Canadian tourists cower in shame because the media have over-reacted to a minor U.S. backlash.

Angus Reid
Vancouver Sun

I've just returned from a week in northern Florida where I was embedded with a group of tourists to learn more about the wave of anti-Canadian feeling supposedly sweeping America. If there's a backlash against Canadians because of our decision not to participate in the Iraq invasion, I expected to find it here, in a land of strip malls with signs reading "God Bless Our Troops" and yellow ribbons everywhere.

Here are some notes from my diary.

Day one: After arriving at Fort Walton airport, which shares its runway with America's largest air force base at Eglin Field, I ran into an old friend who had just arrived from Winnipeg. Ken and I retired to a local bar for the obligatory glass of American beer.

Within minutes of placing our order, the bartender barked the inevitable question: "Where ya'll from?" Ken glanced at the guys nursing their drinks beside us and without missing a beat answered "Minneapolis."

Maybe I'm reckless, or just stubborn, but I summoned up my limited resources of courage and shot back, "Actually I'm from Vancouver, CANADA." The barkeep thought for a moment before he asked the inevitable question, "That near Montreeall?"

Day two: Sitting by the pool, I struck up a conversation with a group at the next table who were talking about the price of gasoline. Conjuring up my best southern accent, I asked them where they were from. "The Pacific Northwest," said one of the women, while the rest of the group silently nodded their heads in agreement. Sensing their unease, I told them I was from Vancouver and then confronted them with a direct question; "Hey, are you also Canadians?"

They were from Nanaimo.

Like my friend Ken, they had read so much about how Americans had become anti-Canadian that they were reluctant to display their nationality. No, they hadn't directly experienced any discrimination since arriving and, yes, the Canadian flag outside our hotel hadn't been pulled down or vandalized—but one can never be too careful. Two days "in country" and the only people who seem to know or care about Canada's failure to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the United States are other Canadians.

Day three: Finally some action. I'm with a group of friends at a steak house on Highway 95 south of Destin, just off the Gulf of Mexico on the Florida panhandle, when I encounter some American fire. It comes from Vance, our waiter, who, upon learning that we're Canadian, launches an attack on all "Yankees" from the north. He's especially upset with Canadians because "They're so damned cheap when it comes to tipping."

In an effort to win back American support, one citizen at a time, we leave him a $20 U.S. tip.

Day four: By now we'd settled into a familiar routine. After several dozen conversations, it was clear that few Americans were aware of the Canadian role, or lack thereof, in Iraq. But there was an almost universal sense of anxiety and trepidation among the Canadian visitors that I met. It seemed such a shame that so many tourists who would normally be proud Canadians were cowering in the face of a phantom backlash. I blame the Canadian media which trumpeted phoney polls, outbursts from the U.S. ambassador and isolated incidents into a story that never existed.

Before I left for Florida, the Globe and Mail and CTV gave headline coverage to a poll sponsored by a U.S. public relations firm which claimed that "up to 50 per cent" of Americans might boycott Canadian products because of our absence in the American "coalition of the willing."

A week earlier, U.S. Ambassador Paul Cellucci had warned of dire consequences because of prime minister Jean Chrétien's decision. During the first week of the war, every keyed car, smashed window and incident of poor service was given prominent play as growing evidence of the price we would pay for our refusal to stand by our American friends. Of course, most of this was baloney.

I checked the web when I was in Florida and found a considerable number of sites like Francestinks.com set up to bash the French and Germans. The only anti-Canadian site I could find was called Canada Sucks, put together before the war to complain about environmental standards in Canada.

On the polling front, the only reputable poll I could find was conducted last week by Ipsos U.S.A. which found the number of Americans saying they are prepared to boycott Canada because of its stance on Iraq is only marginally higher than the per cent saying they will buy even more products from Canada.

The threats of backlash and dire consequences continue to be ladled out to Canadian audiences. Earlier this week, a group of Canadian CEOs visited Washington to meet with senior officials and politicians to discuss the state of Canada-U.S. relations. Report on Business gave huge coverage to an address by Richard Perle, a friend of the Bush administration and former U.S. under-secretary of defence.

Taking a page from the Cellucci book, Perle warned the chief executives from Canada that they could lose out on lucrative contracts to rebuild Iraq because of the Canadian government's decision not to send troops to Iraq.

What the story failed to mention was that Perle was recently forced to step down as chair of the U.S. defence policy board because he had accepted a $750,000 U.S. fee to lobby the Pentagon on behalf of the bankrupt communications provider Global Crossing. I guess he knows a thing or two about lucrative contracts.

Times of war produce extreme emotions, especially in this era of instant communications. In the U.S., the excesses of its media—especially CNN and Fox—that treat the war as if it were a basketball game will be the subject of considerable introspection and inquiry for months and years to come.

In Canada we need to take a close look at the questionable coverage of our little corner of this story. How did our media lead so many otherwise proud Canadians to deny their core identity in the face of ghosts that never really existed?

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