The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
The New York Times is the best newspaper in the world. It is also the most important, since top people in every capital on the globe read it and respect its serious nature. Several years ago, the Times resident correspondent in Canada was one Andrew Malcolm. He was in awe of Canada's size and wrote a wonderful book called The Canadians. In it, he told of facts that would surprise most Canadians, let alone Americans. He explained that the country is so big that it is has less population density than Saudi Arabia. And the smallest province, Prince Edward Island, is still twice as large as the smallest U.S. state, Rhode Island. While Texas, the largest state, would fit easily into Quebec with enough room left over for Connecticut and Delaware. He showed that there is room for four Great Britains in British Columbia and three Frances in Quebec. Three Japans would fit into Ontario, which has fewer people than Tokyo. And our three northern territories are by themselves larger than Germany, France, Britain, Italy, Egypt, Austria, Spain, Portugal and all the New England and Middle Atlantic states put together. And their population is less than those who attend a single New York Yankees baseball game. Well, that was then and this is now. The present Times correspondent in Canada is Clifford Krauss. We have dined on occasion. He is intelligent and well-educated, as are of course all Times' correspondents. And it is clear he doesn't like Canada. His articles display it. Any discussion of the Canadian universal medicare system always shows its defects. (While there are 44 million American citizens, most of them black of course, who have no medical insurance at all.) Any examination of the Far North naturally emphasizes the drinking problems and the child suicides. (While America is near the top in the world in executions and the percentage of the population, the underside of society naturally, in prison.) Recently, Krauss did a long piece proving that Canada was in the dumpster. To prove it, as Lawrence Martin of the Globe and Mail has pointed out, the Times reporter beat a path to the doors of conservative academics. You can prove that the earth is flat if you can find the right people to interview. See 'Flat' P.# Con't from P.# David Bercison, the Calgary professor who still longs for the Reform Party, spoke of a sickness in the spirit of the country. Toronto historian Michael Bliss seemed nearly suicidal: "I'm almost in total despair." A seasoned pundit who was found said the nation was "on the verge of dissolution." In all, Canada was second-rate, a nation in decline, wilting in purpose, uncompetitive, in the grip of a national malaise. So what, an astounded Martin concluded, is going on here? Who is depressed about today's booming revenues, low inflation, smashing trade figures and a rate of increase in Canadian standards of living surpassing all other G-8 nations? Beats me. You find the flat-earthers where you look for them. Lawrence Martin might have mentioned that Canada's total government debt ? measured as a percentage of the national economy (GDP) ? is now lower than Japan, Germany, France, the U.S. and Britain. And the lucky (and secretive) Liberals, I seem to recall, have just discovered that they are $9.1 billion in surplus. Martin did point out that Canada has just scored one of the great foreign policy triumphs of its history in boldly standing up against both Mother Britain and the United States on Iraq. Jean Chretien judged the Canadian public pulse absolutely correctly ? as the disaster in that troubled land has shown us. But the Times' readers have just been told we're a disaster.
