Canada: America’s Neighbor to the North - The Wise World Traveler: Becoming a Part of All that You Meet - page 373

the reputation of being the world's most litigious society. As servants of that litigation, the
United States has one lawyer per 274,000 people. In urban areas, the number is many times
greater. Canada has one lawyer per 400,000 people.
Canadians are concerned about being overwhelmed by American popular culture. Le-
gislation fixes the number of American programs that can be broadcast on TV, and the
government actively encourages books by Canadian authors. One difference in the two na-
tions' habits of the heart is Canada's more subdued patriotism. Canadian author Pierre Ber-
ton once mused that it embarrasses us to love our country out loud [306] . Americans find it
strange that Canadians celebrate Queen Victoria's birthday but not that of their “founding
father,” John McDonald. A staple of American public discourse is to invoke God's blessing
on the U.S.A. (“God Bless America”). In Canada, such invocations, if they occur at all, are
reserved for formal church service.
Canadian philosopher Northrop Frye has said (no doubt with wry exaggeration) that
Americans love to make money, while Canadians love to count it. “I know of no country,”
he said, “where accountants have a higher social and moral status” [307] Margaret Atwood,
Canadian novelist, asserts that she can always tell when Americans are present in a restaur-
ant. Their voices, she says, are loud and strident, the clothes too flashy, and ever present is
their talk about money.
But however much Canadians may find to reject in the American heart, Canadians,
especially young Canadians, continue to migrate to their southern neighbor, where the cli-
mate is more benign, taxes are lower, and greater opportunities beckon. The outflow of
Canadian talent is of major concern that Canadian publications have begun to combat this
phenomenon by writing about why other people are choosing Canada.
CANADA IS NOW AT THE FOREFRONT OF SOCIAL REVOLUTION: WHAT IS
GOING ON?
When Pierre Trudeau succeeded in changing Canada's Constitution, one purpose was to
“repatriate the Constitution,” that is, to take from the British Parliament a final say in
judging the legality of Canadian law. To allay Quebec's fears that the new Constitution
might erode its autonomy, the new Constitution included opt-out provisions. It also in-
cluded a Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Canada's equivalent of the American Bill of
Rights. Such charters are rarely, if ever, self-defining. Courts intervene to flesh out and
give substance to such provisions as “Every individual is equal…and has the right to equal
benefit of the law without discrimination…based on race, religion, sex, age or mental or
physical disability.” When the charter first came into effect, opponents filed what the courts
dismissed as frivolous suits, such as the man who sued because his three-year-old son was
denied a driver's license. But in 2003 a court decision in Ontario gave legal sanction to