Bastards? Think again.

Gil Troy wrote an opinion piece in today’s Gazette about MP Carolyn Parrish’s infamous reference to Americans as “those bastards”. Since it didn’t make it to the online version, I’ve transcribed excerpts below:

Liberal MP Carolyn Parrish’s admission that she “can’t even guarantee” she would not repeat her anti-U.S. remarks is refreshing. Considering the thoughtless attacks on a sister democracy that have been festering in too many corners of the Liberal caucus – and throughout Canada – it would be futile to sweep Parrish’s bigotry under the rug. Considering that, according to Parrish, “the prime minister has not said one cross word to me,” it would be foolish to claim that Jean Chrétien was shocked by the sentiments. Politicians should not apologize for being caught in the act of speaking their minds. Better to air out, confront and defeat the prejudices that lead Parrish and too many other Canadians to sneer “Damn Americans. I hate those bastards.”

Troy goes on to give a short summary of some of the multitudes of reasons we should have a lot more respect for the United States than we do:

But while Parrish enjoys her 15 minutes of fame, as she rehearses her next sound byte, she might consider dipping into her parliamentary expense account to visit the neighbour whose people she damned. [ . . . ] Let her fly over, then visit Ground Zero and see firsthand the scale of the devastation, then try opening her heart to grieve with the tens of thousands of people deprived of mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, sisters, brothers, colleagues, friends. “Sept. 11” might feel like an overplayed news story north of the border, but in so many U.S. homes it remains the day when thousands were executed for the simple crime of being American “bastards,” or merely working next to them.

Once in New York, let her speak to the “bastards”, leftists and rightists, those in favour of confronting Saddam and those opposed, who just spent two weekends fearing another terrorist attack. Anxious people stocked up on food, water and batteries; reasonable people who have already once learned the danger of failing to prepare for the worst thought of escape routes and sealed rooms.

No one deserves to live with such fear, let alone people who are as sure of their commitment to doing right in the world as Canadians are of theirs. Americans are not just the “bastards” who helped perfect the gifts of mass democracy and mass middle-class prosperity for the world – patents Canadians have often followed. Americans are not just the “bastards” who helped defeat the two greatest scourges of the 20th century – Nazism and Communism. Americans are also the “bastards” to whom the world turned when Kuwait needed saving from Saddam Hussein, when Europeans and Canadians could not clean up the mess in Bosnia or Kosovo, when the Taliban tried to turn all of Afghanistan into a medieval prison.

Tempering his praise with a reality check, Troy then discusses several of America’s mistakes, pointing out that no country is perfect – least of all Canada. And finally concludes with the following warning:

Americans, like Canadians, did not seek these new challenges. Americans, like Canadians, spent years ignoring the growing dangers of terrorism and rogue states. Americans have been forced to confront this new reality. The least Canadians can do, even if they disagree with U.S. policy, is respect their neighbours enough to engage in vigorous and constructive debate rather than vicious and destructive calumnies.

We have seen and experienced the impact of Anti-Americanism in the world. It starts with hateful speech, but the demonization resulted on Sept. 11, 2001, in lethal fireballs in Pennsylvania, in Washington, in the North Tower and the South Tower. Contrary to the growing conventional wisdom, any of us trying, in our own imperfect ways, to prevent another catastrophe is not being “pro-war,” but pro-peace. Perhaps it is time to wish “those bastards” who are poised to write a new chapter of history good luck and godspeed.

Gil Troy’s a smart man, an excellent writer and speaker, and in this case he’s absolutely right.

Maybe what he says resonates as much as it does, just because so much of our national identity as Canadians is built on a foundation of, if not outright anti-Americanism, at least disdain and somewhat of an inferiority complex masked in airs of superiority. Why did Molson’s “The Rant” commercial strike a chord of national pride that no national anthem could match? If “I AM CANADIAN” is all about what I am not, then the only logical next step is to joke about all the people who we’re so eager to claim not to be.

After all, who among us hasn’t made a joke about “those stupid Americans”? I’m the first to admit that I do it regularly. And while my intent certainly isn’t malicious – nor do I believe that all (or even most) Americans are any stupider than most or many Canadians, it’s so ingrained in our culture that nobody even bats an eyelash at it.

And this is Canada – a country who shares many of the U.S.’s values, politics, economic forces, and thousands of miles of the world’s longest undefended border with our neighbours and best friends to the south. If knee-jerk anti-Americanism is ingrained here, imagine how much worse it is everywhere else in the world.

Some of the criticism is, I think, valid. Hero worship of the United States gets us nowhere. But Gil Troy is right, just as L. Ian Macdonald was right: too much of the criticism of the United States isn’t about its policies, or its problems – it’s based on blanket hatred that in many ways has its roots in jealousy. A lot like antisemitism in that respect.