Canada: The Bully's Helpful Assistant?

Linda McQuaig looks at U.S.-Canada relations

by NADINE PEDERSEN

Toronto-based journalist Linda McQuaig has been called “Canada’s Michael Moore” for her willingness to take on the corporate and political establishment, and the irreverent style she uses while doing it.

While her last book, It’s the Crude, Dude: War, Big Oil and the Fight for the Planet, focused mostly on international events, now McQuaig has turned her critical eye back onto home turf. In Holding the Bully’s Coat: Canada and the U.S. Empire (Doubleday Canada), McQuaig scrutinizes Canada’s relationship with our closest neighbour.

Weaving together a series of historical and contemporary events, both in Canada and abroad, McQuaig analyses how Canadian foreign and domestic policy has shifted since 9/11.

“As the U.S. has rejected the rule of international law and become a law unto itself, Ottawa has followed in close step, ever eager to please our powerful neighbour. To this end, we have abandoned our traditional role as a leading peacekeeping nation and adopted a more militaristic, war-like stance as a junior partner in the U.S.’s ‘war on terror,’” writes McQuaig.

“We’ve also abandoned our traditional attempt to be a fair-minded mediator and conciliator, most notably in the Middle East conflict, where, like the U.S., we’ve adopted a hardline anti-Palestinian position that will make a peaceful, just solution all the more evasive. We’ve also joined the U.S. in becoming a leading obstructionist in worldwide efforts to deal with climate change—perhaps the most pressing issue on the international agenda. The switch in direction evident in these and other positions has redefined the way Canada operates in the world, transforming us into a helpful assistant to an aggressive U.S. power, increasingly out of sync with our European allies and the rest of the world.”

McQuaig believes this shift goes against values held dear by most Canadians, even as it is promoted by the government and sup-ported by some high-profile media com-mentators. As evidence, McQuaig points to an annual EKOS Research and Associate poll that demonstrates there is a gulf between what “ordinary” and “elite” Canadians want.

“The gap is that ordinary Canadians tend to be much more egalitarian in their outlook, much more interested in strong social programs, and much more interested in having a country that really functions independently of the U.S. and finds its own way in the world,” said McQuaig in a recent telephone interview.

“And the elite is just the opposite: it wants to cut back on our social programs, to have a less equitable tax system, to integrate ever more closely with the U.S., and to mould our foreign policy in line with the U.S.”

Never one to shy away from naming names (Conrad Black declared McQuaig should be “horsewhipped” after she suggested, in 1983, that the Ontario Securities Commission should investigate his business dealings), McQuaig is critical of several prominent Canadians who ardently support the privatization of health care services, increased militarization, deeper tax cuts, and greater security cooperation between Canada and U.S.

“It is important that we be able to filter out these over-amplified voices, so that we can hear our own voices and bring into focus a vision of a country that appeals to most of the rest of us: a vision based on equality and inclusiveness, and on finding our own way in the world,” writes McQuaig.

Although McQuaig tends to oversimplify some very complex and nuanced political realities to make her points, and doesn’t provide alternatives to the problems she raises, Holding the Bully’s Coat offers an important critical perspective at a time when there has been little debate about key issues facing our country.

In Holding the Bully’s Coat, Canadians are reminded of how progressive a nation Canada has been over the past five decades and to reconsider the direction we are going in now.

Linda McQuaig reads on Tuesday, May 8, 7:30 p.m. at the Maritime Labour Centre, 1880 Triumph Street (see contest, p. 10). Tickets $10 at the door. Info: necessaryvoices.org.

Nadine Pedersen is a Vancouver writer and editor. She has travelled widely to work on international development, peace-building, and conflict-resolution projects.