For as long as any of us have been alive, the United States has been The Leader of the Free World™ and Canada has been… there. Sure, we’ve had our cool moments (the Olympics come to mind) but it’s hard to argue with the States on the world stage. Well, it looks like we’re finally getting our moment — a New York Times opinion piece has just declared Canada “the moral leader of the free world.”

Entitled “Thank God for Canada!” and written by Nicholas Kristof, the piece points out that in the wake of Donald Trump‘s election, Canada has stepped up to call out injustice, offer asylum and overall, set an example for how moral and compassionate countries should operate.

“Canada may be one of the world’s more boring countries, as yawn-inspiring as sensible shoes — wake up, reader, I know you’re snoozing!” Kristof writes. “But it’s also emerging as a moral leader of the free world. There’s no one else.”

Boring? Have you seen our Prime Minister?

Boring jokes aside, the article paints a pretty complimentary portrait of Canada. It even claims that Justin Trudeau has turned down NYT interviews because he doesn’t want American outlets praising him too much lest Trump hold it against him. A moral leader AND modest? Incredible.

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Kristof points to Canada’s calling out of Saudi Arabia’s imprisoning of women’s rights advocates and our offering of asylum to Rahaf Mohammed Alqunun — the young woman who fled Saudi Arabia under threat of violence from her family — as two examples of Canada’s leadership. The country has also taken in more Syrian refugees while other countries closed their borders and been quietly helping Venezuela towards democracy since 2017. There’s also the whole China mess where Canada spoke out about the detention of Muslims in the Xinjiang region and stuck to its guns after arresting tech company Huawei’s CFO.

Justin Trudeau appeared at the airport to hand out winter coats to new Canadians, writes @NickKristof https://t.co/SAzhzhRhVz pic.twitter.com/g6sQAdBSeW — NYT Opinion (@nytopinion) February 7, 2019

There’s also an emphasis in the piece on admirable policies within our country such as gun control and banking oversight, calling them “preternaturally sensible.” Kristof also points to our “better safety laws,” lower vehicle fatality rate and increased use of public transit as laudable qualities.

Now before you cry “We have problems too!” Kristof acknowledges that briefly (before hitting that age-old “Nice Canadian” stereotype).

“Whenever I say something nice about Canada, I get indignant emails from Canadian friends pointing out the country’s shortcomings (which are real),” he writes. “Fortunately, Canadians don’t seem capable of mean emails. Not even of mean tweets.”

Do we have our problems? You betcha. Does the New York Times op-ed section have its problems? OH yes. Are we going to take this as a sweet little victory? Also, yes.

Kristof finishes:

“Today there’s a vacuum of constructive global leadership. Canada may be incapable of a mean tweet, but it’s tough when necessary — and it may be the leader the world needs.”

Aww.