At first glance, my book “The Case for Canada” might sound loud, proud and patriotic—a bold declaration of Canadian exceptionalism.
Look again.
Most of what I detail about what makes the Canadian option better, falls into areas and actions where Canada has followed a better model than the one put forward in the United States.
The keyword there is followed.
Canada didn’t invent very much of what makes it a better choice than the United States.
Many of these ideas came from elsewhere and are implemented elsewhere. In fact, often, they are implemented more efficiently and effectively elsewhere. Remaining Canadian allows us to explore those other options in ways that we simply can't as the 51st state.
Canada and the United States are both lands of immigrants and both have had access to an incredible variety of thought. However, Canada, though far from perfect in this regard has been far more willing to allow these voices to be heard. This willingness to accept diversity has allowed us to evolve in ways that are surprisingly different and we have taken a very different direction—a direction that is often far more international in its flavour and far more in line with the rest of the world than is the United States.
We have a choice. We can embrace American Exceptionalism. Or we can embrace ideas and solutions from around the world. Canada, more often than not, has leaned more into the ideas of the world than the ideas of American Exceptionalism.
Though American Exceptionalism has always been part of the character of the United States, of late it has turned far more inward, shrinking its world and its outlook. And it has become far more demanding of the rest of the world, particularly Canada. It wants many places to become America, to become a territory or a vassal of the United States. This is what colonialism looks like and increasingly, this is what America looks like and this is what is driving the American agenda.
So, the Case for Canada, though it’s about a choice between Canada and America, is more than that. It’s a choice between America and the world—a choice between the small, petty inward navel gazing of exceptionalism, and the wider, more expansive option that rejecting exceptionalism has to offer.
And there's an important warning for Canadians in that.
If we respond to American Exceptionalism by creating a Canadian exceptionalism of our own, we've missed the point entirely.
Choosing Canada is choosing a much bigger world than American Exceptionalism has to offer. But only if Canada keeps choosing the world.
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