What About Them Canadians?

O' Canada or rather Oh! Canada! or more specifically Oh! Toronto! It's both interesting and appalling to follow the story about Toronto's mayor, Rob Ford. Part of the intrigue for me is that I simply wasn't expecting a Canadian to act in this manner. This meaning not mild-mannered, civilized and understated.

Yes, stereotypes were abound as I thought, "This can't be happening. Canadians don't do this." What's even more intriguing is that I have no idea where these stereotypes came from except I knew a couple of Canadians quite well from my teaching year in China, watched Canadian students play hockey at my alma mater, UMass Lowell, and hid my eyes when French Canadians frolicked in speedos on a New England beach.

It makes me wonder if these very (or other) stereotypes has kept Mayor Ford from being arrested for his illegal activity. I have no idea what the laws are in Toronto but all I can say if that if he was a different kind of person, the response and actions may be different. Even as Canada is 76.7% White per the latest census as compared to the US of 72.4% as of 2010, there is a sense that the percentage of Whites in Canada must be higher; thus we attribute positive characteristics to Canada that reflect our belief about their population of being majority White.  Safe, clean, etc. etc.

Yet a recent poll stated that Canada and Toronto's reputations were being "sullied" in the eyes of US Americans. I wonder how much this will really impact our policies, our travel and our spending in Canada. All this to say that we should be ever so mindful of how we stereotype nationality and how stereotypes leads to bias and prejudice.

And in the case of the Toronto mayor, well, he just continues on in his merry way of doing what he does to the consternation of Canadians far and wide.

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