Dissent from Nationalism

Canadians not only import more from the U.S. than anyone else, but chronically worry that they import far too much for their own good--from U.S. capital to U.S. television, movies and magazines. Is the Canadian national identity so undermined by U.S. influences that Canada runs the risk of cultural and economic absorption? In the current International Journal, the scholarly, influential quarterly of the Canadian Institute of International Affairs, Harry G. Johnson, 38, a Canadian professor of economics at the University of Chicago, answers a vigorous no.

Johnson is dismayed by the form that Canadian nationalist sentiment has recently taken, because it appeals to "the most undesirable features of the Canadian character. In these I include not only the mean and underhanded anti-Americanism which serves many Canadians as an excuse for their failure to accomplish anything worthy of genuine national pride, but also the small-town pettiness of outlook that is the shadow side of many Canadian virtues. Far from contributing to the growth of a stronger, more independent nation, Canadian nationalism has been diverting Canada into a narrow and garbage-cluttered cul-de-sac."

The Canadian identity, says Johnson, is not nearly so frail as the nationalists think it is. "If it were true that economic integration leads to a loss of identity, how could one explain the survival of minority and regional groups such as the Scottish and Welsh in England?" Rather than hasten U.S.-Canadian union, argues Johnson, an even closer economic integration of the two countries would only improve Canadian living standards, and thus give Canada the means to follow its own political and social course.

Tentative moves toward tariff protectionism and "Canadianization" of U.S. enterprises in Canada come under Johnson's fire: "Protectionism is the first choice of a private-enterprise system that has gone soft from easy living." For Canada, says Johnson, protectionism will "yield profits to some Canadians but a loss to the country"--leaving Canada all the more poorly equipped to make its way in the modern international economy.

Why are Canadians subject to bouts of anti-Americanism? The answer, says Johnson, may lie in "a certain immaturity in Canadian national character" that ex presses itself as an unwillingness to accept the fact that Canada is, except geographically, a small country. "Canadians set themselves the impossible aspiration of equaling the United States and of getting the United States to treat them as equals. Thus, anti-Americanism becomes a way of evading recognition of the inconsistency between Canadian aspirations and Canadian possibilities."

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