Listening To Americans            

      The CBC just finished re-airing the classic Rick Mercer special Talking To Americans in which Mercer rather remarkably manages to convince various Americans of various idiocies about Canada: that our parliament building is made of ice; that Canada just built its first university; that Chief Gordon Lightfoot (!) is pushing the government to allow the controlled hunting of rhinoceri; that Canada sends it senior citizens out on ice floes to die; and so on and so forth. The special as a whole is hilarious, as Mercer not only gets Joe Schmoe on the street to utter these things, but to get professors and governors and politicians, including The Dubster, to demonstrate their obliviousness. Two things kept creeping into my mind, though, as I watched it: one, the memory of watching it some time ago with Anna cuddled up and smashing her head into my chest with fits of laughter, and the other, the old assessment (I think it's from Allan Fotheringham, but I may be wrong) that "Americans are the most arrogant people in the world, and Canadians are the most smug people in the world. The difference is, Canadians deserve to be." And, damn it, it's hard not to be smug after seeing such stuff. The best part: Mercer is talking to a woman as her child stands by listening. Mercer asks the woman if it's something to be worried about that a majority of Canadians couldn't identify their home state on a map, to which the woman responds with surprise and says something to the effect of, "Yeah, that is terrible." No sooner does she say it than the child turns his head pointedly at Mercer and says (paraphrasing), "Hey, wait a minute! Canada doesn't have states, it has provinces!" Out of the mouths of babes, out of the mouths of babes. Well done, kid. Prime Minister Poutine thanks you.