Not So Different After All

I must admit that I was not greatly surprised to read that Professor Edward Grabb liked Professor Reginald Stuart’s new book Dispersed Relations: Americans and Canadians in Upper North America (“Not So Different After All,” May 2008). Both academics agree that Canadians and Americans are similar on most dimensions. Stuart writes that “statistically, the two peoples seem much the same.” That depends on which statistics you mean. Arguing about Canada and the United States is like arguing about the Bible: anyone can find a chapter and verse (or in this case, a statistic or policy outcome) to suit their ideological fancy. But the most interesting discussions about the two countries concern themselves not with determining whether we are “essentially” the same or different, but with patterns and the explanation of those patterns. Why is church attendance twice as high in the U.S. as in Canada? And why has religiosity become so important in American politics but much less so here in Canada? Why is the U.S. murder rate three times the Canadian rate? Why do Americans incarcerate each other at a rate nearly six times the Canadian rate? Why do Canadians have a universal system of health insurance and the Americans not? Why are Americans flirting with a black and a female presidential candidate when Canadian political leadership remains starkly male and white? Why are 13 percent of Canadian parliamentarians foreign-born while the proportion in the U.S. House of Representatives is just two percent? Why are Americans so much more successful at producing popular culture the world wants to gobble up? Why do Americans carry more consumer debt than Canadians? Why do Americans elect so many presidents with military backgrounds while Canadians elect lawyers? Why are Americans risk takers and Canadians relatively risk averse? The businesses my firm Environics has counselled for the past 38 years have been interested in understanding the cultural factors in each country that could cause a product or advertising message to fly or flop. For Canadian conservatives, emphasizing Canadian ties to the United States makes sense. For others, emphasizing Canada’s progressive distinctness (while benefiting from the U.S. economy) is the shoe that fits. For those who want to sell widgets on both sides of the border, understanding where the differences lie and why is the holy grail. Readers seeking the case for essential similarity will find Stuart’s book as good a read as any. For those who wish to see the contours of the two societies sketched from a number of perspectives (mostly academic, not “popular”), try the third edition of David Thomas and Barbara Torrey’s Canada and The United States: Differences that Count.

Michael Adams
Toronto, Ontario