From an American-
I'm sure by now you all have seen our government's 'official response' to your wildfires. I saw that, and as an American I am beyond appalled. Please know that the public statements made by our government do not reflect the thoughts and beliefs of the majority of the American people.
When the US had wildfires, Canada sent us significant support including numerous firefighting aircraft, air crews, and support equipment. This was not a small token contribution, it made a real difference. It saved lives and property and forest. That is how neighbors and friends are supposed to help each other out, and we appreciated the hell out of it. It is not forgotten.
To hear that our 'official response' to your wildfires is to threaten... I have no words to describe the feeling. I am proud to be American, I love my country, but today I am ashamed. That these things are being said as representative of me and my countrymen... it is beyond shameful. We are supposed to be better than this. Better allies, better neighbors, better humans. I am ashamed and angry that my government is representing me and my fellow Americans in this manner.
I can only say that the majority of Americans do not feel this way. Forget the propaganda you see on the news (and it is mostly propaganda). The people of this country love our northern friends, we feel for you. We don't want to annex Canada or punish you for a natural disaster or any of this crap. We want you all to be safe. We want to help.
THAT is who we are, even if we suck at electing politicians that represent that belief.
Stay safe. Be well. We love you.
Je passe ce texte par Google Traduction car mon français est médiocre...
De la part d'un Américain...
Je suis certain que vous avez tous vu, à présent, la « réponse officielle » de notre gouvernement face à vos incendies de forêt. En tant qu'Américain, j'en suis profondément indigné. Sachez que les déclarations publiques de notre gouvernement ne reflètent ni les pensées ni les convictions de la majorité du peuple américain.
Lorsque les États-Unis ont été touchés par des incendies, le Canada nous a apporté un soutien considérable, notamment en envoyant de nombreux avions de lutte contre les incendies, des équipages aériens et du matériel de soutien. Il ne s'agissait pas d'un simple geste symbolique ; cette aide a fait une réelle différence. Elle a permis de sauver des vies, des biens et des forêts. C'est ainsi que les voisins et les amis sont censés s'entraider, et nous avons énormément apprécié ce geste. Nous ne l'avons pas oublié.
Apprendre que la « réponse officielle » de notre pays face à vos incendies consiste à proférer des menaces... les mots me manquent pour décrire ce que je ressens. Je suis fier d'être Américain et j'aime mon pays, mais aujourd'hui, j'ai honte. Que de tels propos soient tenus en mon nom et en celui de mes compatriotes... c'est tout simplement honteux. Nous sommes censés valoir mieux que cela. Être de meilleurs alliés, de meilleurs voisins, de meilleurs êtres humains. J'éprouve de la honte et de la colère de voir mon gouvernement nous représenter, mes compatriotes et moi, de cette manière.
Je tiens à dire que la majorité des Américains ne partagent pas ce point de vue. Oubliez la propagande que vous voyez aux informations (car il s'agit bien, pour l'essentiel, de propagande). La population de ce pays aime ses amis du Nord ; nous sommes de tout cœur avec vous. Nous ne voulons ni annexer le Canada, ni vous punir pour une catastrophe naturelle, ni rien de tout ce non-sens. Nous voulons que vous soyez en sécurité. Nous voulons vous aider.
C'est cela, notre véritable nature, même si nous sommes incapables d'élire des responsables politiques qui incarnent ces valeurs.
Prenez soin de vous. Portez-vous bien. Nous vous aimons.
We know it's not all of you (okay, maybe not the internet tough guys here, but Canadians IRL). Bonus points for adding a French version.
I would say, consider if you should really love a country if it does bad things. The US isn't Nazi Germany (yet?), but it's not what it was in the 90's, either. Professing your love of America is kind of mandatory civic piety in America, but, that's actually a red flag itself.
I actually agree with this 100%. We are definitely somewhere between our peak in the '90s and a bad place. And I agree that mandatory civic piety is always a bad sign. It's actually one of my biggest frustrations about USA currently, I feel like a lot of Americans babble about how much they love the country and love freedom but don't actually take any real action to uphold the real ideals of freedom as our founders did.
A lot of MAGA people and also evangelicals exemplify this. 'I Love America and I love freedom! But if you don't support my religion or prejudice against LGBT or my political goals then no freedom for you!' They buy a bunch of guns and talk about how they are ready to defend freedom for all Americans, and then support political processes that strip freedoms from many Americans. I think it's a mixture of ignorance and hypocrisy in various measures.
One of the most frustrating things is 'I love my country' sounds exactly the same whether it comes from someone of principle or someone parroting a line. I can only speak for myself, but when I say I love what my country stands for I am talking about the ideals ensconced in our Constitution by our founders. The idea that we are not sheep, we are not peasants, we are each responsible for our own nation. Government of the people by the people for the people. Unfortunately a lot of our country has drifted away from those ideals in many ways.
Also sort of a question, I know Canada is bilingual and there is some portion of the country that primarily or solely speaks French. Thus it seemed disrespectful and presumptive/arrogant to address the country speaking only in English. But I am curious what the proper etiquette is for such things. Do all Canadian websites have an English/French toggle button?
Large commercial and government websites do, and constitutionally, government service and education has to be available in either. Packages in stores also have a French and English side, and in Quebec, there's additional rules and fines that require French to be first or more prominent on everything. Sadly, a lot of anglos have shitty/nonexistent French, though. Especially in western Canada.
Pretty much all Quebecers speak English, and English is also the international language. I doubt any offence would be taken if you had stuck to it, but going bilingual was a nice thought.
Any product or service intended to be sold nationally must be in English and French.
So websites, commercial packaging, the phone tree for national agencies, etc all have French.
Once you get to the prairies and west, random people don't speak French much, and nearly all local stores have signs and menus in English only.
It's a pain 'cause if you're a shame kinkster and you party in more than one province, you need to make sure people write "whore/putain" on you with equally sized letters, they DO check at airports and train stations. /S