The Rise of Anti-American Sentiment Abroad Is Stunning

What does it mean to be Canadian? That feels completely insane. And I have two gay moms and two gay dads. Really? Yes. I almost can't even believe this. It's like stereotypically what I thought I would find out here. As an American living abroad, I've become very curious about the rise of anti-American sentiment. Something is shifting. I want to tell the story of something that's happening in Canada. But while I'm focusing on Canada in this video, The reality is that it echoes the same trends that are happening in Europe and elsewhere in the world right now. In earlier episodes in this series, I explored how things are shifting between Europe and the US, how things are shifting within the United States, and now I wanted to go to arguably the United States' greatest ally, Canada. A country most famous perhaps for its welcoming and friendly demeanor as a nation. In the entirety of my life, I feel like there's never really been a conflict between the US and Canada. There's never been anything to be in conflict about. Well, I guess until this year. There's not a snowball's chance in hell that Canada will ever be the 51st state. This is not a video about politics. I really want to make that point. I am going to talk about politics. But I actually could not care less about politics or whatever, convincing you of what... party to vote for or whatever. This is not what this is about. What I'm curious about are human social dynamics. How do human beings decide what is true? What is good? What is right? But to get to that First, I have to give you a brief recap of everything that's happened so far this year. After 10 years in power, Trudeau, the left-leaning Prime Minister of Canada, who was once very popular, announced his resignation. He was resigning. It's a long story, but basically because he's become very unpopular. All signs pointed to the political right charging to a massive and historic victory in the next elections. They were leading at one point by a absolutely mammoth 27 points, which in politics is insane. All right, so Trudeau's resignation, early January. Two weeks later, Trump enters office. And Pierre Poilievre, the right-leaning leader in the Conservative Party in Canada, gets along pretty well with Trump. So it seemed like, hey, win-win. Except no. Trump starts making a lot of comments about how Canada would be much better off being a 51st state. And maybe, who knows, maybe he didn't mean it, maybe he did. Whatever the case, Canadians really did not like this. And Canadians, who are not known for loud displays of patriotism, became very angry and offended. But I've been at the hockey game and win the American Anthem. This is the first time in my lifetime I remember this. Me and my dad went to a Leafs game and the people booed the anthem the entire time. That was new. So in Trudeau's final speech before leaving fully, he had a message for Canadians. ELBOWS UP! This is a term used in ice hockey, which is kind of like a rallying cry against Trump. So then Canadians began boycotting. American products. And then a few months later, guess who lost the Canadian elections? Pierre Poirier. He just couldn't distance himself enough from Trump. So the left just sort of like rebounded. Like the best thing that could happen to the left was the right coming to power in the U.S. What the heck? This is so... How does this happen? What is it about human beings that just activates when they have a clear and common enemy? Why does a different side of our nature come out when we face off? when we compete, like in sports or in gladiator fights. All I knew was that I had to investigate. Because of the rise of Trump recently and because of all of this anti-Canada sentiment that Trump is perpetuating, that it showed Canadians that, oh, we don't want that. Hearing just the sentiment of like, yo, Canada's strong. Hearing it across the country has been a new way that I feel like we've been united. It's remarkable to me in a country that we can switch that quick. Like that we went from like Liberal government and then immediately being like like a 60% polling for the Conservatives like to the point that in the first time in 30 years our House of Commons would have had so many Conservatives that they would have gone right around so usually you have the two parties facing each other to within two months you know. I think it made me sad that we needed to have an enemy of the band together, to have an identity. Isn't that interesting? That's, like, so human nature. It is. It is. But what made me sad about it is I don't even think people knew what being Canadian was in that moment besides I'm not American. I find the people who are most fired up are the older generation. Oh. Yeah, the people in my parents' age demographic. They're just like, this is not okay. Yeah. I guess I wasn't resonating with it because I was like, what is this coming from? It's actually coming out of a distaste for one person. And so I'm like, I don't know if that's glue to keep you stuck together for that long. That's interesting. It's like trauma bonding instead of like a better version of bonding. I had a particular interest in interviewing not just English-speaking Canadians, but also the Québécois. largely because it is between Quebec and the rest of Canada that there's been the biggest source of conflict within Canada. Culturally, linguistically, in terms of identity, and this is something that goes back centuries. I wanted to see how people were feeling in light of having something new to worry about. Yeah, of course, Quebec does have a different historical culture and they work real hard to preserve it. Québécois d'abord ou canadiens d'abord? Québécois d'abord et canadiens d'après. I think it is, like from their perspective, right to want to protect their history. Do I think that it's being done in a way that aligns with the rest of Canada? Not really. C'était quoi ta réaction aux commentaires de Trump? Genre 51e État? Oh my God! It's all sort of anger. It's impossible for us to become the 50th of the United States. It's really absurd. It's culturally impossible. How did the people get started? Historically, it's just impossible. I think there's been a big change in the whole Biden Canada movement. Intentional. Yeah, intentional, that's right. The Québécois have a little bit of belonging to Canada in general, maybe a little more. OK, so how are we going to do our trade with the U.S.? Like, we don't really know what's going to be happening now. It does kind of feel like French language issues within Québec have been... put a little bit on the back burner because now it's like, okay, Canada, we need to unite against this threat. Before I go any further, I want to briefly talk about BetterHelp, whose support in this paid partnership is what makes videos like this possible and also makes it possible for me to continue sharing these videos entirely for free. There is naturally, I think, a huge amount of anxiety that so many people are feeling in the face of so much change and so much uncertainty geopolitically, technologically with the news cycle. And speaking from personal experience, it's easy to feel totally powerless. But the one thing that you can always do is invest in yourself. Invest in your own understanding of yourself, your own emotions, your own triggers. I think it's through working on those things that you can develop a greater sense of groundedness in the midst of uncertainty. That at least has been my experience with therapy over the last six years. BetterHelp has a huge network of credentialed therapists that can help you make sense of how you're feeling. And I've said it so many times before, and I'll say it again, but I really think it's the best investment you can make. And it is also designed to be super flexible. to fit your schedule, whatever it may look like. And another big plus is that if you're not clicking with who you're working with, you can freely change therapists until you find a match. And all of this can happen via video, phone call, or text. It's really easy to sign up and get matched with someone. There'll be a link in my description if you're interested in checking it out, or you can go to betterhelp.com slash Nathaniel Drew. Clicking the link helps support this channel, and it also gets you 10% off your first month with BetterHelp. All right, let's dive back in. I haven't seen the Québécois be proud of being Canadian. It was surprisingly surprising, even if we understand the difference, we feel quite different from the rest of Canada. It seems like sometimes the best solution to a problem is to have a bigger problem. I have the impression that this has made sure that we were maybe more confused with Canada. Before, we were really in Quebec, Quebec. But there, I have the impression that we are even more of a big family to fight against a potential enemy. I didn't have it before. We don't want to be associated... Aux États-Unis, d'ailleurs. J'ai envie d'acheter le Canadien. Genre, je vais encourager tout ce qui vient d'ici. On a eu un sursaut ou un regain de vie par rapport à notre souveraineté en tant que pays. Ouais, je suis quand même d'accord. J'ai l'impression que c'était quelque chose qui était peut-être un peu assumé dans les cinq dernières années. Ça nous a un peu uni à travers... Tu sais, c'est souvent à travers le struggle que les... What I've noticed is that it's been an interesting way of, like, uniting the country. I feel like because Canada is so vast. I really wanted to look at the Canadian products, everything that was done in the United States. And I think it's good because they started to label everything that was done here. And we really wanted to buy what is local. Are you boycotting American products? Or what do you think about all that? I think it... Again, it is very good. I feel like as Canadians we've even growing up there was just like this idea of like Americans are stupid. And I think that's said because a lot of Canadians when they interact with Americans, they'll ask them things like. They'll mention small geography things about Canada, like, oh, I'm from Calgary, and often you'll hear just an average American would be like, where's that? Couldn't point that on the map. And I think Canadians are offended by that because the average Canadian would have way better idea of American geography than an American does. There's multiple layers to it. I think a lot of Canadians feel off-put that Americans are so disinterested in it. It's nice to see that we are actually trying to have a localized economy again and not rely on... The state's for everything. You know what this makes me think of? Sir Isaac Newton's third law of motion. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Feels like that applies to a lot of facets of life as a human being. Are you shaped by the things that you like and that you want to be? Are you shaped by the things that you dislike and that you don't want to be? I'm only exploring politics because politics for me is theater. And theater is human beings stepping onto a stage. and telling stories. I see how easily humans are influenced, how easily I'm influenced. Why does so much of human life seem to be reduced down to competition, to winners and losers? Is this how it has to be? But also I feel within myself a deep desire for truth. How humans can seesaw like this, right? It's like, I don't know, are we like... I've done that. No, totally. My opinions of things shift and change in reaction to stuff. Almost more than me sort of being drawn to ideas. I think I react to stuff. When something goes too far, I counterbalance in the other direction. And I'm trying to understand that facet of human nature because it's so fascinating to me. Your point about lamenting Canadians needing to have to say we're not American to be united is so fascinating to me. Well, it's like name Canadian food. Don't say poutine. Well, that's it. That's the only one. Maple syrup. There you go. It's like we're a cliche of ourselves because we've had a few of those things. But I think, unfortunately, a lot of Canadian identity has been in not being something. It's like we've often been like, well, we're peacemakers, which we're not. We contribute the least amount, not the least, but a very small amount to UN peacekeeping and a lot of peacekeeping missions. We used to be that. Right. But the idea is like what we're saying by that is like, oh, we don't start wars. And it's like you hear a lot of people being like, oh, we're nicer than Americans. You are. Yeah. Yes and no. I mean, you go to the south and southern hospitality is a real thing. Yeah. OK. Yeah. We're generalizing massively right now. We are. But my experience of Canadians is that they're super friendly. Yeah. We're super agreeable. And I'm not trying. I don't want I don't like I'm very proud to be Canadian. I just I'm also like want to always. I like to poke around at our own identity to be like, what is a strength? What the main points of unity and I guess pride that I experienced were in Toronto was that it's a very accepting place for a lot of people from elsewhere. There are so many immigrant neighbourhoods and that's what I really appreciated about growing up there is that I remember growing up and hearing like, oh yeah, Toronto is one of the most multicultural cities in the world. I've had a lot of international friends in Toronto and the consistent complaint is that like you never know what. what a Canadian feels because they won't tell it to your face. So maybe this is good because maybe we are now saying how we feel. What does it mean to be Canadian? In Canada, I made a new Canadian friend by the name of Julian Thomas. He's a filmmaker who's done some really great work and he showed me around to all the different places he liked to spend time and where he grew up. Maybe it seems a little bit out of place to talk about a new friendship in a video where I'm touching on so many things that have been happening in the news, but to me it feels related. It is related. This is my home. As much as I hate to admit it, because there's so many things I don't like about Canada, but like the materialism, the sort of like blandness. And yet I'm so attached to this place, right? Like that's the sort of like irony of everything is that like deep down I grew up here and... Do you feel Canadian? Yeah. In some ways, it felt like the questions I was asking him were unfair. I wouldn't necessarily know how to answer them myself. The thing is like, I didn't realize I felt Canadian until I traveled. And then people would say, oh, where are you from? and then I would be really proud to talk about Canada. The truth of the matter is that identity, a sense of belonging, is something that's really hard to put into words. More than articulating it in what he was saying, it was through Julian's enthusiasm as he was showing me these places that he spent time, that he grew up in, that I could see how important this place was for him. As a third culture kid myself, I feel... that kind of conflict inside of myself, of not wanting to pick one side because I've been shaped by so many different cultures. Because why? All of us are multifaceted. Talk to me about this Tim Hortons. I probably spend like four days a week in this Tim Hortons, like from the age of like 12 to like 17, which is kind of crazy. I don't know. There's something so bland about it, and yet there's something so... Like I grew up here and like this is where I became the person I am today and like where I got to know myself and like it's so funny that it happened in the blandest of places. Yeah. In a way, you know, like you can find the Timorans like this 5,000 times across the country. It just so happens to be like the one where I grew up and where like I shared all these moments with my friends with. I mean, I worked at McDonald's down the road. The irony there. Sometimes on the overnight shifts, we would send people to Timorans. When we didn't want to wait what because sometimes we're too lazy to To do the order so we're like oh, yeah, but Tim Hortons is open and like wait what? My boss in the day and age of the internet I feel like it's just so easy to get lost and I feel myself Gravitating more and more towards just real life human interactions. Welcome to Dagwitz We're gonna get screamed out by every single cyclist. This is making me nervous, like I did not want my phone to fall off this bridge. I'll probably write an essay about this. Okay. It just makes all the rhetoric and the hysteria and all of that drama happening online feel just a little more distant. Not so loud. So, I guess, I don't know. In the face of all this conflict between different groups of people, my little act of resistance is to make a new friend. A new friend from a different culture, a different place. Is it weird? I feel sometimes embarrassed of being too proud to be Canadian. Oh really? Sometimes. So I asked a Canadian friend of mine to sing the anthem. Oh. And she sang it so tenderly. When she sent me an audio message, she sent like this really beautiful rendition. Let me play it for you. Let me see if this makes you feel anything. That's how it goes That's how it goes

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Timestamps

0:00 – Intro: The Rise of Anti-American Sentiment
0:50 – A brief recap of what is happening in Canada
3:41 – A unifying force
5:52 – Does a bigger problem makes smaller problems go away?
10:11 – Boycotting
11:18 – Isaac Newton's 3rd Law
12:32 – What we are, what we are not
13:50 – Diversity
14:24 – A new friendship
17:00 – Human interactions