Canada Information Society

Canada's relatively new ambassador to the U.S., Frank McKenna, wants to put Canadians living in the States to work. According to the Toronto Star (registration required), he wants to equip expat Canadians with facts about their homeland to inform and debate Americans and to correct misperceptions. And he apparently wants everybody to take part--"Florida snowbirds, northern exiles in Arizona, Hollywood comedians and actors, investment bankers in New York and professors and students at universities across the United States." Here are a few of the facts he'd like to spread:

Canada is the largest source of imported crude oil in the U.S., bigger than Saudi Arabia or the yet untested reserves of Iraq.

The country has rotated 13,500 troops in the war on terror, has committed $300 million to rebuilding Iraq and is about to deploy a reconstruction team to Afghanistan.

None of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorists entered the U.S. from Canada.

Canada-U.S. trade supports more than five million American jobs.

This is an ambitious plan, but in an interview with the Star, McKenna couldn't help but betray his polite and accommodating Canadian roots:

"We have to be very careful about overblown rhetoric," he said. "We don't get a lot of attention here, but we can get attention here for the wrong reasons.

"We have to be careful that we're not sanctimonious. We have to recognize the United States has assumed a different role in the world than us and it's a role we're not prepared to play.

"So we shouldn't be so judgmental about a country that has chosen to play that role."

Canadians can sign up for more information about the program, called Connect2Canada, here (actually, there's nowhere in the sign-up information to indicate whether you're Canadian or not, so I guess anybody who wants to find out more about Canada is welcome to take a look).