Will Canada be Americanised?

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 62, 6 December 1930, Page 17

Will Canada be Americanised?

t jvar yr y HENEVER a well-known Canadian firm or business passes % W / into American hands a wave of sentimental lamentation \/a/ sweeps over the country and alarms are sounded that Canada V V is proceeding swiftly toward the doom of being an economic appanage of the United States,” says Mr. J. C. Stevenson, Canadian correspondent of the “Times,” writing in "Current History.” “In the recent election both the Liberal and Conservative parties indulged in & certain exploitation of this sentiment; if anything, the Liberals, who used to be passionate champions of reciprocity with the United States, stressed the imperialist note more strongly, and the Toronto “Globe" day after day carried headlines, ‘Let Uncle Sam Go His Own Way; Our Way Is With John Bull.’ “The overwhelming defeat which befell the Liberal Ministry of Mr. Mackenzie King was partly the result of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Bill. It aroused a feeling of widespread resentment in Canada at what was regarded as American tariff selfishness, and the voters, considering that the measures of retaliation embodied in the last Liberal Budget were inadequate, decided to entrust the Federal Government to the Conservatives who had ' all along advocated sterner reprisals. “Canadians dcr .'re to live in peace and amity with their American neighbours, but they have not the slightest intention of foregoing their present position as an autonomous partner State in the British Commonwealth of Nations for the sake of greater economic prosperity which absorption in the United States would undoubtedly bring. ; “Apart from the fact that a political organisation which embraced

the whole of the North American continent would be too cumbrous for efficient government, they cherish the rooted belief that they enjoy in their existing political and social order certain manifest advantages over their neighbours. For one thing, they have an infinitely more elastic political system so that adjustments which the interests of the country demand can be made without undue stress and strain. “Again, throughout the whole Dominion, the administration of justice is both efficient and rapid, and lawbreakers receive short shrift. The weird stories of the successful exploits of lawless elements which emanate from Chicago and other places fill Canadians with amazement that such a state of affairs could be tolerated by a civilised community and confirm them in their belief that, while they may not enjoy the abounding material prosperity of the United States, they live less dangerously and have a sounder social structure. "Like all youthful communities, the people of Canada are extraordinarily sensitive to any symptoms of patronage or condescension on the part ot either Americans or British, and as a measure of protection they sometimes adopt an attitude which may look like arrogant self-assertiveness. “They Cherish in their hearts a certain envy of their neighbours for their greater wealth, theiy lighter taxation burdens and their more generous variety of climate and resources, but they never publicly proclaim it, and they are never willing to admit for a moment that fate has decreed for them the poorer lot. Tl/ere may be occasional strains in the relations of the two countries, but fundamentally they have too much in common ever to have a deadly quarrel.”