In response to U.S. president-elect Donald Trump’s promotion of annexing Canada as an American state, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau posted a video on X made by legendary American newsman, Tom Brokaw, who was anchor of NBC Nightly News during the decades when most Americans got their news via their televisions.
The video strikes a feel-good friendly tone. It is a genial promotion of Canada to a nation that (as Brokaw assumes, perhaps correctly) rarely thinks much about Canada, and needs to be reminded that it is, for example, a major oil producer, trading partner, indeed a friend, insofar as the superpower can have one.
The video seems to play on the same attitude of American indifference to Canada that has inspired Trump’s new gimmick of calling Trudeau the “Governor” of the “51st state.”
This was a joke, according to Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc, when it first came up after Trudeau’s recent visit to Trump’s Mar-A-Lago in Florida. But it caught on so well over the holidays, even in international news, that it is now being discussed positively by such Canadian political bold-faced names as Stockwell Day and Kevin O’Leary.
As the Canadian government’s only response so far to this ominous gag, Trudeau’s tweet of the Brokaw video shows it’s a short distance from reminding America that Canada exists and is a friend deserving of respect, to reminding America that Canada exists and is a rival, ripe for the plucking.
In this case, all it took was the 15 years that have passed since Brokaw made the video.
Viewed today, it has the feel of history more than news, and plucks the heartstrings of nostalgia at a time of cross-border tension.
It opens with a view of the Peace Arch, with both flags flying, and the inscribed words “CHILDREN OF A COMMON MOTHER.”
“This was dedicated in 1921 to commemorate the treaty that ended the War of 1812 between the U.S. and Great Britain,” Brokaw said. “Remember, Canada was a British colony. That was a long time ago, but the inscription on the Arch sums up the relationship: ‘MAY THESE GATES NEVER BE CLOSED.’”
Stirring music and images of natural beauty are the backdrop for high-minded mutual praise about the largest trading relationship in the world. Brokaw says Canada and America share a unique quality as immigrant nations, “destinations for people around the world who long for political freedoms, economic opportunity and a long tradition of compassion.”
“And we’re so comfortable as neighbours,” he said. “Two hundred million people cross the common border every year.”
“Canadians are so generous they share with us their brightest stars in music, comedy, acting, sports and journalism,” he says over a montage of Mike Myers, John Candy, Michael J. Fox, Martin Short, Céline Dion, Seth Rogan, Jim Carrey, Peter Jennings, and most strikingly, given the current news, Wayne Gretzky. Trump recently posted that he favours the Great One as the next “governor” of the “state” of Canada, which given the state of politics right now in Ottawa, goes some way beyond mere candidate endorsement by a foreign leader.
“And if you’re in a fight, you want the Canadians on your side,” Brokaw continues. “They were in World War Two before we were. They were there on D-Day, in the air and on the beaches. They’ve been America’s most reliable partners in Afghanistan, and it’s been costly and painful.”
The late great diplomat Ken Taylor gets a mention for his bravery during the Iran hostage crisis, as does Operation Yellow Ribbon, Canada’s effort to receive airplanes and shelter passengers after 9/11.
“In our darkest hours, Canada has been with us,” Brokaw said. He didn’t say (because he did not yet know) that both those episodes later became popular dramatic productions in America: the movie Argo and the musical Come From Away.
“In the long history of sovereign neighbours, there never has been a relationship as close, productive and peaceful as the U.S. and Canada,” Brokaw says.
The video returns to glorious flyovers of snowy mountain ranges for a rousing line in the words of John F. Kennedy: “Geography has made us neighbours, history has made us friends, economics has made us partners, and necessity has made us allies. Those whom nature has so joined together, let no man put asunder.”
This is the emotional climax of the video, the schmaltzy comparison of U.S.-Canada relations to a marriage, by a Kennedy no less.
It’s only at the end that it is revealed to the modern viewer that Brokaw’s video was first aired during the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, which explains why Canada was topical in the first place.
Returning to talk of the Games, Brokaw pointed out that Americans rarely need an invitation to unfurl their flag and chant “USA! USA!” but the Canadians are culturally different, less confident about being noticed.
“The Canadian prime minister had to go before Parliament yesterday and urge Canadians to engage in what he called an ‘uncharacteristic outburst of patriotism,’” Brokaw said in his concluding comments. “So that’s a big difference.”
Brokaw did not actually name Stephen Harper, the prime minister who said in the same speech to the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia that Canada would ask the world to “forgive us” for this pride, for waving the Maple Leaf as “a cheerful red and white reminder of a quiet and humble patriotism that, while making no claims on its neighbours, is ever ready to stand on guard for itself.”
Perhaps Brokaw assumed his audience already knew Harper’s name, which is curious for a news anchor who has just reminded them of so many other basic facts about Canada. Or maybe he assumed they did not care to know, that to tell them who the Canadian Prime Minister was would be to give too much petty information, like naming the governor of some minor state, whose identity is beside the point of American national politics.
Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here.