Posted on 20 August 2015

I write this in the context of Stephen Marche’s recent treatise against Harper in The New York Times, but this certainly isn’t new. Every once in a while the Times or the Guardian or some other international paper will publish a piece about Canada and then I see it all over Facebook and Twitter with people going “Wow! The [[major paper name]]’s take on Canada!”
Except it isn’t the Times‘ (or the Guardian‘s or the Economist‘s or whomever’s) take. It’s a Canadian writer’s take, written in an international publication.
It’s not that I don’t think there’s any value in reading what intelligent Canadians have to say about the state of Canada. It’s just that there’s nothing unique about it. You can do it literally every day in any number of Canadian magazines, newspapers, blogs or even Tweets.
But those don’t get attention the way an op-ed in the Times will because, I don’t know, this is still Canada and we apparently still crave the attention of Americans. As another Canadian writing in an American publication puts it, “The New York Times is likely more influential in Canada than it is in New York.“

Filed under: Canada, media