‘Why wouldn’t we be anti-American?’ The long, sordid history of Canadians dissing our neighbour

It was a 60-second television commercial that captured the Canadian soul, or at least the English-speaking part. Photo by Average Joes/YouTube

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OTTAWA — It wasn’t a political speech or a visionary manifesto that galvanized Canadian nationalism near the start of this century, just a few years after a close-call separation referendum in Quebec and during a period of endless debate about national identity.

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Featuring actor Jeff Douglas playing the role of Joe, the average, flannel-wearing Canadian guy, the commercial tipped a hat — or perhaps a tuque — to bilingualism, diversity, peacekeeping, the beaver, hockey and other Canuck touch points, before closing with the triumphant tag line “I am Canadian!” that twinned patriotism with Molson’s signature lager.

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The spot, widely known as the “Joe Canadian” ad, was widely seen then as a fresh take on who we are. But it also used scalpel-like precision to expose the complexity and nuance of Canadians’ relationship with the country’s immensely powerful and sole neighbour to offer a clear take on who we aren’t. “A tuque is a hat, a chesterfield is a couch, and it is pronounced zed — not zee — zed!”

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It was wildly popular and sold tons of beer.

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“That beer ad spoke to a lot of myths, grounded in some truths,” said Asa McKercher, a Canada-U.S. relations specialist at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, N.S.

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Fast forward a generation or so to today, with U.S. President Donald Trump recently returning to one of his go-to moves of threatening Canadian sovereignty, blocking the opening of a new cross-border bridge paid for by Canada, and his administration refusing to renew a free-trade deal the president originally signed just eight years ago.

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Perhaps not coincidentally, a recent Leger-Postmedia poll finds Liberal support nationally continues to hover around the 50 per cent mark. That is rarefied air, especially with the economy sluggish and inflation up.

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In fact, the last time a political party had the support of at least half of the country? More than 20 years ago, in 2003, after then prime minister Jean Chrétien famously turned down an American request to join the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, a war now widely seen as both misguided and based on faulty intelligence.

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Former prime minister Justin Trudeau was criticized for defining Canada in opposition to the States. “One of the ways we define ourself most easily is, well, we’re not American,” he said last year. It’s true, at least, that we don’t see ourselves as very similar: A new Postmedia-Leger poll finds 51 per cent of Canadians say we’re either not very or not at all similar. Sixty-four per cent of us think Canadians are nicer than Americans. And 54 per cent think we’re more cultured.

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Sixty-six per cent of Canadians, meanwhile, say they think it’s the Americans who are more “arrogant.”

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Like the beer commercial, analysts say the data points are windows that expose part of the national psyche, particularly how we attitudinize relative our world-dominating neighbour.

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Is there a permanent element of anti-Americanism in the Canadian psyche, or at least in the national political culture — or is it just the Trump factor and normal expressions of patriotism?

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Or maybe Canadians, no matter what they say, have a secret dislike or grudge against Americans.

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If so, that runs counter to the common narrative about the world’s longest undefended border, the many common cross-border traits, and how the two countries are such close friends that we’re like family.

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Maybe frenemies is more like it.

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Are Canadians anti-American — just a little?

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Madelaine Drohan, a Canadian author whose recent book He Did Not Conquer documents Benjamin Franklin’s many failures to annex Canada, said the narrative of bosom buddies isn’t an accurate reflection of the reality.

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“What gets in the way is this idea that we’re friends,” she said.