Trump's new Ambassador to Canada didn't win friends when she implied that Canadians need to improve to be like Americans
Trump's new Ambassador to Canada didn't win friends when she implied that Canadians need to improve to be like Americans.
Here is a response, printed in a Canadian newspaper - From the Ottawa Citizen website:
Canada’s doing just fine, thanks!
U.S. Ambassador Kelly Craft, in her first Canadian print interview, stated: "The golden rule is we want Canadians to be as successful as Americans."
I doubt Canadians want to be “as successful as Americans.”
In February, Scott Gilmore, writing in MacLean’s magazine, provided some statistics that show Canadians are already more successful than Americans.
We live 2.5 years longer than Americans. Americans are six times more likely to be incarcerated.
The World Economic Forum ranks Canadians as the sixth happiest people in the world. Americans are 13th.
Fifty-nine per cent of Canadians have college degrees versus 46 per cent in the U.S. Home ownership rates are five per cent higher in Canada than in the U.S.
Canadians are twice as likely as Americans to move from the poorest quintile of the population to the wealthiest.
And perhaps most telling for the citizens of the “Land of the Free,” the Cato Institute’s Human Freedom Index considers Canadians to be the sixth freest people in the world. Americans are way behind, in 23rd place.
So Ambassador Craft, I suggest you revisit your Golden Rule. Instead, during your appointment as Ambassador to Canada, you should try to help your citizens be as successful as Canadians.
As helpful Canadians, we would be happy to show you how.
Robert Macdonald
Ottawa
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And of course, Canada is proud to rely on America for its defence. LOL
I would like Canadians more if their border staff didn't treat American's like common criminals when cross the borders. I know many folks like myself who used to enjoy visiting Canada to fish, hunt or just be tourists. Not anymore. Haven't been in years and no plans to visit in the future.
It's not worth the hassle they give you at the border. Skirting the CoC [ph]
I have to wonder why YOU have so much trouble crossing the border when others don't. I know that when Hurricane Carter was finally released from an American prison, innocent of what he spent years in jail for, he was welcomed by Canadian border officers with "Welcome to Canada, Mr. Carter." I know that's true, because he told me so himself at the Ontario Science Centre in Toronto when I went to see the viewing of his movie there, and bought his book that he signed for me. He was considered a criminal in America.
I cross to Canada quite often and never have a problem. Could be that I have a six pack of Molson and I'm wearing moose antlers. Ya think.
Or it could be the fine bottle of some of Canada's best whiskey that I hand over.
Well, you would have to ask your border inspectors that. And you will just have to take my word for it that i've been hassled a lot and i'm not the only one i know who has had experiences like that.
I have a theory. I used to hunt and fish in Canada a great deal. Spent a lot of money there over the years Never had a problem crossing into Canada back in the day. Somewhere alone the line Canada got very "militant" about guns. Now we aren't talking AR-15's or Uzi's here, we are talking your basic five shot, bolt action hunting rifle.
It's been many years since i hunted in Canada but almost every time i cross into Canada i get tossed, my car gets tossed and generally speaking i get treated like a drug smuggler or something. Now short of a couple speeding tickets many years ago i've had zero scrapes with the law in my life. Basically a squeaky clean record have i.
I think i got on a list because i've hunted up there and transported a gun to do so. It's the only thing i can come up with. Nothing else makes any sense. And actually that doesn't make much sense either.
Maybe i need to be a former felon to get in easily. Seems to have worked well for Hurricane Carter.
Aha! Then it appears to have to do with carrying guns. In Canada, guns are not appreciated quite as much as they are in the USA. Before 9/11 I could drive into the USA, and at the border I would be asked "Where were you born?" I would answer "Canada" and they would wave me on. At the airport, to fly to the USA, I didn't even have to show a driver's licence. But things changed after 9/11, and when I drove to cross the border, my car was searched, and I was detained and asked lots of questions. At the airport I had to produce my passport and it was put through an electronic reader to make sure, I assume, I didn't have a criminal record or was considered for some reason an undesirable person. I wonder what would have happened if I had any kind of gun with me - think about that for a minute. I don't blame the American customs and immigration officials in each case. I think they were right to do it, but it's not impossible to understand why there might be some adjustments made for people coming the other way in the circumstances.
Hardly the same thing. After 911 everybody got scrutinized more. That's just what had to happen considering events.
I don't think Canada had much to worry about with me and a hunting gun i had carried into country nearly ten years earlier.
Nah. i respect that you are proud of your country but it's a bureaucratic overreaction plain and simple. No reason they've needed to basically cavity search me nearly every time i've crossed the border.
What's next? A cigarette in the eye?
Actually, I'm surprised that you were treated that way. These days Canada is trying its best to outdo Angela Merkel's gpvernment in opening its doors as wide as it can to suck up as many immigrants as can walk over the border through the woods.
I haven't been in like five years so perhaps it has changed but i haven't had a desire to pay to be hassled again. Maybe i will try again in the future.
Ambassador Craft should stick to her MAGA cap. Who did the extreme vetting on Craft..LOL
What qualified her as Ambassador to our second biggest trading partner. She was a republican fund raiser.