O Canada, the Global Brand Superpower
Independence Day reflections on our neighbor’s quiet success
Imagine. You are about to be sworn in as a new Canadian citizen on Canada Day. As a military band serenades, the announcer asks that you remove your hat prior to taking the oath, so long as it does not interfere with religious, health or official uniform obligations. You can swear or affirm, as you please, and if you choose the former, you are invited to place “your” Holy Book, rather than “the” Holy Bible, into your left hand and raise your right. You are encouraged to sing the national anthem “proudly and loudly.” You hear about your gift from the Institute for Canadian Citizenship, a Cultural Access Pass giving you free access to 1400 Canadian museums, galleries, monuments and national parks and travel discounts for one year, so that you might discover your new country. You are given the online address to register for government-sponsored healthcare and a pension. The speaker glides with no effort between French and English, as will those who follow.
The band snaps to. The flag is raised. A Royal Canadian Mounted Police Officer in dress uniform — red wool tunic, leather riding boots and gloves in 95 degree heat — leads the procession to the stage. There are two officials in judicial garb, an older, white man and a younger, black woman. A member of Parliament offers a greeting in an unfamiliar language. This is Mohawk, he says, a reminder of one of the First Nations of Canada, and “the language they used to welcome my people when we came seeking safety and liberty, a place to belong.” Canada has a long history of welcoming immigrants such as you and me, he concludes. Vote. “I want you to vote against me when you disagree with the way I perform my duties and you find someone you believe will do them better. Welcome to being Canadian.”
The oath is administered, followed by a rousing rendition of “O Canada.” Bystanders shake hands with the newly minted Canadians as they return from the stage, each carrying gifts from the government: an ornate certificate, a Canadian flag, their Cultural Access Pass and other goodies.
I stand dripping not only from the July heat wave in Montreal, but also from the emotion of the ceremony, precise and moving both in its execution and meaning. I am not alone on this Fourth of July in thinking hard about what it means to be an American, and wondering how we find our way back.
Before anyone starts screaming apples and oranges, of course there is a difference between lawful immigration, which culminates for many in the granting of citizenship, and unlawful immigration, which is what Trump & Co. claim they are combatting, by stopping migrants said to be rapists and murders who will “infest” our country if we don’t watch out. People from Mexico and Central America, many coming with children, gang members and the like.
The United States, of course, has a proud and famous history of immigration. For the majority of us, there is no other explanation for our existence as Americans, although I have never heard Attorney General Jeff Sessions open a speech with a greeting in Navajo or Cherokee. American citizenship ceremonies are inspiring too, though Canada has us beat when it comes to swag.
Our neighbor dominates in another regard. Canada is an immigrant nation as a matter of official policy, and they are showing the world how to pull it off. Each year, the Canadian government publishes an immigration plan, setting targets for new permanent residents, depending on the country’s labor needs, and for refugees, according to its humanitarian obligations under international law.
Congress has proven unable or unwilling to produce a similar, viable plan for the United States. Waiting lists for legal entry into the U.S. (the proverbial “line” would-be immigrants are told to put themselves in), can be as long as 21 years, depending on a person’s country of origin and family status(Mexico and the Philippines have the longest waits). And yes, many lose patience or never try the legal route, crossing the border unlawfully instead.
For refugees, a legal way in is all but hopeless. In 2018, Canada pledged to take in 18,000 Syrian refugees, while the State Department reports that United States had accepted 11 as of April. Yes, that’s eleven, one more than ten. The magnitude of this gulf widens, considering that Canada’s population is approximately one-tenth that of the United States (36 million vs. 323 million).
Once admitted, a lawful permanent resident can become a citizen by meeting rigorous requirements. Here too, Canada outpaces the U.S., naturalizing three times the number of new citizens on a per capita basis as the U.S. (In 2016, the U.S. naturalized 752,800 citizens vs. about 234,000 in Canada, during the same time period.) These trends lines are diverging further during the Trump Administration.
This is not some melting pot fetish. These numbers matter if you believe the economic data that immigrants add to a country’s GDP and reduce the average age of the population, helping to stabilize government retirement funds, such as Social Security. Of course, not all immigrants are future Nobel Prize winners or startup geniuses, anymore than Mexicans are rapists, but these extreme stories we tell ourselves, or have told to us, point at economic and social truths — and fears.
They also matter if you believe in soft power, defined by political scientist Joseph Nye as the use of political and cultural influence and economic incentives, rather than military might and economic coercion, to elicit desired outcomes.
Canada, though immense in size, is dwarfed by the U.S. in population, GDP and military power. Yet it is the world’s emerging Soft Superpower. “60 Minutes” featured Canada’s progressive social policies and growing influence in a recent segment. In the 2018 U.S. News & World Report survey of “Best Countries,” Canada ranks 2nd in the world (Switzerland is first), while the U.S. slipped from 7th to 8th, measured in terms of political, cultural and economic influence, quality of life, and a country’s status as a good global citizen, its environmental and humanitarian policies. Canada is first in quality of life (the U.S. is 17th) and 4th in global citizenship (the U.S. is 16th).
The traditional U.S. advantages are less helpful than they once were, now that countries compete not only for territory and resources, but in a global market for intellectual talent, tourists, investment and influence. Nations brand. There are PR consultants and advertising firms, even a trade group, the International Place Branding Association, with its own journal and an annual conference, to help in this regard.
Let’s face it: Canada is winning the nation branding sweepstakes. For all of Trump’s supposed branding prowess as a businessman, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is running away with the trophy.
Trudeau is a poster boy in every sense in an age when countries compete for a global audience, based in part on their cool factor. Trump helped immeasurably by accusing Trudeau of dastardly tactics on the eve of a starting a three-front trade war against NAFTA partners Canada and Mexico, the European Union and China. One White House adviser declared a “special place in hell” for Trudeau for daring to disagree with Trump’s incoherent demands, before the aide retracted his comments two days later in a rare admission of error.
Trudeau played the fumble perfectly. He allowed that Canadians were polite, but “would not be pushed around”. On July 1, Canada Day, Trudeau sorrowfully announced the imposition of retaliatory tariffs on U.S. products, one imagines before perhaps hustling off to the airport to personally welcome Syrian refugees and drape them in Maple Leaf jerseys — or popping in to give a keynote at the International Place Branding Association.
As far as anyone knows, Trudeau has never flung insults, much less Starburst candies at another world leader, as Trump reportedly did while talking to German Chancellor Angela Merkel at a recent G-7 summit meeting in Quebec. He doesn’t bromance despots or dismiss other continents with vulgarities. Trudeau acts like a grown man on the world stage and at the negotiating table. It counts for something. The people of Canada reflect his values and he reflects theirs. New Canadian citizens and those who aspire to join them take notice. And Brand Canada shines.
