Canada

[Coinneach]

And not all of those lovely Canadians are soldiers. It was the Canadian Embasssy in Iran that helped a few lucky Americans who managed to barely escape being held hostage in 1979-1980. They put themselves at great risk to help their southern neighbor.

[macwilkin]

And not all of those lovely Canadians are soldiers. It was the Canadian Embasssy in Iran that helped a few lucky Americans who managed to barely escape being held hostage in 1979-1980. They put themselves at great risk to help their southern neighbor.

Not to mention the people of Gander, Newfoundland in 2001.

T.

[ccga3359]

Not to mention the people of Gander, Newfoundland in 2001.

T.

Thank you for that Todd but I think had the tables been turned, Canada attacked, her skies closed that America would take those people into their homes, to care for them without being asked. It recalls, for me at least, that the USA are taken for granted, that they are not thanked for their many contributions around the world. At a height of anti-Americanism around the world one canadian radio commentator had had enough and gave this view on air. His name was Gordon Sinclair and was broadcast on June 5th, 1973 and is as true now 36 years later as it was back them.

"The Americans"
The United States dollar took another pounding on German, French and British exchanges this morning, hitting the lowest point ever known in West Germany. It has declined there by 41% since 1971 and this Canadian thinks it is time to speak up for the Americans as the most generous and possibly the least-appreciated people in all the world.

As long as sixty years ago, when I first started to read newspapers, I read of floods on the Yellow River and the Yangtze. Well, Who rushed in with men and money to help? The Americans did, that's who.

They have helped control floods on the Nile, the Amazon, the Ganges and the Niger. Today, the rich bottom land of the Mississippi is under water and no foreign land has sent a dollar to help. Germany, Japan and, to a lesser extent, Britain and Italy, were lifted out of the debris of war by the Americans who poured in billions of dollars and forgave other billions in debts. None of those countries is today paying even the interest on its remaining debts to the United States.

When the franc was in danger of collapsing in 1956, it was the Americans who propped it up and their reward was to be insulted and swindled on the streets of Paris. And I was there. I saw that.

When distant cities are hit by earthquake, it is the United States that hurries into help... Managua Nicaragua is one of the most recent examples. So far this spring, 59 American communities have been flattened by tornadoes. Nobody has helped.

The Marshall Plan... the Truman Policy... all pumped billions upon billions of dollars into discouraged countries. And now, newspapers in those countries are writing about the decadent war-mongering Americans.

Now, I'd like to see just one of those countries that is gloating over the erosion of the United States dollar build its own airplanes.

Come on... let's hear it! Does any other country in the world have a plane to equal the Boeing Jumbo Jet, the Lockheed Tristar or the Douglas 10? If so, why don't they fly them? Why do all international lines except Russia fly American planes? Why does no other land on earth even consider putting a man or a woman on the moon?

You talk about Japanese technocracy and you get radios. You talk about German technocracy and you get automobiles. You talk about American technocracy and you find men on the moon, not once, but several times ... and safely home again. You talk about scandals and the Americans put theirs right in the store window for everybody to look at. Even the draft dodgers are not pursued and hounded. They are right here on our streets in Toronto, most of them... unless they are breaking Canadian laws... are getting American dollars from Ma and Pa at home to spend here.

When the Americans get out of this bind... as they will... who could blame them if they said 'the hell with the rest of the world'. Let someone else buy the bonds, let someone else build or repair foreign dams or design foreign buildings that won't shake apart in earthquakes.

When the railways of France, Germany and India were breaking down through age, it was the Americans who rebuilt them. When the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central went broke, nobody loaned them an old caboose. Both of them are still broke. I can name to you 5,000 times when the Americans raced to the help of other people in trouble.

Can you name to me even one time when someone else raced to the Americans in trouble? I don't think there was outside help even during the San Francisco earthquake.

Our neighbours have faced it alone and I am one Canadian who is damned tired of hearing them kicked around. They will come out of this thing with their flag high. And when they do, they are entitled to thumb their noses at the lands that are gloating over their present troubles.

I hope Canada is not one of these. But there are many smug, self-righteous Canadians. And finally, the American Red Cross was told at its 48th Annual meeting in New Orleans this morning that it was broke.

This year's disasters... with the year less than half-over... has taken it all and nobody... but nobody... has helped.

[KFCarter]

And not all of those lovely Canadians are soldiers. It was the Canadian Embasssy in Iran that helped a few lucky Americans who managed to barely escape being held hostage in 1979-1980. They put themselves at great risk to help their southern neighbor.

A footnote to the story above:

The Canadian Parliament met in special (secret) session to pass a law that made it possible to issue passports to the rescued Americans and get them out of Iran.

The day the rescue was announced, the NHL Flames, playing their last season in Atlanta, had a game on their home ice at the Omni. I was in attendance when the crowd rose for the usual playing of the National Anthems. It's probably safe to say that most of the Americans in that crowd had never done more than mumble through the customary renditions of their own national anthem, but that night they rose as one and sand "O, Canada" so loudly it made the rafters ring. It was a spontaneous thing and very moving.

No question that there are Americans that are jingoistic and narrow-minded about other countries, Canada included. But most Americans are pretty quiet about such things until a moment presents itself to express their feelings. I think most Americans know that Canada is a nation to be admired and thank our stars for our northern neighbors.