http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/29/international/americas/29letter.html

(login:babblers8 , password: audrarules)

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TORONTO, Sept. 28 - As one of Canada's pre-eminent historians, David Bercuson of the University of Calgary is not your average couch potato. But with beer in hand and feet up on the sofa, he watched the Olympics on television last month to cheer on the world champion hurdler Perdita Félicien to win a gold medal for Canada.

When Ms. Félicien inexplicably stumbled into the very first hurdle like a rank amateur, Mr. Bercuson dashed straight to his computer. He knocked out a screed declaring that her sad performance, and that of the entire Canadian Olympic team, was just another symptom of "the national malaise'' that is making Canada a second-rate, uncompetitive nation.

"It's not the individual performers whose shortcomings are on display for all the world to see,'' he wrote in an op-ed article for The Calgary Herald. "It is the very spirit of the nation and the sickness that now has hold of it that is at fault.''

His acidic commentary is characteristic of the view of a growing number of historians, foreign policy thinkers and columnists from some of the nation's top newspapers. Many see themselves as part of an informal school that has no name or single mentor, but all are writing the same assessment: Canada is in decline, or at the very least, has fallen short of their aspirations.

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quote:

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(login:babblers8 , password: audrarules)

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Or alternatively:

login: LesterBangs
password: blurt

As for the article: jeez. If there's a "Canadian malaise," it's typified by the fact that Bercuson, Granatstein, and Bliss are somehow able to present themselves as "distinguished historians." Published historians, yes.

American media has a very un-nuanced view of the rest of the entire world. Why should we be any different?

I'm not sure most Canadians are all that interested in defining the greatness of the country by how it appears to others (Although Rightwingers get wilting-penis syndrome anytime a foreigner points out our small armaments). Sure, it'd be nice to win more Olympic medals, but in the end, there is waaay more to life than that.

[ 01 October 2004: Message edited by: Hinterland ]

If he's going to pretend to be a historian, he should have enough critical faculties to realize the difference between an idealized glorious past (Vimy Ridge, discovering insulin, whatever), and all the day-to-day little slipups and failures that make up the bulk of 'real life'.