Oh, Canada?

Canada made the Wikileaks list. The following cable from the U.S. embassy in Ottawa to Washington read, "Your decision (Obama's) to make Ottawa your first foreign destination as president will do much to diminish-temporarily-Canada's habitual inferiority complex vis a vis the US, and its chronic but accurate complaint that the US pays far less attention to Canada than Canada does to us".

The U.S. is actually breathing a sigh of relief that this fairly benign slight barely caused a stir. That's so Canadian. It's typical of Americans to assert themselves in a world they are convinced they have a right to be in where as Canadians will routinely ask, "Who do you think we are?", when in reality, the only thing Canadians can be totally sure of is that they are not American.

I personally love the politeness of Canadians. Having been born and bred in the U.S the difference between the two is so painfully obvious to me. Americans will not hesitate to place blame and label someone an ass. A Canadian, on the other hand, will give one the benefit of the doubt by simply asking, "What are you, an ass?"

Canadians need to relax because America has no interest in Canada. If you think about the countries America has become interested in, one might think of Vietnam; Iraq; Afghanistan; perhaps even North Korea. This isn’t a slight. This is a survival tactic. Let’s keep up the facade.