The last couple nights C-SPAN has been broadcasting the CBC news program The National. They’ve had a few segments playing up the differences between Canada and America. Canada is becoming a more diverse, tolerant, government-funded, European-type society. And we’re becoming something else.
A couple interesting factoids from one of the reports:
–Q: Do you think the father should be master of the house?
Canada: 21% agree
U.S.: 52% agree
Moreover in the U.S. that percentage is on the rise, while in Canada the number has been dropping from 43% in 1983.
–Weekly church attendance:
U.S.: 50%
Canada: 20%
In the 1950s a higher percentage of Canadians claimed to attend church weekly.
–A greater percentage of the Canadian population is concentrated in urban areas. Forty percent of the population lives in the Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver metro areas. That’s 60% if you throw in Calgary, Edmonton, and Ottawa.
I think it’s safe to say that if the U.S. population were similarly concentrated in major cities, President-Elect Kerry would be getting ready to submit his proposals to the Democratically-controlled U.S. House and Senate.
–To some extent, Quebec is credited with being a driving force in the divergence between U.S. and Canadian values.
–Canadian “conservatives” would likely be Democrats if they were in America.

One of Canadians’ apparent points of contention with President Bush is that it has taken him four years to make a trip across the norther border. You can get a little sense of that just from the front page of their major news site.
Here’s what CNN is running regarding President Bush’s speech this morning:

President Bush is in Halifax, Nova Scotia, today giving Canadians a belated “thank you” for helping Americans after the 9/11 attacks. When the United States closed its airspace after the terrorist strikes, more than 200 airliners were diverted to airports across Canada, where stranded travelers were welcomed into homes.

And here’s what the CBC is running (emphasis added):

U.S. President George W. Bush arrived in Halifax on Wednesday to thank Atlantic Canadians for opening their doors to stranded Americans after the Sept. 11 attacks three years ago.

You do have to wonder what the point is in giving a “thank you” speech three years after the fact. Another excuse to talk about the “war on terror,” I suppose.