When citizenship and friendship collide

Keep disappointment with neighbour’s foreign policy in perspective

Doug Koop
CW Editorial Director
dkoop@christianweek.org

Many Canadians are almost as disappointed as the Americans that the Chrétien government has chosen not to support the U.S. military attack on Iraq. Unfortunately, the longstanding friendly relationship between our two nations has been taking a beating as politicians spout insults, diplomats make vague threats, citizens boo anthems and organize protest rallies.

Business people are getting nervous and ordinary people are doing stupid things. An American pee-wee hockey team is booed and harassed during a tournament in Quebec; a B.C. woman on a cross-border shopping trip finds a note tucked under the windshield of her car: " You are not welcome in America. Go back to where you came from.”

I’m watching these developments with a troubled heart and constantly feel my own blood loyalties drawn in at least three directions. My Manitoba-born father went to Africa where he married a woman from Ohio, which means that I consider myself half Canadian, half American and half Ethiopian. So the rift between the North American countries is a wound within me, while the African part of me is inclined to see these superpower military activities from a Third World perspective. This conflict hurts all over.

Why is it so disconcerting to most Americans and a significant minority of Canadians that the country north of the 49th parallel has decided against joining the coalition of the willing? The answers vary, but most of those vilifying Canada’s relative inaction in this cause refer to the common interests our two countries share.

Some of the commonality is political in nature. Social and political conservatives do not hold sway in Ottawa these days, but there are plenty of true believers throughout the country. They may be in a minority, but they are fully capable of putting their discontent with Ottawa firmly onto the public record. The prime minister’s "half-baked muddled policy, whatever it is, appears to be self-aggrandizement, promotion of an anti-Christian, anti-family, anti-American agenda, and appeasement of Quebec,” fulminates one irate letter-writer who is also promoting a Canadians for Bush rally.

Geography, of course, binds us together. And nowhere does this have a bigger impact than in the commerce that traffics between us. As former Ontario premier Mike Harris observes, "Canada and the United States share the world’s most successful trading partnership. Almost $2 billion in goods and services crosses our borders every day.”

And this is why the business community is nervous. A late March poll showed that nearly half of all Americans would consider switching away from Canadian goods in favour of those from other countries in the wake of Canada’s opposition to the war. Potential consumer boycotts aside, the squandering of political good will threatens to scuttle progress on larger trade issues such as softwood lumber. The aerospace industry is already feeling the pinch on its contracts.

But political affinities and commercial interests aside, there’s a lot of talk about historic friendship and blind loyalty. Discussing the failure of Canada’s efforts to broker a compromise at the United Nations, former finance minister Michael Wilson said: "We did our best in the Canadian tradition, but in the end we have to back our friend and the country on which we rely the most.”

That’s the message U.S. ambassador to Canada Paul Cellucci delivered. "We would come to Canada’s aid without hesitation,” he said. "It’s disappointing that one of our family is not supporting us.”

It’s easy to understand how Ottawa’s failure to sign up is "disappointing” to the American government, but the apparent assumption that our close relationship precludes serious policy differences is bogus. A bumper sticker—"Friends don’t let friends drive drunk”—illustrates the point quite nicely. Or, as a biblical proverb declares: "Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful” (Proverbs 27:6).

As it happens, I explored the divided citizenship loyalties of my childhood in a graduation speech delivered at the end of Grade 9, and bluntly stated an obvious potential difficulty of maintaining allegiance to two or more countries. "This poses a problem in event of war.” So true.

My conclusion then? Recognize, as the apostle Paul observed, that "our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Saviour” (Phil. 3:20). Reflecting on this concept will encourage Christians on every side of any border. A much greater common interest dwells far beyond the temporal facts of geography, commerce and cozy habit.