 Hello, welcome to Global Connections on the ThinkTech livestreaming network series. I'm your host, Grace Chang, today here to talk about the Canadian social media campaign Tell America It's Great. And with me to talk about this topic today is Professor Pierre Aslan of Hawaii Pacific University. Hi, Grace. Hi, Pierre. Thanks for joining me today. My pleasure. And you are now in Hawaii teaching history at Hawaii Pacific University, but you are originally from Canada. Is that correct? That's correct. Yeah. I've been here for 25 years, but I'm originally from Quebec City in Canada from the French part of Canada, really the heart of Francophone Canada. I was born and raised there and eventually made my way to Hawaii for graduate school in the early 90s and haven't been back since. I've visited family, but I've been living in Hawaii pretty much ever since the mid-90s. Okay. And so do you still keep close connections with people in Canada? I do actually. So I've got good friends in Canada, my family's still in Canada. And beyond that, I've got dual citizenship, but I still very much identify as Canadian. It's almost a race or an ethnicity for me. So despite the fact that my life is here and has been here for a very long time, I still, yeah, very much identify as Canadian and also as Quebecois. So you're that interesting acronym or hyphen Canadian American, right? Yeah. The naturalized American. Exactly. And you'll be voting in this election. I will be voting in the election. Absolutely. But we also have a Canadian perspective, which we're interested in talking about here today. Absolutely. Yeah. And I'm excited about putting on my Canadian hat to talk about this particular election. And there is a decent-sized Canadian community here, correct? They play ice hockey. They do Canadian things, such as cricket or cropping. And eating Canadian food. Yeah, actually. So we have, there's a good number of Canadians, actually. The place I've met, I guess, the largest concentration is at the ice palace. All good Canadians, I guess, I play ice hockey and I've been playing ice hockey for as long as I've been here. And we've got kind of the odd guys from hockey playing states in the U.S. but also kind of a sizable group of Canadians, guys who've come down here for a variety of reasons and have settled here for the most part. So those guys are my kind of regular Canada connection where we get to talk about things Canadian. We get to annoy our American friends and beyond that kind of assert our identity as Canadians. Canadian immigrants. Exactly. Yeah, exactly. Canadian immigrants. Yeah, we're like a small immigrant community. So we're all sort of inundated by this U.S. presidential election and it's been, you know, it's been everywhere in the media. Even if you don't follow politics very closely, it's just hard to avoid, especially this time around somewhat. And a lot of Americans have reported that they are experiencing very high levels of stress because of it. The American Psychological Association has sort of verified this, that Americans are feeling that all of the rhetoric, all of the inflammatory marks, all of the kind of exchanges, images that have come out from this election campaign has been really difficult. So what we're here to talk about today is an effort by Canadians to make Americans feel better about ourselves to kind of diminish the stress and feelings that are coming out because of this election. So this social media campaign launched by this Toronto-based company agency that is called Tell America It's Great. So can you tell us a little bit about that? Yeah, absolutely. It's, yeah, I've got the two identities I can play with and in light of this current presidential campaign, I found myself being more Canadian or wanting to be more Canadian. But yeah, so Canada has this very interesting relationship with the United States. I think it's really kind of a love-hate relationship. There's always been more love than hate. It's just that the U.S. is kind of the big, huge neighbor to the South and Canada suffers from what I would consider some kind of inferiority complex. And generally speaking, the view of the U.S. is quite favourable. But yeah, every once in a while Canadians will kind of point to certain problems with America in part because they want to underscore a legitimate problem and also because they want to kind of show that in Canada these kinds of things wouldn't happen. And certainly what's been happening recently with the presidential campaign has been in the eyes of many Canadians, as it's been for many Americans, kind of a low point in recent American political history. So we Canadians, being the nice people that we are, decided that we would do our share and help our American neighbors by launching this campaign, which is essentially kind of a way of giving back for all that the U.S. has given us. And so largely through tweets, through Twitter, Canadians have been encouraged by this movement to comment on things they like about the United States, to make Americans who might feel a little bit self-deprecating at the moment to kind of tell Americans that, no, they remain a wonderful people and theirs remains a truly wonderful country. So what have the Canadians been saying about America? That's so great. What do they think is great? It's very interesting. So you've got people who will praise the U.S. for having produced, among other things, this is from tweets as part of this campaign, right? So praise the United States for producing the largest number of Nobel Prize winners, which is truly remarkable. Canadians praising the Americans for mapping the human genome, but then you also have Canadians kind of praising the Americans for coming up with the golden girls. For barbecue, for tailgating, for the NFL. We've got Canadian football, but somehow the four-down system seems to be a little more popular than the three-down system characteristic of Canadian football. Buffalo wings, there was a relatively powerful tweet about the greatness of Buffalo wings. And there was, I'm looking at Oprah, a reference to Oprah that America has given us, Oprah, which could also be seen as a liability. But this particular person actually thought was a great thing about America. Yeah. I mean, American culture and Canadian culture are so intertwined, right? And we've got Justin Bieber, and we've got Ryan Reynolds, who else? All these actors, singers, performers, and then the new prime minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, is very popular over here. So we're so close geographically, culturally, so it's interesting to know what Canadians think about American culture, what they appreciate about American neighbor to the south. And as a French Canadian, I have to take offense to your failure to mention Celine Dion amongst the names. But yeah, I mean, so Canadians are very interesting, Canadians generally, French Canadians are something else entirely, and we can address that later if we have time. But Canadians often define themselves relative to the United States. You know, I mean, it's true, people have joked about this, right, about, well, what is Canadian food and what is Canadian culture? So very often what we witness is Canadians asserting their national identity through references to the United States. So for example, Canadians will kind of suggest that Canada doesn't have the kind of race relation problem that the U.S. has, that Canada doesn't have the kind of gun violence, gun related violence that the U.S. has. And all of these things ultimately become part of this effort to assert what to Canadians is a very distinct and unique Canadian identity. What's happening right now with the presidential campaign in the United States is seen by many people and I think with great legitimacy, it's kind of a low point as I was saying earlier. And it would almost be too easy for Canadians to say, oh look, you know, again the Americans being Americans and us Canadians would never have these kinds of problems. And so I think within that particular context there's been this effort to kind of be nice to the Americans to effectively underscore in spite of all that's happening, the merits of the republic and of the country generally. There's also the fact that, so we have Trudeau right now and he's incredibly popular still at least for now in Canada and internationally, but as you may recall recently, it was a couple of years ago, Canadian politics were kind of rocked by a scandal involving the mayor of Toronto. Oh yeah. Yeah. So as I understand it, I think part of this movement is also kind of subtly intended to make Americans forget about kind of the darker aspects of Canadian politics and by showing kind of the good side and the ability to empathize of Canadians without really referring to Mayor Ford. Remind us about Mayor Ford. Mayor Ford had a very capable individual, but eventually it was revealed that he had kind of a drug problem in addition to an alcohol problem. And the way he dealt with it, it was really interesting because his situation, his consumption of drugs and alcohol was definitely excessive, but it's the way that he dealt with it. He openly, he never tried to conceal it once it was exposed. And on one occasion he was asked about his use of hard drugs, I think it was cocaine. And his answer was something along the lines that, well, yeah, I did cocaine, but I was really drunk at the time, as if that would kind of exonerate or excuse the behavior. But it was funny because ultimately he did own up to everything he did, bad as it was. And his record as Mayor had been quite remarkable. And so, but there would appear to be some, it was still kind of a blemish on the face of Canada because these kinds of things are not supposed to happen in normal, beautiful and peaceful Canada. So it kind of, you know, it made an impression on many people and it made Canada infamous for a period. And so I can't help but think that this campaign may in some way be tied to what happened a couple of years ago in Toronto. Yeah, that's interesting. I know that, I don't know, Americans follow Canadian politics that closely, but I mean, certainly Canadians can't avoid American politics, especially this year. So we'll come back in a minute and talk a little bit more about this. So if you all stay tuned after this commercial break, come back and we'll continue the conversation with Pierre Aslan about Canada's social media campaign. Tell America it's great, see you back here soon. This is Grace Chang, your host. Hello, I'm Marianne Sasaki, welcome to Think Tech Hawaii, where some of the most interesting conversations in Honolulu go on. I have a show on Wednesdays from one to two called Life in the Law, where we discuss legal issues, politics, governmental topics, and a whole host of issues. I hope you'll join me. Hey, how you doing? Welcome to Abachi Talk, my name is Andrew Lening, I'm your co-host. And we have a nice program here every Friday at one o'clock on Think Tech Studios, where we talk about technology and we have a little bit of fun with it. So join us if you can. Thanks, Aloha. Looking to energize your Friday afternoon? Tune in to Stand the Energy Man at 12 noon. Aloha Friday here on Think Tech Hawaii. Hi, I'm Steven Phillip Katz. I'm a licensed marriage and family therapist here in Hawaii, and I'm the host of Shrink Rap Hawaii, which is on Tuesdays at three o'clock. Have a great summit. Take care of your mental health. Hi, welcome back to Global Connections. I'm your host, Grace Chang, here talking to Professor Pierre Aslan of Hawaii Pacific University about Canada's social media campaign. Tell America it's great. Welcome back, Pierre. As we were talking about before the break, Canadians are following American politics and very closely this year, just like Americans are unable to avoid it. So I mean, this campaign is interesting because it kind of plays off the slogan of Donald Trump's campaign, right? Make America great again, which kind of implies that America is not so great anymore, perhaps. So I mean, the Canadians must be watching and seeing how Americans, are they emphasizing do you think we're having basically Canadians who are reaching out to America because they know people who are feeling stressed, or are they just empathizing by looking at what this campaign is, how it's unfolding? I think there's two things that are going on. I think there's definitely this attempt to empathize as I was discussing earlier. But also, Canadians, for the most part, would not particularly like a Trump presidency, mostly because of his position on trade issues. In terms of the position on immigration, in certain Canadian circles, that position is quite popular. Canadian conservatives are concerned about an influx of foreign migrants, and as it turns out, the current Prime Minister, Trudeau, has pledged to bring in 30,000 Syrian refugees this year and has basically skipped his promise. So in some conservative circles, there's concerns about this influx of Middle Eastern refugees, and Islamophobia, of course, kind of fuels the concern. And so there's some support for Trump and his policies as they concern the outside world. But when it comes to trade, the protectionism that Donald Trump has been staunchly supporting and advocating is really raising alarm bells in Canada. I mean, NAFTA has been of tremendous benefit to Canadians, generally, not all Canadians, but a majority of Canadians. And Trump has actually talked about, effectively abrogating NAFTA, about imposing tariffs. He was referring primarily to Mexico, but there's a fear in Canada that, well, if he's going to slap tariffs on Mexican imports, there's a strong possibility he might do the same on Canadian imports. So Canadians are quite concerned about the economic implications of each Trump presidency. And so this particular campaign that we're talking about today and other efforts by Canadians might be in some subtle way an effort to kind of encourage Americans to think along more liberal lines and, at a minimum, not support a Trump presidency. Okay. Yeah. Why do you say that as far as it's veering towards a more liberal orientation? Well, because the policies, this idea, I mean, Canada has economically been very, very close to the United States. Because national security strategy is effectively closely intertwined with America's own. And Trump's talk of embracing more protectionist policies, his talk of getting the U.S. out of NATO, which Canada belongs to, kind of compounds these concerns about a Trump presidency. And in that sense, his kind of emboldening Canadian liberals, and young Canadians in particular, who can't really influence the American election directly, but through kind of these kinds of campaigns, can perhaps suggest that we want America to be of the world. We want America to continue assuming its leadership role in the world. And thus, indirectly, we would prefer to have an America under an individual other than Donald Trump. Okay. So Canadians tend to see then Clinton as a more status quo candidate, as far as maintaining these international relations that Canada's interests are deeply intertwined with. Absolutely. Absolutely. And I think, you know, and there's no question that Hillary Clinton is a tainted candidate, but the reasons that have caused her to be tainted are not reasons that most Canadians would think are really significant. You know, this idea that somehow private communications could be extremely revelatory. For Canadians, this would be lost on many Canadians. For American conservatives, there's tremendous concern about Hillary Clinton as a Democrat in her position on guns, for example, which for Canadians is kind of a non-issue. So Clinton is a much more palatable candidate to Canadians. And at a minimum, the fact that none of her, none of the broad contours of her domestic and foreign policies suggest kind of meaningful negative implications for Canada is kind of reinforces the notion that she would be better in many respects for Canada and for Canadians. Yeah. I mean, I had read somewhere, someone made a comment that, you know, the Democratic Party in the United States is like a right wing in Canada, like that we, you know, our center or our left is much more right than Canadian politics. And many of the tweets have been about how Canadians appreciate American diversity, American music, especially people like Beyonce and music by the late Tupac Shakur, everything like that. And I think it's, yeah, it's kind of a signal that there's appreciation for how this country is extremely diverse and that, you know, maybe that is, I never thought of it that way, maybe kind of a statement about how we appreciate diversity. And so, and this is an element that it tends to be lost on many Americans, right? And even some Canadians, I mean, I mean, America is truly remarkable on account of just that it's diversity. Now, there is obviously a race problem in America and it doesn't appear on the surface at least to be as pronounced in Canada, but then Canada has, it may not have a significant race problem, but we have the language issue, which is kind of the bane of Canadians. And just as Americans find themselves really struggling to address the race issue, Canadians have been struggling for four decades now to address and redress the language issue. So, you know, there are, you know, if America is a flawed system, Canada also is a flawed system. But I mean, I think ultimately, Canadians and Americans have much more in common than they have that separates them. And so this particular movement is kind of consistent with what most Canadians deep down feel about the United States. But there's definitely an appreciation of diversity, which is, which again, I mean, it's truly remarkable in the United States. And the acknowledgments of the limitations of integration in America, but again, we have similar limitations in Canada. So, yeah, the English language politics, although Spanish and Chinese maybe, in turn to the mix. That's what's so interesting, right? So there's concern in the U.S. about kind of, you know, creeping Spanish, right? I mean, California will be voting on language-related issues come November. In Canada, I mean, we still talk about languages, specifically about this dichotomy between French and English. These have been going relatively well economically for Canada, so the issue has kind of taken a back seat. But it remains there. And should Canada experience any sort of major trauma, particularly of an economic nature, my sense is, the whole Quebec secessionist movement would kind of reassert itself once again with the kinds of really dramatic implications that we kind of experience, to some degree, in 1980 and 1995 when we had referendums or referenda on Quebec separation. Mm-hmm. Well, would you say that the separatist movement in Quebec is kind of parallels, is it sort of xenophobic? Does it parallel kind of the anti-immigration positions of some politicians or political parties? It starts out in part as a kind of a Marxist-Leninist movement, ironically enough, in the 60s. French Canadians, they've always been kind of, they've seen themselves and to some degree have, were truly kind of America's, or North America's labor force, unskilled labor force. So a movement, the movement, the Quebec independence movement begins in the early 60s effectively as a labor movement, but really kind of a Marxist-Leninist movement. In time it kind of transforms, and today it's more than anything else, as you point out Grace, it's kind of a xenophobic, there's that element of xenophobia, too, with. But it's, you have kind of staunch separatists taking a position on ethnic issues, but they're specific to language. So if separatists, secessionists, want to keep others out, it's less because they're brown or black than it is because they're native speakers of English, let's say. So if you're Vietnamese and your family speaks French, that's going to be less of an issue than if you're Chinese coming into the province of Quebec and your family speaks English. It's a really interesting situation we have with the politics of language in the province of Quebec and Canada by extension. But yeah, it's a xenophobia informed less by race or ethnicity and more by language. Yeah, so the Tell America It's Great campaign I think maybe recognizes that despite all the deep divisions that this campaign and the presidential elections are revealing in the U.S. that Canada and every society has its own sources of division and that there are things that we can still look forward to that are going to go away just because of the stress caused by this campaign. There is, yeah. Although I have to say that this, you know, I mean the sort of nativism that Donald Trump has been kind of spewing, it's kind of consistent with what's happening in many other parts of the world. But what Canadians that was looking at the Twitter feeds, what some things are becoming concerned about, which is exactly what many Americans are becoming concerned about, is Trump's suggestion that somehow the American system is so flawed that a Hillary victory would underscore the failures of the Republic. And I mean one of the things that one of the Canadians wrote on the Tell America It's Great is just that one of the great things about America is this ability to have these peaceful transitions of power and Trump stands to kind of compromise that. I see, yeah. And so, you know, preserving the stability of the system that we're doing okay, we don't need such a radical transition, is that what you're saying? Pretty much, yeah. But ultimately the Republican system in America, the Republic works and has worked remarkably well despite, of course, being far from perfect. And as a historian of U.S. foreign relations, you can speak a bit about that. But we're a little out of time, unfortunately, so thank you so much for joining me here today, Pierre. It was my pleasure, Grace. My absolute pleasure. Okay, and thank you all for joining us here on Global Connections. I'm your host, Grace Chang. We just finished our discussion about Canada's social media campaign Tell America It's Great with Pierre Aslin of White Pacific University. See me here again next week on Thursday at 1 p.m. Aloha.