USA

Few figures did more to build modern Canada than William Van Horne. The irrepressible railroad executive drove the laying of the ribbons of steel that brought commerce and settlement to the West, sealing British Columbia’s membership in Confederation and knitting the country together from coast to coast.

As a leader of the Canadian Pacific Railway company, Mr. Van Horne connected citizens of the new country together in ways many had considered impossible, delivering transportation and telegraph communication across thousands of kilometres. Doubt hung so heavily over the project that at one point Ottawa offered B.C. a wagon road instead. Alexander Mackenzie, the country’s second prime minister, had predicted the line would take more than a decade to build, even “with all the power of men and all the money of the Empire.”

As the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary of declaring independence of our common mother country, Canadians remain uneasy siblings with Americans, a new poll suggests.

A new Postmedia-Leger poll shows 64 per cent of us think we’re nicer than Americans; another 54 per cent think we’re more cultured. Two-thirds find Americans more arrogant, while 82 per cent think we’re more admired in the world.

OTTAWA — It wasn’t a political speech or a visionary manifesto that galvanized Canadian nationalism near the start of this century, just a few years after a close-call separation referendum in Quebec and during a period of endless debate about national identity.

It was a 60-second television beer commercial that captured the Canadian soul, or at least the English-speaking part of it. The Molson Canadian ad, officially called “The Rant,” offered a new, updated and self-effacing version of how Canadians view themselves.

The United States approaches its 250th anniversary deeply divided. Pride in the country, at roughly 40 per cent, has dropped to a historic low, notes Gallup, a trend most evident among younger, educated people.

To be sure it depends where in the U.S. you go. There used to be little difference between the parties, as was evidenced in the 1976 centennial. But, again predating Donald Trump, the gap between Republicans and Democrats has widened, with the latter generally not proud of their country. In deep blue areas like California and New York, celebrations are muted; even the traditional Fourth of July fireworks show in Long Beach, Calif., has been cancelled. Don’t expect much celebratory treatment in left-dominated Hollywood either.