Washington File

Kevin Welsh, Canada certainly matters to you. Why else would you be insulting us with such unconvincing desperation? As for your 5 questions, the fact that you even have to ask them means we'll never really be able to communicate, so it's just as well Mr. Struck is heading home.

Calm down and consider that the world is bigger than the United States of Aggression. Stress is unhealthy.

Don,

I don't think my comments were that harsh compared to the hateful comments posted by Canadians before mine.

And what did Americans do to deserve those awful accusations? Nothing that every other western news agency hasn't already done years ago.

Why doesn't that make news, why only when America is involved do Canadians get out their poison pens?

Do you really like to be ignored by the world or is that just false bravado?

Do you think America is such a bad place or are you just jealous that everyone pays attention to us - including Canadians who are understandably obsessed with everything American?

Take your pitiful sarcasm Don, and do a little introspection. Canada doesn't matter and its not just because you're boring.

I must say I’m concerned when I read all the negative comments regarding America from some of my Canadian compatriots. The United-States might be a super power, but to lay all the problems of the world at their feet is preposterous. Every nation tends to be a little egocentric and to ignore its own flaws, Canada included.

Roger Diercks made a very valid point about the way we treat our aboriginal people. Back when Katrina hit, a lot of folks I know were blaming the Americans for their response to the crisis and how a lot of poor people were abandoned to their misery. However, I don’t often hear them critique the living conditions of our aboriginal people witch in many ways are far worse than those of the Katrina refugees.

The US is a vast and diverse country. To characterize the whole of America with sentences like " [...]group of people whose only interest is in killing and eating!" is simplistic at best.

I sincerely hope and wish such disgraceful comments come from a small but loud minority and that the silent majority of Canadians has a more moderated and rational view of things.

Well...
Thanks Kevin, perhaps a bit harsh but then again the truth does hurt and really, we're not that important internationally after all. Why? Well nothing interesting ever really happens here, does it? There are the odd bits such as the Picton trial making the evening news in England or possibly a land claims dispute every now and again, but after that there really isn't anything of note to report.

"And from our Canada desk...nothing new...back to you Fred."

We haven't been invaded yet so there aren't any bodies in the streets: no one's blown up the subway yet and, in terms of local events, any effort at separation only ends with some separtist gnashing his/her teeth in frustration, going home and writing a blistering letter to the editor. We don't even have any real gun violence, death penalty appeals - or even cases - for that matter; we don't have open gang warfare or even a particularly nasty home invasions to thrill TV viewers with. Our biggest complaint seems to be...uhm...a lack of...errrr... what Americans may or may not think of us. Heaven forfend they fail to recognize our greatness as a people! Silly Americans! We flaunt our wonderfulness at you!

Kevin is correct in that no one in the world cares that much about Canada because we are boring - horrifically so at times - and good on us for being boring. Everyone should be so lucky: there'd be a whole lot less strife in the world if they were. Look at how exciting America is and then reflect on how many people in the world today would love to kill one and you get the picture. Boring is better, unless you really want to die badly, that is.

Omigod what a bunch of jerks.

So the last two major western news agencies leave Canada and you all retort:

- we're better off without them, as long as usa doesn't notice us we're safe from invasion (snicker...you're not really).

- Americans only care about themselves and no other countries - unless they are invading them.

- bla bla bla

When NY Times and Wash Post left - they were the LAST TWO major Western news agencies left in Canada....There is not any other ones left.

None from Britain, Australia, Germany, France, Finland, etc.... NONE.

NOBODY CARES!!

So start hurling all your insults toward all western countries, why just pick on the USA, which stayed longer than anyone else.

The announcement that budget cuts are the reason for the withdrawal from Canada makes me wonder: if America continues to spend billions to keep their president feeling omnipotent, maybe they'll find it more and more necessary to withdraw from the world. An isolated and insular America would be good news to the rest of the world. The rest of us would be able to get to work building new trade relationships and healing the misery and damage America has caused.

I would much rather be considered boring and have a peaceful world than have to clean up America's "interesting" messes. Perhaps America is "interesting" itself into a state of irreparable decline and national debt. Yawn. I'm bored already.

Lots of great points ... scan Chicago news sites like CBS 2 or NBC 5 or the Tribune, or even the Portland, Oregon media (a city the size of Ottawa; the parade of local crimes would merit national coverage (a few months ago, cbc.ca had a piece on an Edmonton house break-in!). If it bleeds, it leads and maybe Canadians can be thankful that there isn't so much of that up north. Any news from Canada for the US media is probably better served by clips from reporters of the Globe & Mail, National Post, Sun, etc. (and I have seen pieces by familiar names remarked by AP and Reuters). Another two things: news is highly centered in the US (again, visit news sites in Chicago and in Portland, Oregon). I worked in Chicago for a few years and have no idea who the mayors were in Milwaukee, Madison, Des Moines or St. Louis. Likewise in Portland, Oregon: just who is the mayor of Seattle? The local news in the Rose City centers on three climbers lost on Mt. Hood right now, please pray for them as we all prayed for Laura Gainey.

I scan through Canadian news sites just to see if they offer any other points of view. I often find the Canadian news sites to be rather tabloid in scope, little serious news. Most of the focus seems to be where Canada stands on international surveys and where on lists it falls in comparison to the USA. The Canadian media is perpetrating the Canadian inferiority complex in my view. There's just not much happening there that affects the world, but it is interesting to me to read about internal issues like the rampant crime problem in Vancouver and Toronto and how the Canadian justice system deals with it, how the debate on the unelected Senate is going, and the rather juvenile behavior of Canadian politics. I find Canada faintly ridiculous to tell the truth, though I realize that's not a brush than describes everyone there. I don't see what having American newspapers in Ottawa or Toronto can offer their readers.

It’s interesting that some Americans react violently when made aware of Canada’s preoccupation with the more dominant US or the fact that Canadians have their own reference points and perspective. While the naturally equivocal views of a dependent neighbour may be uninteresting as well as irrelevant to the average American, dismissing views like these as “whining” speaks volumes about the hubris of those born to power.

Since the American media appears to desperately need to "shock and awe" its public with stories of greater and greater depravity, violence and obscenity, I take the closing of a "Canada Desk" by a major newspaper as a profound compliment to our Canadian 'peace, order and good government' culture.
Maybe if our Harper administration creates the Yankee-style government it is aiming for, the Post will feel inspired to re-open it's Canada Desk.

Cheers
Linnea

I've been a fan of the CBC website for years, tho' never having lived up North I've no access (that I'm aware of anyway) to your broadcasting.

One thing that I wish people would bear in mind about Canadian/US relations, and about the degree to which the average American is plugged into Canadian realities, is that US demographics have been working against Canada for years. The center of our population for decades has been moving steadily away from what I presume to be your principal centers of cultural and economic gravity. If memory serves me, as we've moved south and west over the years the center of population now stands somewhere between Kansas City and Wichita. In my personal case I'm nearly fifty, and even tho' I've been to Europe I've never been within 100 miles of Canada and have never lived within 500 miles of it.

Moreover as our population becomes more and more heavily Hispanic the energy that we feel we need to devote to understanding folks from other countries becomes more and more directed South as well. I was a grown man before I'd even met a Canadian, but the city I was born in (Memphis) is now at least 10-15 percent hispanic, all quite recent arrivals.

All of which I guess adds up to the fact that unfortunately the physical closeness of our countries (and increasingly the cultural closeness) is becoming a bit more apparent than real.

the only obvious thing about being canadian is our inferiority complex.
if we only knew how important we are viewed on the world stage we would be a boisterous lot.
'course then we'd be confused with americans and we'd really feel inferior!

I am a lot more concerned that the European press doesn't include much Canadian content. When I have lived in Europe, its been impossible to follow Canadian news without the internet.

There just isn't much that's interesting in the US at the moment from a Canadian perspective. Canadian cities are more dynamic and interesting, our political scene is interesting at the moment, and we are a lot less interested in following the American lead. The result is that Canadians just aren't as interested in the US. THAT'S THE STORY.

Its an accomplishment to be uninteresting to the States. It means that there are no wars, relative social cohesian, and peace. We should enjoy it while it lasts. We are basically becoming multicultural Scandinavians, and when did you last hear a story about Sweden.

It's all about down-sizing and out-sourcing. Newspapers can save time and money by using the wire services. And if they want something grassroots, they can accept solicited and unsolicited work from ex-pats living abroad. Just like this very web site does.

Why fork out big bucks to house, feed, and employ a reporter away from the home office, when, in the end, regardless of how much the reporter submits, only a snipit will actually be printed in the newspaper?

There is no such thing as "in depth" anymore, not really. Why bother? It doesn't pay nearly as well as a tiny little "BrAngelina" blurb.

Our ever decreasing attention spans, our constant thirst for undigestable variety, and with pretty much everyone having bought into this "I've moved on" philosophy, have all caused indepth coverage to now have an extremely small profit margin!

And business, is business!

We have allowed one of the pillars of one of our FUNDAMENTAL rights - Free Speech! - to become absolutely nothing more than a consumer product. And so those who now produce this product are NOT responsible to us. They are responsible to their share holders! I know the above phrase very, very well because I have read it in a newspaper many, many times.

And so I am not at all surprised.

Hey!, here's an interesting question I just thought of: I wonder who the highest-paid, on-camera, CBC employee is (including you, Mr. Champ!)?

I bet it's Don Cherry!

I'm not sure that proves my point, though. I mean... just try down-sizing or out-sourcing Grapes!

Just you try it!!

I really don't think that Americans give a hoot about Canada or what happens in Canada. And I have a sneaky suspicion that most of the hits on CBC.ca from the United States are from Canadians who, like me, live here and find it one of the few available sources of news about Canada.

It's a Catch-22 for newspapers. The internet drives down readership so they cut cost and the quality and depth of reporting suffers, driving away more readers.

There is plenty of superficial coverage all around, but I can assure you it has nothing to do with Americans opinions of Canada, which are by and large very positive.

Too much of news reporting is driven by political reporting and political agendas. If organizations go back to covering news instead of covering spin the situation will improve. But don't look for that to happen soon.

Americans don't think Canadians are boring; they rather think that we're barbarian:
-Barbarian because we chose to remain under the benighted rule of that despot, King George the Third.
-Barbarian because one of our national winter sports features twelve grown men armed with a foot-long pickaxe on a pole.
-Barbarian because Canada's winters destroy our attempts to maintain "civilization".

Why would we care about being interesting to a group of people whose only interest is in killing and eating! Any coverage of Canada by American news outlets is woefully ignorant and filled with paranoia. A quick perusal of their top t.v. shows reveals that the only things Americans find interesting are pedophilia and racism.

It is especially ironic to hear Americans who cry that they did not vote for Bush and therefore are not responsible for the strife and death that they have sown worldwide. What a pathetic justification. If you hate war so much STOP KILLING INNOCENT PEOPLE idiots. At the very least, do not insult our intelligence with this -but it is not my fault- story. What a crock.

Murderers. Get out of my country and take that ridiculous Ambassador Rosco P. Coltraine with you.

Henry Champ and As It Happens and a few other folks do some good work for the CBC. I travel across Southern Ontario frequently on business and I listen to the radio in the car a LOT. CBC radio between 10am and 6pm has lot all interest for me. Harry Forestall is in London reporting on Spice Girls, a CBC radio program in the afternoon is scripted (badly) and uses Google as its main source of info (like, I was on Google, and like, guess what I saw?!??!). I look forward to those times when I'm within 100km of Michigan, or when I'm travelling along the north shore of the St Lawrence--then I can listen to Talk of the Nation and other great programs on NPR. We're neighbours, we're family, we do business. Between the two of us, we can do a decent job of public broadcasting.

How surprising to see the usual trite and smug stereotypes of Americans as ignorant sheep spoonfed by media that disseminates little more than propaganda. We of course all know that all Canadians are automatically civilized and enlightened by virtue of being Canadian, and that no Canadian bears any traits similar to the unenlightened, ignorant masses south of the 49th parallel. Isn't it funny how we never see in the Canadian media coverage of the role of Canadian mining companies in destroying cultures and the environment in the developing world, the vast Canadian arms trade, Canadian exploitation of cheap labor around the world, and Canada's dismal record on aboriginal issues, to name a few? My guess is that such coverage is vetoed because it would shatter many myths upon which the fragile Canadian psyche is based. Sorry, but I'll stick to the various non-Canadian world media I read, The New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor, and NPR (which absolutely blows the parochial CBC out of the water in terms of international coverage) for my international news. I want news, not therapy sessions for those who need to deal with some sort of self-imposed and baseless inferiority complex.

When I want to know what the Americans think of Canada, my first reflex is to pick up an American newspaper. After that, I turn to your blog, Henry.

I suspect most Americans have the same reflex. If they want to know what we think about them, why bother with the pre-chewed media when you can go directly at the source? And of course, they have such wide selection to choose from.

Great, as soon as CBC gets popular with Americans, the CBC will be undermined by the Americans, and in Americans' political, cultural and economic favor, not Canada's.

Everybody whisper!

I always tell people who move here from other states that the best part of living in the Buffalo area is that its close to Canada.

One of the perks of living in the Detroit area accross the river from Windsor is our access to Canadian programming, both television (CBC, TVO), and radio (CBC 1&2).

These are among the best English-language created programming offered in the world today. Excellent coverage, whether intellectual, cultural, news, entertainment, or music, with interesting personalities, educated viewpoints, and often pleasent and fun.

interesting... so americans listen to cbc and visit cbc.ca, eh? that is so cool. keep up the good work, cbc! i wonder though, how many young people (

At least the US will always be an interesting source of news for Canadians.

Boring! Boring? Our species has now gone from that "impersonalized" broadcast spread of atomic death to a much more personalized Pelonium 210 and a single atomic victum. Boring? . .are you kidding?

One of the perks of living in the Detroit area accross the river from Windsor is our access to Canadian programming, both television (CBC, TVO), and radio (CBC 1&2).

These are among the best English-language created programming offered in the world today. Excellent coverage, whether intellectual, cultural, news, entertainment, or music, with interesting personalities, educated viewpoints, and often pleasent and fun.

"...yeah and what about our maple syrup?" Judging from some of the comments, Canadians are using this as another opportunity to reveal their inferiority complex. Yes Canada is a place where little occurs that is news worthy internationally, but somehow I don't see that as a bad thing.

The bottom line is the american media is afraid to rock the boat with the politians in the white house who wants to loose their contacts or their job. That is why your average american will always know more about paris hilton or the hollywood gossip of the day than what is going on in the real world. There is alot going on in Canada it is just no one cares to report. Cheers for my CHAMP and the CBC!! Let the sleeping dog sleep!

Funny, when u say that the states is not
going to get news from the great white north
when after reading the comments to your
column it is painfully clear that the
readers FROM CANADA don't know what the
heck is going on here.. Amazing.

I personally will not miss yet another biased source of news. The WAPO, NYT, Boston Globe, LAT et all regurgitate the same news and with the same liberal bias.
On the other hand, the internet makes it possible to get news from Canada with fewer "filters" (read bias). We can go directly to the local newspaper in Halifax or Stratford or wherever and find out what we want to know.
So, as internet use increases, "old" media declines. Good riddance to the "old" media.

As a Canadian living in California, I like to keep track of mentions of Canada on my local NPR stations. I can count them on one hand and I've been here for over a year.

But similarly, I can count on one hand the number of news stories unrelated to major US cities (San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, and Washington DC) or major disasters (Katrina) that I've heard in the last year. It's not just that the CBC equivalent ignores Canada, they also ignore Michigan, North Dakota, Idaho, West Virginia, Colorado, and most of the other states.

As for the comment that local US news covers Canadian stories, maybe they do close to the border but here they certainly don't.

Your US readership may be biased by people like me - Canadians away from home looking for news we can't get elsewhere. And thanks, CBC, for making an effort to cover the whole country. I never realized what a boon CBC was until I left Canada.

Wanting to be interesting to U.S. media reminds me of the Chinese curse: "May you live in interesting times." Given that large media organizations are primarily interested in bad news, disaster, pain, scandal, and bad human behaviour in general, we should take our insignificance as a sign that we are not doing too badly. We should be careful what we ask for.

If newspapers are feeling a financial pinch, they have only themselves to blame. Their reporting of the international and national news is woefully inadequate and biased to support the US administration. It is as if the average citizen is deemed unworthy and not knowledgeable of political situations around the globe. The internet and blogs reach thinking people who challenge the pap that some newspapers try to feed us. Here is one example of their failure: How many news sources tell Canadian and Americans and probably Mexicans that there is plan underfoot and behind their backs for a political union of the three countries under the direction of George Bush? It is h appening NOW and further this continental union would see one currency to replace the present ones, dubbed the AMERO. This action is planned for the near future. Americans and Congress are not being told.l Canadians are not being told. Are members of parliament being told? With NAFTA and SAFTA being outright failures, do we need another organization to further destroy our way of life? Where are the news agencies in this matter?

If Canadians take such a myopic view of America they're going to miss out on the good stuff.

Stop obsessing over the Post and the NY Times. Most Americans get their news locally, and there we're not getting enough credit. Canada is mentioned EVERY DAY in many local areas. Think about it - would you want Canada to be judged on just one view alone?

Canada's mission in Afghanistan, Harper, passports, the winter festivals, the elections, gay marriage, Whistler Blackcomb,prescription drugs, nightlife in Toronto and Halifax are constantly discussed in local newspapers across America.

The biggest story was of the sad fate of Canada's unique natural resources - the oceans, the boreal forests, the wildlife. Again, our states and your provinces have a less publicized stance than the big, visible media stories.

Iraq has destroyed all funding and focus for domestic issues, America's not even caring for its own citizens. But we have not stopped living life or lost interst in global issues.

Look deeper into more local news,(NPR is a good start but not enough) it's a thousand times more interesting and represents our worldly interests more accurately.

I've found there's two types of news readers. Those who seek out other wordly views, even using such sources as Al-Jazeera, just to get a glimpse of other opinions about world events, and those who are barely aware that there's a world out there at all, they are so focused on hyped-up local news that they miss the bigger pictures. The people who can't wait to tune in to find out what the unknown unknown of the week is (this week, can deadly disease X be lurking everywhere you consider safe? tune in at 11)

I can't say that I blame them. Is there a more boring country than Canada in the civilized world? We don't stand up and fight for much; our apathy is legendary; and we are pipsqueaks on the international stage. Even tourists find this country boring and are staying away in droves.

The only real question is: "What took the Washington Post so long to wake up to this?"

There is a lot of positive things about the American media not following Canada. Countries which are not on America's radar screen have a lot less to worry about. As Canada has become more sucessful economically in the last years it is noticable that various US leaders found increasing faults with us. Our views. Our economic competitiveness in certain area. Let others get the press. Canada can quietly get on with life. America thrives on enemies. That is how it funds its Military Industrial Complex.

In an age where individuals have incredible personal power to seek out news stories on their own and develop a perspective on world events based less and less on what a handful of newspapers and media networks provide, these pullbacks have to be viewed based on the audience they may be attracting. I know of various Americans (and Canadians for that matter) for example who are extremely well informed but also rarely sit down to watch the 11:00 news and perhaps read a traditional newspaper over brunch on Sunday but basically never during the week.

Blogs, forums, zines and any number of domestic and international online news sources provide an amazing number of perspectives on current events and are also often close to being first out of the gates in terms of reporting developing stories generally. Because an American newspaper may choose to no longer keep an office in Canada certainly doesn’t mean that Americans who choose to will not seek out a Canadian, British, Mexican, etc perspective. It means that the providers of the media source, whatever it may be, believe they have a (probably shrinking) audience that would appear to not be as interested in a more rounded view.

Grand old newspapers such as the Wall Street Journal are still relevant in the new media environment but for how long and in what form is anyone’s guess. It does seem though, that with 25% of CBC website hits coming from the United States, for those who wish to understand the world beyond a local headline, the more pressing question surrounding traditional media pullbacks is does it matter at all?

I believe the are just being envious, that there is a country just north of them, where sensibility still prevails. Imagine the US would become a civilized country as we are...Our whole outlook on life could become an option, and finally they would vote in people with more thoughts other then OIL...
There is always hope.....
Sincerely
Ingmar Merkel

Good! The less often Canada is named in the USA the better off we will be

It will be so sad if Washington Post close its Canadian office, I hope they will keep it.

Love to hear that Americans are coming to CBC.ca to check out our views on things. Likewise, I think Canadians check out reports from around the world too. I personally read the New York Time, Washington Post, Guardian, Independent (just to list a few) to see what are important issues from around the world. I think this is the new trend when internet cut down the distances. And most of these reliable news sources are free to read and supported by ads.

Cheers,
Kempton

Media consolidation in the U.S. is partly to blame, but the lack of reader demand is also a factor. Americans are myopic and egocentric, and the press must bear a fair share of the blame for that. A paper with guts would be doing the opposite: Giving Americans a wider view of (and from) the world. America's isolation deepens. Our children and grandchildren will reap the problems this ignorance is sowing. To paraphrase the poet Robert Burns, Oh what a gift the gods would give us, to see ourselves as others see us.