Holding the Bully’s Coat: Canada and the U.S. Empire
This is the second of a series of posts on free culture and podcasting. I’ll be pulling out some of my favourite podcasts for discussion and highlighting some of the best podcasting available in the commons. [One: Canada's Robert J. Sawyer on TVO's Big Ideas]
Free Culture Podcasts: Two
Linda McQuaig on Canadian Voices 3: Holding the Bully’s Coat
Canadian journalist Linda McQuaig appears on the Canadian Voices Podcast. She discusses her new book Holding the Bully’s Coat: Canada and the U.S. Empire and the decline of Canadian leadership, now cleverly re-marketed as… well, “strong leadership”.
Linda McQuaig, a charming and well-respected syndicated columnist in Canada, discusses the role the Canadian government has played in world affairs since the late-Martin years and especially under the neo-Conservative Harper minority. She argues that Canada has shamefully taken the place of Tony Blair as George Bush’s subservient “poodle,” providing legitimacy to an establishment widely derided and strongly disliked at home and abroad. Too, she says, we’ve abandoned our heritage as a moral leader and middle-power in world affairs by becoming a “yes-man” and advocate for illegal wars, torture and kidnapping, and economic abuse.
I was particularly taken by one point she made in the lecture regarding nation-building. She argues that our minority government has rethought Canada’s approach to our own security and nation-building. Today, we Canada is established as a nation not through achieving and building at home — a healthy and educated population nor strong and innovative green economy — but destroying abroad, through war. In war and violence we achieve a sense of self as a nation.
With regards to security, we can no longer speak of “Canadian energy security” or “Canadian national security”. Today, it is only in good taste to describe, study, discuss or report on “North American energy security” or “North American bioterror security.”
We do this, actually, in pursuit of Canadian business-elite returns, but never directly say this. Moreover, discussion about this is increasingly being taken out of the public sphere. She cites many commentators who remark that OF COURSE we’re in Afghanistan to appease Americans — we have ongoing WTO discussions that need to be resolved on softwood and water and natural gas! We have to appease the Americans on foreign policy so that our business elites can continue to negotiate free trade arrangements.
It is disgusting that we’ve sent young Canadians abroad to participate in illegal warfare to protect a small minority’s economic interests. I’d carry on, but McQuaig provides a much more compelling discussion…
Linda McQuaig on Canadian Voices 3: Holding the Bully’s Coat
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