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Comment by thangalin | Hacker News Reader

> The US was never our friend.

Wouldn't U.S. assistance during WWI, WWII, NORAD, Afghanistan, the 1917 Halifax Explosion, the 2008 financial crisis, the 2016 Fort McMurray Wildfires, the COVID-19 pandemic, and other instances of disaster relief count as gestures of friendship?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada%E2%80%93United_States_r...

"The United States has no closer and no more important friend than Canada ... And when we work together, as the closest of friends should, we only make each other stronger."

https://bidenwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefing-room/speeches-...

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> WWII

So fighting the Nazis was a favor and not a moral obligation? A war they didn't enter until Nazi-aligned Japan attacked?

> WWI

I believe the US didn't enter until the sinking of the Lusitania.

> Afghanistan

Isn't that a Canadian favor to the US?

> the 2008 financial crisis

Precipitated by American deregulation and excess? What a gift!

I'm not saying the US is entirely bad, but let's not confuse small kindnesses with friendship. The lack of backlash to Trump's comments I think speaks volumes to the condescension that lurked for years. Even the "loving" comments about being America's hat. Or jokes and charicatures about Canadians that would be consider racist about anyone else.

No, America was never Canada's friend. Sometimes an agreeable coworker.

The backlash is there, but people who are not around US nationals every day are vulnerable to being swept up in the "you are the only one who doesn't like this" consent building that our media sometimes targets at us. A poll taken before any of this shows that US nationals view Canada more favorably than any country in the world. There's no veneer of plausibility to this, they are just doing whatever they want after realizing (or hoping) that no one can stop them.

I don't know why the media is assenting to this. I had thought they had at least some level of independence from policymakers due to being owned by businesses with distinct interests, but I am having to question that assumption. It is not entirely clear what they know that I don't that explains how this can be carried out.

https://news.gallup.com/poll/472421/canada-britain-favored-r...

> I believe the US didn't enter until the sinking of the Lusitania.

The Lusitania was sunk in 1915, the US only entered WWI in 1917, mostly because Germany had recommenced unrestricted submarine warfare and proposed an anti-US alliance to Mexico (the famous Zimmermann telegram).

> No, America was never Canada's friend.

I'm inclined to agree simply because "friend" is too gentle of a term. But, if that's true, then which country has America really been friends with? It seems like if not Canada, then there's none. That may be true, but at least initially surprising.

None, Kissinger said it pretty clearly and loudly:

> America has no permanent friends or enemies, only interests.

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