I've always liked toilet paper. It's just got an incredible range of uses, from cleaning spills to vandalizing trees. I also enjoy a nice chunk of chocolate on special occasions or just whenever. What's in common with these two seemingly unrelated commodities? Both of them have been hit with a 10% tariff.
Sometime in May, I was watching the news and saw that the U.S had imposed a 25% tariff on steel and aluminium imports from foreign countries. It didn't really hit me at the time because I (and my family) don't really do politics. As time passed, the media seemed to really like devoting air time to the trade war. And so, as a dutiful American citizen, I surfed the net to try and understand the trade war better. It seemed that Canada was exempt from the tariffs in the beginning, but in the end, the country America shares the longest unguarded border in the world with was also taxed. I kinda groaned inside because I really like Canadians. They've got poutine, and they're really nice (nicer than Americans).
Well, the Canadians got a little mad that they were getting taxed so they taxed America back. I definitely yelled "Yeah" out loud when I heard about that (from my grandparents in Canada). As an ABC (American Born Canadian), I have an awfully conflicted point of view. My background (living in Canada from ages 2-10) probably makes me more Canadian than American. Although I guess I'm an American now, albeit a partly cloudy one.
Wow Allan. I didn't know what was quite going on until the last three words, but it was, nonetheless, quite interesting to read. However, I would like to kindly disagree with the fact when you say Americans aren't as nice as Canadians. Americans are much much much nicer in every aspect whether it is taxing foreign goods or building walls on borders. Otherwise, I am now a partly cloudy reader after dissolving the information you put forth.
ReplyDelete(P.S. I bet I can eat that bowl of poutine faster than you.)
Hi Allan! Your post was very interesting- usually, ABC is used to refer to American Born Chinese, but I love how for you specifically, it could refer to either that or American Born Canadian. There were little bits of humor throughout this blog post- it made me laugh, which I felt made the blog post easier to read for sure. Thanks for providing a nice post about your feelings on how American you truly are. I'd like to know what exactly made you say that Canadians are much nicer than Americans, but I'm sure it was a valid statement. I enjoyed this post.
ReplyDeleteHey Allan, I love your post. The humor kept me laughing all the way through. Also, great introductory paragraph, "I've always liked toilet paper" is a great way to grab someone's attention; it definitely grabbed mine. Overall, I enjoyed that your post was about a personal experience and how you are conflicted about being Canadian and American. I also love how you ended your post by relating it to "The Partly Cloudy Patriot". Great job!
ReplyDeleteHahaha! Allan you never fail to make me laugh. Thanks so much for providing a new viewpoint for me everytime we converse. Your intro paragraph had me cracking up, and I thoroughly enjoyed your post about the overall atmosphere between Canada and the US. You have very effective examples!
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