[LINK] "Why Do Americans Think Canada Is So Pure?"

[rfmcdonald]

Christopher Flavelle's Bloomberg News article, written in the aftermath of the arrest of Montréal mayor Michael Applebaum on corruption charges while Toronto mayor Rob Ford is still being surveilled for allleged crack use, asks the interesting question of why people--Canadians as much as Americans--expect Canadian political culture to be cleaner than the American. Flavelle's argument that, perhaps, Canadians might be coasting on accumulated social capital is worrisome to me.

[Does] Canada deserve its squeaky clean reputation -- the reputation that gives allegations of crack-smoking mayors an extra little kick, like watching the smartest kid in class trip in front of everyone.

We probably did deserve it, at least at one point. Canadians enjoy universal health care, a manageable deficit, reasonable taxes, a strong and well-regulated banking sector and affordable public education. Gay marriage is legal, gun crime is rare, immigrants are mostly welcomed and the right to an abortion is mostly unchallenged. It's as if somebody took Ted Cruz's worst nightmare and made a country out of it.

Those policies came from politicians making smart choices, which suggest Canada's reputation for good government isn't just wishful thinking. The problem is that not much of that good government seems to have happened lately. The country has slipped from first place in the United Nations' Human Development Index during the 1990s to 11th in 2013, as other countries pass it by.

Pick your explanation: the collapse of once-dominant parties, a weakened media, falling voter turnout and rising apathy, declining public expectations for politicians -- any or all of them could be at play. Maybe, having solved all the big problems, Canadians just gave up caring about politics and went back to watching hockey.

In the U.S., with its culture of intense and ongoing political debate, the latest news from Canada may look surprising. Not so for Canadians. After Toronto Mayor Rob Ford's crack tape surfaced, opinion polls suggest his approval ratings barely budged. Getting exercised over scandalous behavior now seems so -- what's the word? -- American.