“if I don’t ask for it, maybe Congress will give it me”). Or it could be that he has gotten so used to issuing executive orders that he figures that he will just create a federal bridge agency and do it himself. In any case, the United States is certainly not making it seem important.
Of course, then, how unhappy can Canada be? Didn’t they just win both Olympic hockey gold medals? What do they really have to complain aboot?
Kris said,
March 11, 2014 @ 9:45 am
And the curling gold medals! They really are the kind of neighbors any country would want – quiet, orderly, polite, stable. It’s like Canada is Ned Flanders and the US is Homer Simpson in less extreme ways. I vote for the bridge!