It sounds like you and I agree on immigration. I am radically in favor of it.

I have been to Canada many times and agree that it is a beautiful place. I also admire the resources and thought and energy put into heritage sites like the historic Ft. Williams in Thunder Bay.

In many ways my disdain of Canada mirrors my disdain of Great Britain. Obviously there are plenty of good Canadians as well as plenty of good Englischer. A few of my friends are Canadian, as the old liberal platitude goes.

What I object to are certain traits shared throughout the Anglosphere (and hitting particularly hard here in California, which is only half Anglosphere, deo gratias), all of which are liberal, yet which can be divided between right liberals (Republican/Tories - obsession over free markets) and left liberals (Democrats/Labor - obsession over free bedrooms and a peculiar inverse nannying on all sorts of small matters). If I rail against Canada it is that I am railing also against mainstream Americans, Australians, Englischer, Irischer (is there a difference between the Englisch and the Irisch really?), and all of their secular neo-puritan spawn that are the real threat to civilization.

The obsession with our immigration policies is noticed among Canadians who seem to be irrationally afraid of Mexicans yet seem to threaten to move here on a regular basis.

Now, you bring up maple syrup, which is a sore spot with me. Pre NAFTA, I could get pure Vermont or New Hampshire syrup. Now, I have to hunt high and low to find any that is not Canadian!

Anyway, for the most part, Americans object to a rather holier than thou attitude seen in many of the more vocal Canadians. It smacks too much of Berkeley, and I would bet that many Americans would be in favor of invading Berkeley, too.

Erik,

If the US ever does invade Canada, I'll be the first to hit you with a shot of maple syrup. Have you ever actually visited here -- it's not cold all the time, the temps around Montreal today are in the 90's -- far from the Great White North you rant about. The ignorance and ill will of some Americans never ceases to amaze me. My husband is one of the sensible ones -- he came here some years ago and stayed. BTW, he was born and grew up in Long Island, NY. And far from being "obsessed" about US immigration policies, we're concerned since so many of us have relatives or do business or would simply like to visit the States, and the tighter security since 9/11 has caused many problems. Of course I agree that heightened vigilance is necessary, such are the times we live in. Since our countries are neighbours, we're entitled to express our opinions about the actions of your administration, of which I'm not a fan (and I'm no liberal either). Glad to hear you like Oscar and Diana, though -- at least you have some taste. I grew up admiring the ideals on which the US was founded, and have read and studied a lot about US history. Do yourself a favour and read some Canadian history -- you may find out we're human after all. BTW, I'm also a Catholic -- and if you're one, then consider the numbers of fellow Catholics who live here, and show some charity. Maybe you were joking, but given the state of thinking in the US today, it's hard to tell. Anyway, our doors are always open -- as Jesus said to the apostles, "Come and see" -- it's better than making nasty, ignorant generalizations on something you don't know about.