Yeah, but as every Canadian entertainer knows...you haven't really made it unless you've made it South of the Border. Don't get me wrong, I love Canada and Canadians; next to my own country, I would probably prefer living there than anywhere else. (If I win the lottery I'm building a house by the water on Vancouver Island!). But sometimes they can be rather annoying...

"I don't need your ghetto scenes...", but I've noticed Canadians are very uncomfortable with their brown and black immigrants, and frankly, they haven't adjusted as well to them as most Yanks have to theirs. And of course, there is the Quebec issue...Yes, there is ethnic tension in Canada, and it isn't just with the third world types. I do concede that Canadians are able to loathe each other without lapsing into open violence or public conflict, so I guess that is a testimony to their inherent good sense and tolerance.

I have an old college chum from Canada I still keep up with, and one of her pet peeves was how Yanks are always wrapping themselves up in the flag. But noooooooo....everytime I go to Toronto to visit her the Maple Leaf is fluttering from every building in quantities that make post 9/11 New York seem a patriotic desert. And I hear they used to have a law there saying what percentage of songs played on the radio had to be by Canadian artists.

Again, I don't want to come across as anti-Canadian, I love the country and it's people, and I would not mind living there if I ever got run out of my own, but it's amazing how the perspective of an outsider can quickly highlight the little contradictions, inconsistencies and hypocrises. Which, by the way, is something all "North Americans" might do well to consider.