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Page THE HERALD OUTLOOK Saturday January Book review Are Canadians that much different from Americans By REGINALD STUART What is Canada anyway Ask any 10 Canadians to define our na tional identity in 25 words or fewer for a dream vacation and most would likely remain at home Canadians tend not to describe themselves very well But ask how we compare with the United States and a cascade of negatives we are not republicans not risk- takers not as conservative not as violent would pour forth The CanadaUS freetrade debate of 1988 aroused reflex Cana dian fears of a muscular ag gressive America thai given an open door would smother Canadas feeble culture and in dependence Such undercut themselves on that occa sion In Continental Divide The Values and Institutions of the United States and Canada CD Howe Institute pages paperback Seymour Martin who delves far back into history reassures all but incorrigi ble antiAmerican Canadians that our cultural economic and political sovereignty will endure The CanadianAmerican Com mittee a private organization regularly publishes reports on such economic matters as trade laws global trade patterns and auto policies It broke tradition and enticed one of Americas premier sociologists to compare at length our two countries values and in stitutions Not an elegant writer is nonetheless clear insis tent and generally persuasive General readers teachers academics and politicians on both sides of the border will find this book valuable Lipset argues that two con trasting social ideas emerged after 1783 from the turmoil of the American War for Independence Revolutionary liberal in dividualism confronted counter revolutionary Toryism which stressed loyalty the community and social order These founding creeds defined with broad con sistency how each country would evolve and behave So jux taposes a liberal individualistic and populist United States and reserved deferential and group- oriented Canada sharing North America in 1989 THREE SURPRISES Lipset tests his thesis in two phases First he develops themes such as ideology religion economics Second he compares his general thematic observations against recent opinion poll data No surprise that all the themes reflect the founding creeds Three major surprises emerge however in the observations First we have not tied ourselves to a sagging giant Americas economy remains the most produc tive in the world whatever its global trade balances Second Lipset believes that Canadians overestimate American domina tion of our culture Our two coun tries are closer economically than at any time in history yet Cana dian culture has never been more vita and vibrant Third he says we invest more in the United States than the reverse Canadians do control their own economy through government and tightly woven native elite The branchplant thesis will not wash Lipset is con vinced that free trade will not deflect this broad trend At the same time he believes that the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is a watersh ed for CanadianAmerican con vergence in the concept of judicial review The Charter is not a Bill of Rights But on the evidence so far we have stepped quickly towards American reliance on judicial supremacy and individual litigousness I think this is an im portant insight While on convergence I would add our recent infatuation with Main Street South Downtown Georgetown 8731470 DENTURE THERAPY CLINIC TH Denture Therapist Mill St Georgetown 8778974 102 East Dr Bramalea Corner East Or 7912314 JANUARY SALE GEORGETOWN FABRICS Georgetown Market Place Beside Delrex Smoke Shop 8772477 special interest lobbies in politics and draw in own example of Americas edging into one of Canadas principal social values Americans may on that score recognize as a permanent feature of life instead of a waystation on the road to an allEnglish speaking society Lipset struggles however to divergences regarding our attitudes to newcomers which have been more alike historically than he realizes differences not withstanding Lipset produces no surprises on our approaches to the relationship of church and state our literary expression and on how we manage social welfare and philanthropy To take the last theme in dividualism and a suspicion of government power have led Americans to rely largely on voluntarism Canadians expect our to maintain a univer sal welfare system although calls for user fees increase in our debates over health care LINKAGE The author restates his case for socialisms failure in Americas in dividualistic politics contrasted with its relative success in Canada He maintains that our group orien tation and collective sense created a logical if likely spiritual linkage between Toryism and socialism Canada and the United States are remarkably similar societies with parallel pasts We should not forget however that although our histories both began nearly years ago Canadas colonial status continued for almost a cen tury after Americas in dependence The contexts within which the two countries became independent were vastly different And fully recognizes but does not in tegrate into his analysis the significance of FrenchEnglish dif ferences in Canada Furthermore often ad mits to variations rather than sharp divergences in our mutual values and institutional structures And after examples of both is it entirely fair to see Canada and the United States as two trains running on parallel tracks In general yes The two national cultures seem strong enough to maintain respective identities whatever their similarities Without dwelling on what we might find appalling about each other questions whether our vary ing values and institutions are suf ficient to keep the trains from col liding or using a single set of rails He believes they are Not all Cana dians will be convinced so we must wait and see Dr Reginald Stuart Is Dean of Humanities and Sciences at Mount Saint Vincent University Halifax It happens when you Advertise In The Herald 8772201 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