Myths and values: the United States and Canada
TORONTO—People have a need for mythical narratives, and history makes for legends. The founding myth of the United States is independence from Britain and its hereditary monarch after years of bloody battles. Although the national roots of the U.S. lie in British history, they have been significantly purged from American memory, including the fact that the King was not an absolute ruler and deferred to his cabinet.
The U.S. story is of revolution and a triumphant republican idea, the Declaration of Independence. It asserts that sovereignty resides in the people. The newly minted Americans defined themselves as equals with inalienable rights. E pluribus unum, “out of many, one” was adopted on July 4, 1776, as the new country’s motto, and law requires that it appear on all American coins.
Canada has no comparable revolutionary myth because our story is not of insurrection, but of evolution, from French and then British colonial status to self-government and eventually full independence. Canada’s story is also one of conquest of the French and First Nations, no longer celebrated by Canadians. The Québécois see Canada as bilingual and bicultural. First Nations focus on their relationship to the Crown, which predates the Canadian state. Other Canadians are most likely to praise it as a multicultural mosaic.
A long-standing Canadian myth and ideal is that this country is a “peaceable kingdom,” a tolerant, peaceful society. In this frame, former prime minister Joe Clark referred to Canada as “a community of communities,” where ethno-religious and linguistic pluralism is valued. This presents Canada as no mere amalgam of rights-seeking individuals. Symbolically representing the collective community is the Crown, the foundational legal basis of the Canadian state.
Beginning with the American Revolutionary War, the U.S. honours wartime heroes in a way Canada does not. The American navy names its destroyers after them. Canadians prefer to honour educators, artists, and diplomats. Ike and Mike encapsulate the difference: the same year that Lester B. Pearson received the Nobel Peace Prize, General Dwight Eisenhower—for whom a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier is named—was sworn in for a second presidential term.
On the world stage, Canada avoids conflict, seeking peaceful resolutions, while a belligerent and combative U.S. has often gone on the war path. The U.S. has engaged in multiple hostilities since the Second World War, from invasions of Grenada and Panama to wars in Vietnam, Iraq, and Iran. Canada sent no force on a combat operation overseas until Afghanistan, a half-century after its participation in the Korean War. A touring museum exhibition celebrating the 250th birthday of the U.S., curated by President Donald Trump’s administration, lists four Second World War military figures among 51 American heroes. In contrast, none of the 141 new appointments and promotions to the Order of Canada in the past year were honoured for military service.
Geography and demography dictate that Canada will always be in the orbit of the U.S. Orbiting satellites, however, are not always equidistant from their star. Prime Minister Mark Carney is striving to stretch distance from the U.S., while in recent decades the Conservatives have followed its Republican party more closely on issues such as crime, immigration, asylum, cultural issues, and wars. Time will tell if Carney’s efforts prove quixotic. The public still trusts him while distrust of the U.S. has grown not only in Canada, but also globally. The American belle époque that the Trump administration is trying to revive is long gone. America’s ship is foundering with a captain and crew in denial of their misadventures.
The quality of political speeches indicates a society’s level of education. Trump’s crudeness and the decline of American political discourse speak for themselves. Ironically, the U.S. pioneered public and higher education, and Andrew Carnegie funded over 1,600 free public and academic libraries in the U.S. (and roughly 125 in Canada). They represented a huge push for free, universal schooling. However, those institutions have been in decline in recent decades as ‘political correctness’, insisting on obedient adherence to an official position, has captured university social science departments in North America. "Political correctness," has been repurposed by self-styled “progressives” since the 1970s to gauge ideological loyalty on social justice, equality, sexual diversity, and race issues. The term is now wielded as a derogatory label to criticize curriculum changes and speech codes.
As the U.S. retreats into its own satellite world, Ottawa is seeking to loosen the gravitational pull, reaching out to others for investment, trade, and new defence relationships. It can no longer depend on U.S. goodwill. The sun is sinking on the American Empire, and, in this century, may decline below the horizon. Living next door, Canada is looking to cushion itself.
Nelson Wiseman is professor emeritus of political science at the University of Toronto.
The Hill Times