Beach(es) Beat

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I am really cheesed off by some of the stuff that happens between Canada and the United States.

I am not talking about all that mysterious maneuvering having to do with the tariffs and cross-border exemptions and the protocols established at the 1931 Philadelphia convocation or whatever; what I am talking about is why do we feel so inferior to the neighbours south of our undefended border.

It is true that by almost any yardstick they are bigger and better than us; they are richer and more populous, the police forces in their major cities are probably better equipped than our contingent in Afghanistan, and to top it all off they have a strong mayoral system firmly established in cities such as New York and Chicago.

But we have a lot going for us too. Our hockey teams, male and female, regularly best theirs in international competitions, they'd be lost without our natural resources and they can't beat our wheat which leads me to the root of my cheesed-off feelings.

Years ago when the world was a better place and the Toronto Maple Leafs won the occasional home game, financial transactions between the two countries were always expressed in a certain way in Canadian newspapers.

In those days the American dollar was a good deal stronger than ours, so, if a lumber sale was worth $8 million for instance it was always duly noted that the price was in American currency as if we were being told that was the real price in real money as opposed to our puny make-believe currency and we always humbly went along with that.

'Coin-operated colonialism' is what I call it, and all it did was add to this country's inferiority complex.

I find it interesting now that the shoe is on the other foot we are not informed when some athlete has signed a multi-million dollar contract that the amount given is not expressed in terms of the mighty Canuck buck but hopefully that attitude will change over time.

And one final thought I wish to pass along before I stop. I am not suggesting that we should all hate the United States or any other nation when it comes to that. But I think it would be very nice if we loved our country a little more than we sometimes seem to.

And a very Happy New Year to all of you.