Civility? Politeness? Tolerance?

My oldest brother forwarded me a link to a blog at Campaign for America's Future (www.ourfuture.org), a U.S. progressive website. The writer, an American, lives in greater Vancouver.

A translation for Canadians: "Progressives" south of 49 are different from "progressives" up here, especially those who are now part of "Progressive-Conservatives" parties and movements. Many liberals in the U.S. have given up attempts to reclaim the word "liberal" and have taken to using "progressive." Many U.S. progressives, if Canadian, would vote NDP, most would vote Liberal, and a few would be enlightened (and increasingly uncomfortable) Conservatives.

The title of the blog post is "Outright Barbarism vs. The Civil Society." In it, the writer starts with a myth I've discussed before: Canadians are more polite than Americans.

It's an easy shorthand, so I know why she does it. Her main point is to talk about a couple of books that explain how the conservatives in the U.S. have hijacked political discourse. She also urges civility in public as a way to rebuild the U.S. capacity to think critically, logically, and carefully about data. All that's fabulous and I couldn't agree more.

She is also right about the power and effectiveness of civility--she mentions how RCMP officers are polite yet firm when exercising authority. Yep yep.

But she hasn't watched the House's Question Period recently, or she'd understand that Canadian political discourse can be as rancorous as that in the U.S.

She also didn't mention that Canada's current Prime Minister isn't all that great with the calm exercise of critical thinking skills. PM Harper shares his U.S. counterpart's dim view of the role of science in public life.

Here's one recent example. Canadians made significant contributions to the international report that shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. Yippee, except that the report was about global warming--a non-starter to the Harper government. The Prime Minister's office not only didn't host a celebration (the Green Party finally organized something in February, some three months after the announcement, but it also apparently embargoed participation on behalf of the entire party. Only two Conservative MPs even showed up. The Prime Minister and his cabinet were busy elsewhere (no doubt firing science advisors).

Even Bush overcame his antipathy to science, global warming, and Al Gore and invited Gore to a reception at the White House in November.

Stop the presses. It's true: Canadian politicians can behave badly, even more badly than George Bush.

Just another nitpick: the writer also mentions that meetings in Silicon Valley were very different than they are in greater Vancouver. I too have found that meetings move at a different pace in Thunder Bay than they did in central Colorado. But a meeting in Thunder Bay isn't all that different, except in accents, from Monday morning staff meetings in Arkansas, where movie reviews were first on the agenda.

Basically, I understand what the blog writer means. She's right that a loose confederation of semi-independent entities operates very differently from the federal government in the U.S. She's right that many people up here simply avoid political discussions rather than yell at each other. I agree that getting along with each other, at a deep level, is necessary in Canada, and that Canadians do it well.

But it's not just about "being nice" or "being polite." It goes deeper. Even though Canada is diverse ethnically, geographically, and politically, Canadians share a basic caring about other people. They may disagree about the best policies to get there. But the differences, compared to differences among policies in the U.S., are slight.

Here's an analogy: in the U.S., differences between parties feel like the difference between noon and midnight. Meanwhile, Canada's parties are more like Dr. Pepper, whose ads suggested drinking it at 10, 2, and 4. Yeah, 10 and 4 are different, but they're both daylight and there's always room for a position between them.

I've been too busy, mentally and emotionally, to worry about U.S. politics lately. But I'm glad people on both sides of the border are looking at what has happened in the U.S. in the past decade, and--more important--discussing how to go back to showing respect for reach other. We can always use a refresher in those lessons up here, too.