CANADA: The New Reality: Nationalism

(2 of 3)

U.S. officials understand that the Canadians are protecting their own interests; Canada's present oil reserves will run out in about eight years, and there is no adequate technology to exploit the deeply buried oil deposits in the Athabasca tar sands. Washington was irritated, nonetheless, by the manner of the Canadian actions and the rhetoric that accompanied them. Said one External Affairs Ministry official: "We want to make it clear to the Americans that we're not just a big warehouse up north. Now they'll learn to listen to us."

The anti-American feeling is, in a way, a response to an old identity problem, first resulting from Canada's colonial status and later from its reliance upon the powerful U.S. Even Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau once called his country "a mouse in the shadow of an elephant"—a proud nation of 22 million people and a G.N.P. of $137.6 billion, lying adjacent to and dependent upon a superpower of 212 million people and a G.N.P. of $1.4 trillion.

After World War II, Canada welcomed an infusion of U.S. capital and technology that helped it attain the second highest standard of living in the world. But as a result, the Canadian automobile, oil and major-appliance industries became dominated by U.S. companies. Similarly, book and magazine publishing, television and the theater have all been heavily influenced by, or even controlled from, the U.S. Small wonder that in a recent poll by the Canadian Institute of Public Opinion, 57% of Canadians questioned said that they felt that "the Canadian way of life was being too much influenced by the U.S."

In 1956, only 27% thought so.

Protests against American influence cover a wide range of problems—some serious, some not. A few weeks ago, the Ontario legislature attacked the federal government for giving financial aid to the subsidiaries of three U.S. blue-jeans manufacturers, who were allegedly "squeezing true Canadian jeans manufacturers out of business." Canadian television, which once relied all but exclusively on U.S. programming, must now, by federal ruling, be 60% Canadian in content. Last month the Independent Publishers Association and the Writers Union of Canada called on Canadian authors and publishers not to sell paperback rights to U.S. publishers.*

In part, the growing national pride can be traced to the 1967 centennial celebration—the most visible symbol, perhaps, was Montreal's Expo—and to a growing awareness of the nation's long-neglected history and culture: Canadians have been searching out their identity in an unprecedented flood of new novels, histories, plays and critical essays.

Liberating Effect. Canada's sense of itself can also be traced, ironically, to the country's cultural dependence on the U.S. Like the American public, Canadians watched live TV coverage of the Kennedy assassinations, the nightly horrors from Viet Nam and the Senate Watergate hearings. Seeing the turmoil in the U.S., often with profound sadness, had a kind of liberating effect on many Canadians; the country that traditionally helped to set Canadians' standards was now seen as flawed and troubled.