Canada

Miles Seeley writes: "As a very young man, I learned the cowboy trade in Alberta, and later in the Central Intelligence Agency I was in liaison with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. I've had a special fondness for Canada and its people.

I don't find it at all strange that Canadians want to differentiate themselves from us. Canada is much smaller in all but land mass, and often feels bullied by the US. Besides, most of us are proud of where we come from or where we live. East Coast people see the US as two coasts with a wasteland in between. Midwesterners are proud of their plain and hardworking image, and westerners are scornful of the culture of both coasts, but feel some affinity to midwesterners. Further, we often flaunt the state, city or town we are from. I find it all perfectly natural and not at all alarming. Canadians traveling abroad often find they are treated better if they stress that they are not from the USA.

I would caution against viewing Canada as a paradise, however. There is the often-nasty business of separatism, and the prairie provinces are often in near rebellion against the central government. I had to deal with the national health system for many years when I was at The Menninger Clinic, and that system is often in deep financial trouble. Many Canadians are sharply critical of it.

However, most Canadians I know are open and friendly and very much like us in almost all respects. Our differences are minor, in my view".

Ronald Hilton - 7/15/02