We cats know it drives our Canadian friends crazy when we say stuff like this. But events in Ottawa this week really proved the meme that folks from north of the 49th parallel are... nice.
Well, if not "nice," at least of a higher caliber than the rest of humanity. Here's how we know:
As cable news began covering the attack on Parliament, the first refrains we heard from Canadian politicians and pundits were a far cry from the chest-thumping you'd get from American talking heads: "We are not going to become a security state." "We value our openness." "We have no idea if this guy is a terrorist or not." "Let's not lose our perspective." Their tone was not only refreshing but, we think, caused the anchors interviewing them to behave better than they intended.
Canadian leaders jumped to draw a distinction between a possible act of terrorism and the Muslim faith. "Canadians know acts...committed in the name of Islam are an aberration," said Justin Trudeau. "Mutual respect and admiration will help to prevent the influence of distorted ideological propaganda posing as religion."
Ottawa police instantly asked leaders of the local Muslim community to report any hate crimes. (So far, we've heard of none.)
The sergeant-at-arms who killed the shooter in the Parliament building had never exchanged gunfire with anyone before — even after a 29-year career in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
Passers-by who heard the shots at the War Memorial ran toward the incident, not away from it, to help Corporal Nathan Cirillo. They worked seamlessly as a team to try to save him — because to a person, each one of them had CPR training. What are the chances of that?
Corporal Cirillo appears to have been a lovely young man who rescued homeless puppies. (Sure beats joining Blackwater and slaughtering Iraqi civilians.) And, goodness gracious, he also liked cats.
Yep, pretty impressive, Canada. Jack Layton was right: Love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. We cats PURR.
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