Comments from Brian Lane Herder |
| Brian Lane Herder (Lawrence, Kansas) |
| This has been on my mind for a long time |
| It is a curious thing that arguably the biggest obstacle to American-Canadian union is Canadian fears of being swallowed and assimilated in the American melting pot. This is an understandable fear with the United States having almost ten times the population of Canada. However as an American I believe it is unfounded. I have a few responses to this.
The United States was and has always been a loose federation of states as opposed to the centrist unitary nations prevalent elsewhere in the Western world. Although Canada is nominally a federation as well, civic regionalism is much stronger in the United States. The idea of states' rights has a long (and occasionally violent) history of passionate discussion in the United States. It is the United States more than probably any other Western nation that prides itself on the idea of small local government and bucking the larger central national government. While not impossible, it would be difficult to find anyone in the United States who "identifies" with the national government and Washington, DC over their own community, state, and region. Americans are uniquely proud of their contempt for big government influencing far away reaches of the Union. Secondly, on a cultural level regionalism in the United States is highly prized. Numerous European historians have considered the United States more of a continental "empire" than a true nation-state in the sense of many of the modern European countries. Outside of the basic ideas of being American, individual rights, and national pride it is almost impossible to find anyone from Kansas who "identifies" with New Yorkers; Californians who identify with Alabamans, and so on. That does not even take into account regional differences; West Coasters with the South, for example. It is almost certain that Montanans identify more with Albertans than with Louisianans, that New Englanders identify more with Ontario than with Alaska. Americans are an extremely diverse people and very proud of their diversity. More diversity would be welcomed. To an American who knows the United States, it is almost impossible to imagine a practical scenario that sees the 50 states "ganging up" on the new Canadian states; they can't even agree amongst themselves as it is. This theme of regionalism and self-determination dominated almost the entire of the 19th-century of American politics and culture. Lastly, it should be mentioned that it is almost impossible to find an American anywhere who doesn't have a good opinion of Canada and Canadians in general, whether he has met one or not. There is already an incredible amount of goodwill on this side of the border towards Canada. I hope that a genuine dialogue can be started on the subject. In democratic societies there should never be anything to fear from broaching a subject for discussion. |
