Yankee Go Home

Prof. Granatstein has performed an enormous public service to his countrymen by writing this book. Too bad most Canadians will never read it. Instead, I imagine that the majority of readers will be U.S. expats trying to understand the insecurity, paranoia and passive self-righteousness of some of the Canadian public and most of the Canadian media and political elite when it comes to matters concerning the U.S.Granatstein provides a thorough history of anti-Americanism, which is rooted in the expulsion of British loyalists from the U.S. colonies during the Revolutionary War to the inhospitable reaches of Upper Canada (now Ontario). Events such as the U.S. "invasion" of Canada during its War of 1812 with British aggressors have entered Canadian mythology as naked American aggression toward peaceful Canucks. This aggression and disrespect for the sovereignty of other nations, of course, is a fundamental tenet of U.S. policy in the eyes of many Canadians. ! In reality, of course, the U.S. enetered Canada during that war to extinguish British forces, harbored by Canadian colonists, that were making periodic destructive forays into New York and Vermont. Granatstein also lucidly explains the great 20th-century British "betrayal" of Canada during WW-I when the bankrupt Brits were forced to turn to the U.S. for men, materiel and money in order to defeat the Germans. This essentially pushed Canada into the arms of the U.S. as America became the defacto world power in the wake of the war. This "betrayal" underpins most modern Canadian antipathy of America. It is interesting that it appears an article of faith among modern Canadians that the U.S. revolution against Britain was fundamentally illegitimate and the root of much evil in world today.This list goes on and on, and Granatstein is steely in his objectivity. After listening to the shrill knee-jerk denunciations of the U.S. that are staples of daily Ca! nadian media and political discourse, one can turn to this ! book to understand their genesis. It is especially sad in these days of continuing friction between central and western English-speaking Canada and its Francophone and maritime provinces that Canadians conveniently seek an external locus of control on which to blame their problems. This is a fine and wonderful country; if only its citizens would exorcise their insecurities and move forward. Reading this book with an open mind and unflinching introspection would be a productive move in that direction. It takes much more effort and honesty for one to read this book and reappraise Canadian bigotry toward America than it does to turn on Jerry Springer and indulge in sweeping, facile generalizations about U.S. society. "YGH" should be required reading at the CBC, Globe and Mail, and in parliament.