in america, you had chattel slavery; in canada, we had the underground railroad.

in america, you conquered and often slaughtered the indians as you moved west; in canada, we signed treaties with them (except in bc), offered them protection from american settlers & tried to make them more british through coercive assimilation policies. mirror reflection...

the general constant is that the basis of canadian civilization has largely been constructed in reaction to american civilization - less in terms of open opposition, but often in terms of learning from mistakes. so, in many ways, canada is america's sober second thought. and, that is the canadiana, the canadianism, the good governance of canadian history - that we pay very close attention to what america does, but we don't copy it the way a colony might, but rather understand the flaws and benefits and try and learn from and improve it via careful empirical analysis...

if we've strayed from this path recently, i can only suggest getting back to it.