Canada-just as intolerant as the USA.

I've been grading papers this afternoon, and as usual, there are some real prizes.  I have read that the Jesuits established the mission at St. Marie among the Hurons in 1939 (it was 1639).  Canada also apparently has a President.  One was President Mackenzie King, the other was President Mulroney (remembering Mulroney's economic policies, he stopped short of contracting his job out to his friends President Reagan and President G.H.W. Bush).

The one thing I've read that infuriates me the most though is not an actual error.  It's more of a myth.  I'm so tired of Canadians, and the younger generation especially, defining our country simply on the false argument that we are morally superior and more liberal than Americans.  Yes, the United States has some serious problems when it comes to tolerating people whose race and lifestyle are in the minority.  However, there are places in the United States that are as liberal, and even more liberal on these matters than Canada!  Read up on or visit places like Vermont, Massachusetts, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Colorado, and California and the reality that they are more tolerant will soon become apparent.  Even parts of Texas are known for having a tolerant streak.  We have had issues in this country involving race relations that are very serious and embarrassing.  Polices and practices toward aboriginal people, the internment of the Japanese in World War II, and unofficial segregation for black residents of communities in southern Ontario and Nova Scotia are among the sad realities.  Of course there have also been incidents of discrimination and police brutality towards homosexuals.  One is not obligated to agree with someone else's lifestyle, but we are all obligated to agree that mistreating people because of it is wrong.  There is even a latent amount of parochial religious and linguistic bigotry within Canada along the old and tired divisions of French/English, Catholic/Protestant. 

The main message here is Canadians; you are probably just as intolerant as Americans, you just exhibit it in different ways, and stop defining our country on the simplistic fact that we are not American.  Simply reading a map or highway sign is all you need to figure that much out.  There's a lot of good, and a lot of potential in Canada, let's define our country based on what it is, not what it is incorrectly assumed not to be.