Louder, Please
| Published date | 01 March 1951 |
| Date | 01 March 1951 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070205100600106 |
| Author | William W. Wade |
| Subject Matter | Article |
LOUDER,
PLEASE
William
W.
Wade
W
HEN
AN
AMERICAN
is
asked
what
his
countrymen
think
about
Canada, he has
no
difficulty
in
finding
the
answer:
They
don't.
When
he
is
asked
why
this
state
of
affairs
exists,
why
the
more
populous, more
powerful
nation
shows
so
little
interest
in
a
promising, emergent and
close
neighbour
just
across
a
highly
artificial
border,
he
is
hard
pressed
in
producing a
reasonable
explanation.
Obviously
there
is
every reason
for
Americans
to
know
more about
Canada;
obviously
also
American ignorance
about
Canada
is so
great
that
it
looks
suspiciously
as
though American
indifference
might
be
equally
vast.
What
the
average American knows
about
Canada
can
be
summed
up
in
a
few
well-worn
phrases-the
"quaintness"
of
Quebec,
the
glamour
of
the
Mounties,
fishing
and
hunting,
more
recently skiing,
lumber
camps,
wheat,
mining.
It
is
a
safe
wager
that
nine
out
of
ten
Americans
will fail
to
give
a
reasonably
accurate
estimate
of
Canada's population.
A
few
guesses
will fall
short
of
the
actual
total;
many more
will
wildly
overshoot
the
mark,
even
among
persons
with
a
high
degree
of
political
literacy.
It
is
probably
a
fairly
prevalent
myth
among Americans
that
there are
20,
30
or
40 million
Canadians.
Every
Canadian
has
heard
of
other
myths-that
the
incomparable
benefits
of
the
Revolution
of
1776
are
still
unknown
north
of
the
forty-ninth
parallel
and
that
taxation
without representation
must
therefore
prevail.
Popular
ignorance
of
foreign
countries,
close
neighbours
though
they
may
be,
is
no
United States
monopoly.
Nor
is
it
a
startling
phenomenon
in
these
days
when opinion
polls
tell
us
of
sizeable
sections of
the
public
who
"don't
know"
the
nature
of
events,
institutions
or
personalities
appearing
daily
in
the
headlines.
Moreover,
the
lack
of
intimate
understanding
and mutually informative
exchanges
between
two
peoples
need
not
mean
that their
respective
governments
cannot
carry
out
close
and
friendly
relations.
International
brotherhood
is
a
fine
goal,
but
foreign
ministers at various
phases
of
history
have
been
able
to forge
effective,
lasting
alliances
in
its
absence.
Relations
between
Canada
and
the
United
States,
however,
have
some
peculiarities
which
make
desirable
a
larger
measure
of
popular
understanding,
particularly
on
the
American
side
where
the
gap
seems
widest.
The
unprecedented
intermingling
of
the
North
American
economy,
common
defence
problems,
the
day-to-day
nature
of
both
government
and
business
contacts-these
and other
questions
would
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