Hi redbullets,

Quote Originally Posted by redbullets View Post
My very unscientific theory as to why this mentality persists in this country, developed while being regularly driven to Dulles International by Ghanaian taxi drivers much more attuned to the international scene than my countrymen, is that:....
That's certainly an explanation that has been used by a lot of people in sociology, political economy and political science. Of course, most of them were Americans .

Canada shares the same geographic isolation as the US does and the same movement patterns (actually, slightly less mobile than the US), so you would expect to find the same attitudes, but you don't. Maybe Canadians are "more aware" of international events because the US is foreign but Canada doesn't hold the same dominating position in the US worldview.

Maybe it stems from the differences that came about as a result of your revolution with the US focusing inwards and on the frontier while the Canadian colonies (and later Canada) maintained strong ties with Britain. It may also have to do with historical differences as to how each of us has dealt with immigrant populations or with our differing conceptions of citizenship and identity.

Honestly, I don't know why the difference exists, but I do know that the "standard" reasons just don't face up to the comparative case.

Marc