Canada, The Postcard :)

There's an incredibly sweet piece about Canada in The Observer (UK): "It's great up north: The US should look to Canada to find out how to balance both its budget and its life" Thanks to 'Business of Emotions' for the tip!

Although the author, Harry Porter probably gives us too much of a wet-kiss, it's really a lovely article and I would highly recommend it. Hey: it's just refreshing for Canada to make the foreign news when it's not about SARS, bird flu or the infestation-du-jour! Here are a few of my favourite bits:

When you get to Canada, the clamour stops. Suddenly, you find yourself in the place that America should be and once was, though it would offend every American to think that Canada has anything the US should want.
[...] Canadians are sceptical to a point where they appear simply unable to recognise that they live in a very successful and civilised country. 'We peer so suspiciously at each other,' Pierre Trudeau once said, 'that we cannot see that we Canadians are standing on the mountaintop of human wealth, freedom and privilege.'
[...] Canada is democratic to its marrow, relatively enlightened on environment, health and welfare issues and its political discourse, unlike America's, is recognisably connected to the rest of the free world.
[...] Canadians are engaged in their politics in way that Americans aren't, and they read obsessively. Canadians spend as much money on books (C$1.1bn) as on newspapers and going to the cinema and double the amount spent on sporting events.