Unlike most Canadians, I do not dislike Americans. In our travels to the USA, we have never had any reason to disparage them. I like their patriotism, their freedom to speak of their faith openly, their generosity, and their openness. I indeed feel sorry for them because of the abuse that is heaped upon them on the world stage. Like all of us, they have their faults, not the least of which is their appalling ignorance of their neighbours to the north. There are obviously many reasons for this, but for me it is a source of amusement more than annoyance. To be fair, we find many Americans also quite uninformed about their own country. I have American readers and I do not want to offend them, but I may have already. I will leave out the faults of Canadians and will only bring them up in defense of my gentle attack on the Americans.
Having said that, there was a little incident in Toronto Friday night where for the first time, President Clinton and President Bush were on the same stage together. It was interesting and amicable by all reports, but something came to light that was rather revealing. This ignorance of which I speak goes right to the top. As all Canadians know, we are on the eve of having to show a passport in order to cross the US/Canadian border. In our 200 history as neighbours, this is a disturbing precedent, and yet both Clinton and Bush confessed to having absolutely no knowledge of it. How can this be? Clinton has an excuse as he is probably still busy trying to define the word 'is'. Bush, however, instituted this initiative during his watch as president as part of the Homeland Securities Initiatives as a result of 9/11. That such an important step go without his knowledge is beyond belief. Or is it? He is, after all, a typical American.
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