Gil Troy: It's Time to Remember What Canada and the US Have in Common

As we mark the happy coincidence of the close proximity of Canada Day on July 1 and American Independence Day today, headlines are more likely to emphasize tensions dividing the two sister democracies than the many ties that bind.

Parliament's decision legalizing same-sex marriage triggered predictable warnings about Canada and the United States heading down opposing paths. The headlines feed Canadian stereotypes of the United States as Ramboland, a nation rushing backward toward a hyper-aggressive, red-meat-munching conservative theocracy, while perpetuating Canada's reputation - among the few Americans who bother to notice - as Quicheville, the biggest and bluest of the "blue states," a land of simpering, politically correct wimps so fearful of offending any group of whiners they ignore real threats such as terrorism.

Unfortunately - for the hysterics among us - reality is calmer and more complicated. The good news is that both countries fundamentally work. Both countries are among the marvels of the post-Second World War world, wherein North America has become the model for the mass, middle-class, democratic civilization.

In the 1920s, even before the Great Depression, most Americans and Canadians were poor, and far too many felt silenced or marginalized. That both countries offer their citizens a high standard of living and a dazzling bouquet of freedoms is far too often taken for granted.

In The Case for Democracy, former Soviet Jewish dissident Natan Sharansky says a country is free if you can denounce the government loudly downtown, without suffering consequences. Both the United States and Canada pass the town square test - with a chaser: Not only can every citizen denounce the country freely, but most can then afford a three-course meal (or more likely, grab a fast-food nibble).

The less happy news has to do with the fact that Canadians and Americans often are united in a narcotized daze, a smothering superficiality, wherein the reality show of the moment upstages a more constructive engagement with reality. Too many of us are seduced by the culture of American or Canadian Idol - more aptly spelled I-D-L-E. A couch-potato consumerism which shuttles us by car between the diversions of our television sets and computer screens to the cornucopia of the mall mocks all the dire warnings about Americans and Canadians becoming so different.

Overall, our daily lives, at work or play, are more similar than different. Just as the technological, economic and media revolutions of the last few decades have minimized regional differences between the U.S. north and the U.S. south, or the Canadian east and the Canadian west, so, too, have these revolutions blurred Canadian-American differences.

This disconnect between the partisan shouting and clear battle lines of the media wars vs. the quieter, homogenized realities of everyday North American life reflects how the culture wars and the political games play out in both countries. Politics often take an unnecessarily nasty turn, as activists and reporters overstate differences to seek the sharpest soundbite and the most hysterical headline.

The zealots, their voices amplified and over-simplified by journalists, set the overly polarized template and the unreasonable tone.

Yet both societies remain consensus-oriented, with Americans and Canadians frequently miffed by the relentless cascade of difficult dilemmas distorted by simplistic sloganeering.

"Culture Wars" broke out in both countries in the 1980s. Liberals sought to expand their gains from the 1960s and 1970s. Conservatives felt confident enough to counterattack. Yet even as the debate became polarized in newspapers and on campuses, especially in the United States, most North Americans embraced a contradictory consensus in the centre. Many conservatives balanced their traditionalist rhetoric with a laissez- faire, non-judgmental approach in practice. Many liberals advocated more unconventional lifestyles than they actually lead.

This is an age of conservative libertinism. Even in the more conservative, "redder" United States, most Americans report they dislike abortion but want the option in an emergency.

Studies over the years have found, say, 56 per cent consider abortion "murder," and 68 per cent believe it defied "God's will," yet 67 per cent support a woman's right to choose. Similarly, most Americans and Canadians condemn divorce, drug use, and promiscuity in principle, but many often succumb to temptation in practice.

As the forces of consumerism, technology and individuation have transformed the Western world, individualism has trumped moralism. Most Westerners are more willing to indulge impulses than submit to authority, to live for the moment rather than be constrained by tradition.

This is not an age of neo-Victorianism, however, with everyone hypocritically indulging behind closed doors while parading around in tuxedos and puffy dresses. North Americans wear their libertinism on their sleeves, even as many agree with the conservative critique. It is libertinism, meaning indulgent behaviours, rather than libertarianism, because many who indulge nevertheless believe in the value of standards.

By at least accepting standards, this "constructive hypocrisy," as Ronald Reagan's Secretary of Education William Bennett called it, is better than the more consistent nihilism that many media leaders and celebrities champion. Many Americans and Canadians want to believe in traditional values - and in the existence of a moral framework - even while living their lives more freely.

The result has been a culture of confusion, a culture of moral crusading and vulgar displays, a culture that places sex and violence increasingly in the public square, then occasionally bristles when a Michael Jackson goes too far or when powerful men in Quebec City exploit young girls. The culture wars, while they look like civil wars, frequently reflect internal wars, personal struggles most modern Westerners endure as they try to balance the allure of new freedoms, new technologies, new indulgences, with the appeal of old ideas, enduring traditions, anchoring values.

We should not minimize important differences between the two countries. Americans justifiably worry that Canadians are not vigilant enough about fighting terrorism. Canadians should challenge their neighbours to maintain the civil libertarian tradition uniting the two countries even during difficult times.

But this week, perhaps we can put aside the partisan shouting and the nationalist bickering. Let Canadians reach for a Coca-Cola, Americans reach for a Canada Dry, and let us all salute the great success story of North America, the extraordinary liberties and prosperity we should not take for granted - and should use as building blocks to a meaningful, engaged, idealistic and productive life.