Hello America, it’s Canada. Remember Us?

March 17th. Fox News. 3 am. Greg Gutfeld and a team of satirists on the late night comedy show, “Red Eye” made a few stabs at Canada’s decision to pull out of Afghanistan by 2011. Here’s the complete YouTube clip:

It has already been discussed many times over in the Canadian media that this comment was inappropriate, dispicable, and completely insensitive of the 116 lives that have been lost by Canada in Afghanistan. In Canada, we have the highest death rate per capita in Afghanistan, largely due to the fact that we were pressured by the United States to deploy in one of Afghanistan’s most dangerous regions; Kandahar. Canada stayed in Afghanistan far longer than many of the original countries who committed to be there in the first place. To make this kind of joke, especially when nearly every week news arrives of 3-4 more Canadian deaths, is indeed insensitive, inappropriate, and ignorant of the facts. Rick Mercer made a comment saying that there are three rules when you do satire: Tell the truth, don’t be a bully, and don’t be an a**hole. Gutfeld did not follow these rules.

What concerns me even more though, is the general attitude of international countries towards the maple leaf. Why did Gutfeld think this would be funny in the first place? Is there a general attitude out in the international community that Canada sits back and chills out of international affairs like some kind of hippy nation?

Lately, Canada has been trying to get a bit more notice, and indeed, respect, from the international community. First we were awarded the winter olympics in Vancouver for 2010. Then we shook up our politics with a constitutional crisis after the 2008 election, prompting the world to again take notice. Later in February, newly-elected American President Barack Obama chose Ottawa for his first official state visit, even if it was only for six hours.

This segment of Americans, given a satirical voice by Gutfeld, thinks that Canada relies on the United States for protection and lacks the capacity to make a difference in international affairs. I would argue that this is largely due to the fact that we mostly do what they ask of us, so we’re never taken notice of when we lend a hand. If Canada struck a more independant stance from the United States, we could show the world what it really means to be Canadian without sacrificing anything.

Let’s take a brief overview of Canada’s accomplishments. It was a Canadian, Sir Fredrick Banting, that invented penicilin. We have made a difference internationally without owning any nuclear weapons. Canadian lawyers drafted the founding documents of the United Nations. Another Canadian, Lester Pearson, created the United Nations emergency force that has acted as a peacekeeper in disputes around the world for decades. Canadian Alexander Graham Bell gave the world the telephone. We gave the world hockey and basketball. And we have shown that it is possible for two distinctly different cultures (anglophone and francophone) to live side by side in peace in one country.

We were not born out of violence, but out of peaceful negotiation. We value debate, order, and good government. It is good to be Canadian.

And it’s time that the world recognized that.