Continued from Meet Monika Moravan, Part II, where the hockey writer, editor, and researcher—most recently the ghostwriter for CONCUSSED! —shared her thoughts on the 2012 U.S. presidential election, CAN/AM relations, and overt Canadians living and/or working in the U.S.
MM I’d say Obama has been good for us... We’ve had a conservative government for the last few years–mind you our conservatives are a little bit left of your democrats—but I think Canadians and Americans on a one-to-one personal level get along. You see a few little different personality quirks in courts here and there. I think the relations are still good, but it’s always very interesting to be up here and watch when you guys have your elections. Our federal elections are done in 30 days.
JD: I know; it’s great.MM: Yours are two years, effectively they’re 3.5. It’s interesting to see some of the issues. I have family in the States as well, and they’re adamantly against any kind of national or public health programs, even though they’ve had to remortgage their house a couple times to pay those bills.
JD: I’ve read a couple books on the topic. I don’t know if you’ve ever read Fire and Ice, a study of Canadians and Americans. New Englanders are more Canadian, so to speak, than other areas. In Canada, it seems like there’s a certain segment that’s like, “We don’t know what we are, but we’re not American.”MM: We’re always going to be like that. We’ll always be like that (laughing). We’re a young country as well. It’s just like teenagers, right? You might not know exactly who you are, but you know you’re not your parents. You’re not your aunt and uncle or your cousins. Sometimes that’s the best way of explaining it. However, we fit in just perfectly into the U.S. ...You take a look at the top new anchors, the top journalists…and a lot of those really good US hockey players have Canadian daddies, too. Canadian boys went down there, played in the NHL, married local women. You have your Zach Parises and a slew of the other guys, too.
JD: Matthew Perry is doing pretty well, too.
