A Great Country Falters

Pete McMartin, of the CanWest News Service, writing in the National Post, apologizes for some pretty stupid Canadians' behavior out in Vancouver.

VANCOUVER - It was near the end of the United States' semi-final game at the World Junior Hockey Championship when a group of foreign relations experts in the stands began chanting:

"U.S. sucks!"

Small detail here:

A Canadian team was not on the ice at the time.

(snip)

For his part, U.S. head coach Walt Kyle was under the mistaken impression -- one still shared by many Americans, the poor, trusting boobs -- that because our two great countries are neighbours, and have co-existed peacefully for over 150 years, and have vast economic and cultural ties, that he could consider Canada a home-ice-away-from-home and Vancouverites would naturally cheer for the American team rather than for a team from a country which, not 20 years ago, was chiefly known for its vicious soul-crushing despotism, and whose hockey teams were reviled by Canadian fans as products of a drab socialist machine that saw sport as nothing more than an arm of state propaganda.

But Kyle hadn't figured on the Canadian weakness for envy; I'll bet he didn't even suspect that that weakness existed, or would find expression in something as well-intentioned as an international hockey tournament.

His charges are, after all, 17-to-19-year-old boys, not architects of the war against Iraq. Likely, the only thoughts they have on softwood lumber is that it makes for lousy hockey sticks.

McMartin apologizes for the stupidity and notes that there are many in Canada that really do appreciate America as a neighbor and friend.

It is nice to know that all the idiots living on the west coast of North America aren't located in the United States. Spread the wealth, I say.

Found via Right Wing News.