Commentary
We are an odd nation. We aspire to be many things, to be included in multilateral fora, to be noticed. We want to be seen as important, as “not Americans.” Maybe that is partly a consequence of having the United States next door and feelings of inadequacy/fear. As Prime Minister Trudeau—Pierre, not the current version—once put it: “Living next to you is in some ways like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast … one is affected by every twitch and grunt.”
So we try—hard. We are active in the U.N. and are a member of the G7 (despite the fact that we were an afterthought in all honesty when the G5 expanded to its current structure). We see ourselves as different—a country that matters and punches above its weight….