Canada in the crosshairs: Media conservatives sling mud north of the border

Written by Simon Maloy

Published

Conservative media figures such as Fox News host Neil Cavuto, MSNBC host Tucker Carlson, and press secretary to former Sen. Bob Dole (R-KS) Douglas MacKinnon have attacked Canada with baseless accusations and derogatory comments.

Following Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin's remarks criticizing U.S. global environmental policies, a number of conservative media figures have attacked Canada, hurling baseless accusations and derogatory comments at America's northern neighbor. Media Matters for America documented Fox News' host Neil Cavuto's December 14 attack on Canada. Cavuto asked: "[H]ave the Canadians gotten a little bit too big for their britches?" and "[C]ould our neighbors to the north soon be our enemies?" In the same vein, MSNBC host Tucker Carlson dismissed the entire country as “essentially a stalker,” and “your retarded cousin you see at Thanksgiving.” Also, Douglas MacKinnon, press secretary to former Sen. Bob Dole (R-KS), alleged that “the Canadian government not only willingly allows Islamic terrorists into their country, but does nothing to stop them from entering our nation.”

From the December 15 edition of MSNBC's The Situation with Tucker Carlson:

CARLSON: Here's the problem, [radio host] Max [Kellerman]. Here's the problem with telling Canada to stop criticizing the United States: It only eggs them on. Canada is essentially a stalker, stalking the United States, right? Canada has little pictures of us in its bedroom, right? Canada spends all of its time thinking about the United States, obsessing over the United States. It's unrequited love between Canada and the United States. We, meanwhile, don't even know Canada's name. We pay no attention at all.

[...]

CARLSON: First of all, anybody with any ambition at all, or intelligence, has left Canada and is now living in New York. Second, anybody who sides with Canada internationally in a debate between the U.S. and Canada, say, Belgium, is somebody whose opinion we shouldn't care about in the first place. Third, Canada is a sweet country. It is like your retarded cousin you see at Thanksgiving and sort of pat him on the head. You know, he's nice, but you don't take him seriously. That's Canada.

Carlson's December 15 comments were not his first foray into Canada-bashing: On the November 30, 2004, edition of CNN's Wolf Blitzer Reports, Carlson said: “Without the U.S., Canada is essentially Honduras, but colder and much less interesting.” That same day, on Fox News' Hannity & Colmes, right-wing pundit Ann Coulter quipped: “They [Canada] better hope the United States doesn't roll over one night and crush them. They are lucky we allow them to exist on the same continent.”

In a December 16 Washington Times op-ed, MacKinnon wrote of Canada:

Insulting and verbally attacking the United States has become such a national sport among liberal Canadian politicians that one conservative member of parliament said they displayed “a consistent attitude of anti-Americanism.” As Mr. Wilkins stressed, “It may be smart election-year politics to thump your chest and constantly criticize your friend and your number one trading partner. But it is a slippery slope, and all of us should hope that it doesn't have a long-term impact on the relationship.”

The ambassador's point raises a larger question: Can Canada really be considered our “friend” anymore? As someone whose family comes from Canada, a country I grew up loving as a child, it pains me to ask the question. That said, what other question can be asked when the Canadian government not only willingly allows Islamic terrorists into their country, but does nothing to stop them from entering our nation.