March 23, 2006

• It depends on the issue, I think. It's obvious that the beef and softwood lumber industries have felt the weight of American influence. However, Abbotsford, a small town in British Columbia, withstood the influence of American politics when it fought the creation of a new power plant across the border that would have caused massive pollution problems. Despite heavy American influence from both regional and federal politicians, Abbotsford (with the help of the BC government) successfully defeated the power plant's construction.
• Don't kid yourself, US has and has always had immense influence, pro and con, on Canada. This situation is not reciprocal. Fact: Most USians haven't any knowledge whatsoever of Canada, merely a vague impression the countries are allies. Most of my life, 'the world's longest undefended border' was a boast by both sides. Though not now, with US in paranoid* mode, and to the point of talking about building a wall along the Mexican border. Once upon a time, this would have been farcical or funny. [Help! The sky is falling ! Nonono, you don't get it, the sky is falling! The redcoats/terrorists/bird flu/2001 is coming!] Beyond laughter now. Pitiable.
• As long as we have giant lard poutine, the border is safe.
• beeswacky, y'r so cute sir! Most USians haven't any knowledge whatsoever of Canada har! like most USians have the vaguest fooking knowledge of Amurika either!!!! harharhahr but seriously, I'm only laughing to keep my head from exploding...
• "Most USians haven't any knowledge whatsoever of Canada..." Which is fine with us. If USians are taking notice of us, it's time to hide the silver. When I was on exchange in the US, I wasn't surprised by the ignorance of things Canadian, but rather by the determination to remain ignorant. That, I just couldn't understand. Which isn't meant as a libel on Americans as a whole, it was just what I found in my experience. Many visits to NYC proved differently, but then again, New Yorkers aren't really Americans either...
• As an American happily living in Canada, the topic of this thread comes up way too often in my life. A trivial observation that I find interesting: Canadians (correctly) point out how rotten American beer is as compared to Canadian beer. And yet every time I go into a pub (reluctantly, of course) I see a roomful of Canadians drinking Coors Light, Budweiser, Guiness and Corona. Indeed, I believe that Bud is the best-selling brand up here. Go figure. sure wish beer was a CHEAP in CA as it is in the US. $32 for a 2-4? You gotta be kiddin' me, eh?
• Which is fine with us. If USians are taking notice of us, it's time to hide the silver. *slaps USians on back of head* See! I told you they had silver! Gah! Saddle up the horses again, you dimwits! >ontopic Influence on policy? Low to partly-cloudy. Risk of Americanization? Alert level Red.
• "Americanization" is a term used by certain elements within Canada to make a policy idea sound scary and bad. As for how America shapes Canadian policy...the answer is very much. Most Canadian companies, especially in the manufacturing and tech sectors, sell the vast majority of their products/services into the US marketplace. Any trade restriction/duty/export tax would have a huge influence on business. Even fluctuations in US-Canadian currency valuations affect bottom lines. Canada's prosperity is tied to that of the US, whether we like it or not. Canadian governments have always known this, and dance very carefully around the more sensitive issues when it comes to relations between the two countries.
• I wasn't aware of how 'American' Canadian politics were getting (particularly with the influence of the Alliance) until I went back to Europe. Canada is adopting many American agreed political realities and setting asside old political agreed realities which are still prevelant, or resurgent in the UK and Europe. For example, many people just think it sounds unreasonable in Canada to deny the supposed link between tax cuts and economic stimulous. This idea is considered nonsensical in much of European politics and it would have been considered nonsensical in Canadian politics a few years ago, but now it's a given for both right and left. While the economic theory has been around for a while, I would suggest that the political ideology of 'tax cuts equals economic growth' is a recent American import. Another random and somewhat disconnected thought is the Americanisation of the Canadian press culture. One of the things that pushes Canadia politically toward the US is the press ethic of 'letting the story tell itself'. When an interviewer is interviewing a politician, goes the theory, their job is to let the person they're interviewing tell their side of the story. Presumably, then, this is ballenced out also interviewing the other side. In the UK, the predominant press ethic is one of 'truth seeking'. The idea is that the interviewer's job is to push the interviewee to tell the truth, to catch them out in lies, to force them to answer the question in a very direct and open way and to demand evidence to back up their assertions. Many Canadian and American journalists would see this as cheap grandstanding on the part of the reporter. However, it has the distinct advantage of forcing politicians to tell the truth. In Canada, now, certain political figures are making hay by, essentially, telling really good lies. The expectation of the press is that the other side will correct them, but actually this comes across to the public as a 'he said, she said' thing. While the tendency for politicians to lie is not an exclusively American phoenomenon, the Americanisation of the Canadian press ethic (presumably through academic cross polinisation in journalism schools) is seeming to have this effect on Canadian politics.
• There is a final point in which American political influence influences Canadian politics, and that's in setting a standard for 'normal'. Canadians have gotten used to the impression that the American way of doing things is the 'normal' way, and when Canadian politics does things differently, it's because we're slightly eccentric. In fact, Canadian politics has had a very different development from the American system, and the whole structure of both states is based on a fundementally different set of constitutional principles. But the perception of the American 'normal' is having a perceptible impact on the way Canaidan politicans do their business. Examples (big and small, recent and old): - Unification of the Armed Forces in Canada was explicitly based on the notion that the tradional military structure was 'British' and therefore old fashioned. The restructured Canadian forces were based on perceptions, at the time, of what the American forces were moving towards and were explicitly linked to the unification debates some years earlier in the US armed forces. - Stockwell Day, when leader of the opposition, attempted to give 'presidential style' press breifings in front of a blue curtain, rather than participate in the 'scrum'. In that case the press rebelled as they seemed to feel the scrum a sacred press right. - Canadian Coast Guard cutters were given a colour scheme remenicent of US Coast Guard cutters. - Many Canadians don't know who the Canaidan head of state is (despite the fact that she's on the money) and assume that this is the prime minister. If pressed on the monarchy, many Canadians will tell you that it is an 'undemocratic' institution because soverienty resides in the people (as opposed to the old Canadian constitutional principle that democracy is a means to sustain Responsible Government). - Harper, now prime minister, wanted to hold open hearings in which MPs could test the nomination of the next appointee to the Supreme Court. This seems to be an American style intrusion of 'bipartisan' theory on the usual Canadian practice of 'nonpartisan' appointments. - In a recent incident, a Canaidan politician 'crossed the floor' right after an election. Rather than focus on the legitimacy of the move, political debate focussed around its legality, which is a very American way of looking at political practice. Examples like this abound, but it's really only half the story, becuause there's also a push in Canadian politics to do things the non-American for the sake of being non-American. It just so happens that Americanisation is, currently, in the ascendence. Those two impulses have been pushing back and forth for many years.
• re RalphTheDog's beer observation: Something like Bud would have been brewed in Canada. So, in essence, it would be a Canadian beer using the same name but a different recipe. As I understand it, at least (and I don't touch the stuff myself).
• In my experience, as few Canadians know anything about the US that wasn't shoved down their throats as Americans know anything about Canada. Newsflash: BOTH St. Hubert's and KFC suck. Deal.
• gspm: Bud in CA = Bud in US.
• Just keep you're education system tip top and you'll never be "Americanized". But watch out for sliding test scores ...
• fuck me and my grammar today.
• All good points, Dreadnought -- but I don't agree with your statement that both the right AND left have bought into the idea about tax cuts leading to a stimulation of the economy. Howard Hampton was challenging that on the ceeb's morning news earlier today, as did Broadbent during some of his farewell remarks. Those challenges are being made, only they aren't getting much exposure or catching on, for a variety of reasons.
• That's a subject for economists. 'Cause I seriously don't wanna have to look stuff up.
• Just keep you're education system tip top[...] I promise you it isn't.
• I suspect America has a subversive effect on Canadian policy by causing public dissonance between taxes and government spending. Tax cuts in America appear to enjoy wide public support through constituencies that feel disconnected from federal government, abhor large scale government waste, or wish to force government downsizing. I don't get the impression that such constituencies are widespread in Canada. However, I suspect that the constant din of 'Tax Cuts!' from below the forty-ninth parallel is what leads many Canadians to simultaneously vote for increased government programs and lower taxes, notions obviously at odds.
• How at risk are we of Americanization? As long as I have my gun, not much.
• Um funny but it seems only place aussies feel safe travelling is canadia (sic!) Yeah okay i was lucky enuff to find some really cool people - last time i checked they were still drinkin Molsons not Bud but most of the see 'Canada' brigade seem to go to the wst coast - u know mountains scenery and snow - for me - if any other country holds ny dreams other than the one i was lucky enough to be born in ..... the east - Ontario, Quebec Labrador, the Newfies and etc -
• POsted simply because on the east i was far less recognisable for the tourist i was and simply because people were far more accepting (and i might add anti US) than anywhere else) It seemed to me the west was the conventional melting pot the east was still trying to maintain seperate identity - a tourists view - no more and no less
• Actually given the outsiders perspective and knowing little in truth of all the history - I want to know- given the antipathy i was introduced to by Canadians close to the US east coast border - how well known is the fact that the americans declared war and invaded Canada? Guess it just downunder ignorance for me prior to my arrival there - but is it taught in canadian schools?
• "Usians"? Jesus, you people are just so achingly PC, aren't you? WAAH WAAH WAAH AMERICA IS A WHOLE CONTINENT! WAAH WAAH WAAH MEXICANS ARE PEOPLE TOO! Newsflash, liberals: no they are NOT. THEY'RE LIZARDOIDS FROM NEPTUNE. So put THAT in your soya decaf burrito. What I hate about the term "USians" is the fact that you guys are all "you're either with USians or against USians". Well what are we then? "Themians"? IT SOUNDS STUPID. Why don't you act NORMAL and call yourselves "les étatois?" What about celebrating the end of the Civil War by calling yourselves "Yankfederates", or "Conkees"? Or be proud of your political traditions - call yourselves "the Nuke-u-laters" or "the Freedom Folk" or "Democreationists". Why not name yourselves after a famous leader - how 'bout "Georgians" (after Washington) or "Abe-babes" (after Lincoln) or "Agnewts" (after Spiro)? You could reference the U.S.A. in an acronym - "Lives (in the) U.S.A." gives "LUSA"; while "American, National of the U.S." spells "ANUS". There are THOUSANDS of possibilities!
• *stands up, applauds, collapses*
• *cheers, throws pants*
• *applauds, throws panties*
• Locally, we took a secret ballot and are now request that henceforth you all refer to us as the "World Champion Asskickers." Runner up: "Those people over there that everyone else secretly envies for their riches, their tubbiness and the fact that they have bazillions of smokin' babes coast to coast." *pretends to applaud, steals Medusa's panties*
• ???
• profit!
• Tory!!
• Welles!! *raises eyebrow quzzically*
• off the bat i can think of two avenues of direct, policy-making influence... 1. as mentioned, canada is still our largest trade partner. that's very influential, but it's a two-way street. 2. to a lesser extent... various pan-am or international organizations such as the council of great lakes governors, international joint commission, g8, etc have a hand in either setting or recommending policy. but again, this "increases" our risk of canadianization just as much as your risk of "americanization"... a pretty loaded term to begin with, imho. however... 3. all your base are belong to US btw good luck on your homework assignment, evstar! >:O lolololol