Anti-anti-Americanism
The Munk Center, which is home to the American Studies program at the University of Toronto, is beautiful. The steps are wooden, and they creak, and Farish tells us the building was once a residence hall. “Students used to sleep in my office,” he says. The lounges are cozy, and the fireplaces keep the rooms warm. The leather couches invite naps, and Ryan, the photographer, accepts the invitation as Farish chuckles.
A scale model of the city is one of the first things you see in Toronto's city hall. The CN Tower looms large in the foreground. (Larger?)
As a post-doctorate fellow, Farish came to the city a year ago to accept a two-year position with the University of Toronto. One class Farish teaches is called America in the Canadian Mind, part of the American Studies program, a rarity in Canada, he says.
The class has 14 students and no traditional textbooks. Instead, Farish uses novel-length books such as Fire and Ice, in which author Michael Adams writes that “while most people feel that Canada and the U.S. are drawing together, actually they’re moving apart,” Farish says.
The biggest problem Farish encountered in choosing the texts, he says, was finding books that didn’t bash the red, white and blue.
“Typical anti-Americanism — it’s what distinguishes us,” he says.
Instead, the class focuses on America as it has been over the past five to 10 years, especially since Sept. 11. The students read their assignments and spend much of class discussing their opinions of the works.
Despite his attempts to make the class anti-anti-American, Farish says he understands why the negative American opinions exist in Canada.
“You’re going to have to deal with that when it’s politicians running their mouths,” he says.
Late last November, Bush made the first visit of his presidency to Canada to speak with Prime Minister Martin. The visit was essentially a bust, Ashton says: Bush came to the meeting hoping to convince Martin to support American troops in Iraq, and he was met with signs like “Go Home Liar,” and “Drop Bush, Not Bombs.”
A woman waits at the Eaton Centre bus stop at Dundas Square in Toronto.
“A lot of Americans are saying, ‘What did we do wrong? Why is this happening?’” Ashton says of the reactions to Canada’s refusal to help out in Iraq. “That transitions into, ‘Why aren’t you supporting us like we expected you to?’”
At the conference, Ashton says, Bush told the prime minister, “‘You have to join in on the missile strikes in the U.S. The U.S. protects you. So why don’t you cooperate?’ This is typical George W. Bush being less than articulate and inappropriate.”
Not to say Canada has no troops anywhere. It’s just that most of their troops are in Afghanistan, Ashton says.
“We put all our resources, which aren’t great, in Afghanistan. It’s hard to fight a number of wars on a number of fronts, no matter how big you are,” he says.
But it’s not surprising that Canada is staying out of American affairs, Farish says. The Canadian mindset regarding Iraq is simple: “Why should I bother with this?”
“Anti-Americanism is a long and unfortunate tradition in Canadian life,” he says. “It’s more anti-Bush, and the two are often conflated.”
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