Good piece, but perhaps the difference can be explained more simply, in the U.S. we have the fictional drug dealer Walter White, in Canada they have the fictional drug dealers Ricky and Julian...

It's greed, and Canadians are familiar with Harper and the Conservatives destroying the government for all but themselves and their business buddies.

The country that produced Mayor Rob Ford doesn't need the US's kookiness explained to them. They already get it.

Yeah, Your view of Canada is just a stereotypical as Canadian's view of the USA. The sad part is many Canadians have the same problem and don't see the shit that the Harper gov't been pulling. Please don't fuel the "Canadian's are sane, American's are crazy" theme that Canadians cling to as a culture identity, it's allowing Harper to get away with taking the country on a sharp right turn. (In case it matters I'm a Canadian living in the States, most the time when I got back to Canada friends will talk hours about American politics and how fucked up it is, but will hardly ever bring up Harper).

Does Prairie Dog pay well?

Last time I had a political talk with my Canadian friends, we agreed the crazy was pretty equal in both governments. We take the cake on the crazy media outlets though (Faux Snews, et al).

Canadians aren't as stupid as you imply in your headline.

That Keystone pipeline that we are fighting over? Already a done deal in Canada along with the whole shale oil thing. Our domestic right wing crazies are not that different from their Quebec Separatists. If anything they are more violent at this point.

The US is not remarkably great, nor remarkably bad. We are just remarkably big and powerful. Our problems are not unique nor special.

Think it is tough talking to Canadians... try talking to Europeans or Asians. They think we are insane in groups and singly...;-G

There were more vocal 9/11 Truthers in Vancouver, BC than anywhere I've been in the US.

@6 I suspect they pay terribly. Cheap-ass Canadians.

Canada seems pretty similar to me. BC does a shit job of building rural roads -- all the one's I've ridden on with a bike are fucking terrible, whereas Washington does a great job.

Canadian hick drivers are also significantly worse than American hick drivers. By a huge margin in my experience. At least on Vancouver Island.

Also, buying beer in Canada sucks. Little rural stores carry absolute shit, charge a ton of money, and on top of that add a ten cent "cooler charge" on every can. WTF? Compare that to Washington where the average rural convenience store -- at least in Western Washington -- stocks lots of great beer.

Basically the problem here is that pretty much everywhere has dumb shit. You guys already pointed out some political WTFs from our friends to the north.

Yeah, the idea that the US is crazier than other countries is just one more strain of American Exceptionalism.

And the idiot who praises in enthusiatic tones

Every century but this and every country but his own

I'm sure he won't be missed, they'll none of them be missed.

CHORUS: You may put him on the list, you may put him on the list,

For they'll none of them be missed, they'll none of them be missed.

As a Canadian living in the States, Canada's okay, but I like it better here.

It's not that the average Canadian is necessarily more enlightened than the average American, it's that...well, try to imagine how American politics might work if the entire country were made up of California, Alaska, Texas, Montana, Minnesota, Michigan without Detroit, New York and New England (and the official language of Massachusetts was Italian).

@18 it's not even that, Imagine how different American politics would be if every congress person/senator had to vote the party line, and if the party in power lost one single vote they all would be thrown out of office and there would be another election...Canada was lucky, we got to watch the experiment in Democracy that the USA was before we made up our gov't and constitution. But Canadian's make the same mistakes American's makes, we think our country/people are intrinsically good, and our hubris is allowing the Harper Government (it's official name now) get away with a lot of bullshit.

I rather suspect most Canadians receive plenty of US news, and won't learn much from your essay.

Conversely, I doubt most Americans have any clue just how awful the Harper government is, especially is war on government transparency and on science. Maybe you could write or commission an article for The Stranger.

I clicked on the essay then closed the tab immediately when I saw that it started with "You guys"

The implicit message was that the Canadians are morally superior. Only a true fuckwit would believe something so ridiculous.

Well, @22, I didn't even click on the link, but I'm not surprised to hear that. If the Goddamned fuckwit hates America so much, he really ought to get the hell out. I'm sure the misfits in Canuckistan would welcome him with open arms.

(Ahem. Or maybe not. They're as sick of fucked-up Americans as we are.)

Cute little article Paul.

Sufficiently sycophantic to our more civilized neighbors while adequately recriminating to the evil old USA.

But you forgot to mention that the Marathon Bombing was initially attributed to angry white men reacting to tax day. How’d that pan out? Could you please explain the origins and demise of that mythology for the benefit of the great white north?

@24,

The bombers were white men. So that part panned out.

@25
I'm guessing they were angry too...

Short version: Americans live in Fear.

Well, when you actually get down to brass tacks.