Gathering speeches last week for Vital Speeches of the Day's sister publication Vital Speeches International, I ran across—oh my God, am I really about to say this?—an attempt—hee hee—by Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper—hoo hoo—to talk trash to the U.S. and other countries, about how they handled the economic down turn up in the Great White North.
In Sept. 17 speech to the Canadian-American Business Council and Canadian Association of New York, Harper crowed, Canadian style:
Now, ladies and gentlemen, let me just conclude by observing that historically we Canadians have been known as a polite, quiet and self-effacing people, but in my view, as you may have noticed, this is no time for Canadians to hide our light under a bushel. A few months ago, The Economist magazine carried a headline calling Canada, quote, "A country that got things right." We have all suffered from the global economic recession, but Canada's management of its economy and its financial system is a success story of which we can be justifiably proud, and on which we can build. In other words, Canada got it right.
Is that all you got, Harper? You apologize in advance, you gently prepare us for a bodacious rhetorical smack-down, you qualify the whole thing by saying it's only "in my view," and then you quote The Economist as saying, "Canada got it right?"
Gangsta!
What are you – new?? How long have you had Canadian friends, and yet you seem surprised that we’re polite??
That’s just how we roll up here in the great white north, David!
P.S. If you think that Wilson guy saying “you lie” under his breath was an issue, you should really tune in the televised Canadian House of Commons phenomenon called “Question Period” sometime. THEN come back and tell me how polite you think we are!
So, Kristen, are you people good trash-talkers (or what we call at this highfalutin blog, “rubbish rhetoricians”) or aren’t you?
Well, we mostly save our trash-talk for each other [if you watch Question Period you’ll see what I mean] but we CAN be as nasty as any other nation, we just CHOOSE not to be.
Kristen said: “we CAN be as nasty as any other nation, we just CHOOSE not to be.”
So basically you’re the human forms of cats. As if I don’t get enough of that self-righteousness from my cat at home!
Ooh, THAT cat can scratch!
Hmmmm, this snark from the woman who lives in Oregon and likes to spout off about how they’re “the Canada of the U.S.”.
You’re gonna wanna keep working on that, Eileen!! You still have some work to do to actually EARN that self-endowed title.
Cat fight!!!!! Cat fight!!!!!!!
I would just like to say that it’s rather refreshing to hear from a world leader who appears to be PROUD of his country!!
It’s getting a little tiresome down here in the Lower 48, with a leader who seems hell bent on running us down to the rest of the world and blaming us for everything from the lack of a true peace in the Middle East to the destruction of the planet.
Steve C.
Cat fight!!!!! Cat fight!!!!!!!
I would just like to say that it’s rather refreshing to hear from a world leader who appears to be PROUD of his country!!
It’s getting a little tiresome down here in the Lower 48, with a leader who seems hell bent on running us down to the rest of the world and blaming us for everything from the lack of a true peace in the Middle East to the destruction of the planet.
Steve C.
We don’t go so much for trash talk as mockery. Rather than outright slam our lovely friends to the south, we prefer to just make fun of you (and ourselves for that matter). Look up Rick Mercer’s “Talking to Americans” on youtube for an example.
Of course, this is all really just a reflection of our own deep insecurity about our place in the world. The fact that an American blogger has mentioned our PM will now probably set off an excited media frenzy up here…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhTZ_tgMUdo
Thanks, Rueben!
You want vitriol, David? You want EDGE? How about this comment thread, from my very Canadian wife yesterday, who signed on to Facebook for the first time.
Her friend: “It’s about time you joined the 21st Century LOL.”
Kate: “It’s about time you left it.”
She got GAME.
Boy, I’d hate to fight with a wife dat can cut dat good.