Your anti-Americanism is showing … and it’s not flattering on you.

The insufferable tendencies of the anti-American left in this country are back with a vengeance, and the Republican nominee for president of the U.S. is to blame. Sort of.

He’s being made the scapegoat — and his unlikely rise in politics over the past year has some Canadians acting pretty smug about what we don’t want to see here.

Social media allows people to be hypocrites in only 140 characters, and the anti-American choir is getting a bit too loud. While both candidates in the upcoming presidential election are the two least likeable people in all of America, hate for them is quickly spiralling into a disdainful relic of our past. Vilifying Donald Trump, in particular, is becoming synonymous with hating America.

When we hate America, we are at our absolute worst. And celebrating their failure as a nation is consistent with the behaviour of a village idiot.

Trump is everything the left hates. In fact, he’s a lot of things the right hates. He’s been criticized for being a bigot, a racist, a belligerent anti–intellectual … the list goes on and many in this country are choosing to snub an entire nation because of him.

Many are even inviting a wave of anti-Trump nationals to come to Canada if he is elected. Embracing that wave of anti-trade, old-time war deserters who hate America isn’t exactly what we’re looking for here in terms of immigration.

Canada and the U.S. have a unique bilateral relationship coveted by many of our allies. It has proven to be a colossal benefit to our Canadian workforce, giving them preferential access to the largest single market on the globe.

The anti-Americanism that dominated various parts of our modern history is an irrational gag reflex that too many on the left find comforting. Some say it is rooted in an inferiority complex; others attribute it to a material difference between our countries. Both reasons are short-sighted, and frankly absurd.

Hating America doesn’t make Canada better — it doesn’t even make us different. After all, we North Americans have shared values, a shared commitment to freedom, democracy, and the rule of law. Our soldiers fight side by side in the world’s most dangerous war zones against a common enemy. Our business depends on a U.S. market to provide high-paying good quality jobs for Canadians. Our institutions collaborate on research to find cures for the diseases that don’t care about borders.

Our identity is not based on what or who we are not, rather it’s based on what and who we are. Don’t ever let the left make you believe otherwise.

— Melissa Lantsman was director of communications to former Conservative finance minister Joe Oliver. She currently lives and work in finance in Toronto.

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