I was pretty certain that I would be constantly engaged in discussion by our American friends and neighbours about the activities of Rob Ford. In my mind I had prepared a group of throw-away lines that I thought might end the conversation without all that much discussion. To my surprise, There has not been that much talk of the mayor, and that which has happened was quite likely started by me.
When I meet new people they always ask where I am from, and I reply "Ontario", or "Toronto", or "Collingwood, Ontario", depending on how much data I think is necessary. Not always, but at least once for each of these answers, the person asking has responded "Oh, eastern Canada". Usually, the conversation also has a short section about Rob Ford.
One of my American friends hit the nail on the head; Americans do no know much about Canada. They do not carry a mental image of the map of Canada in their heads the way Canadians do of the United States. I once corrected a new friend by saying that Toronto is more central, and they were OK with that, but then informed me that they must have been thinking about Montreal being in eastern Canada. This is all OK, and Canadians should expect this, (really, I think we like it that way). The map of Canada should be important to Canadians, not Americans. Americans do have more important things in this world than Canada to think about. To get back to my friends point:
"the shame is that one of the few things that Americans now know about Canada is that Rob Ford is the mayor, that he is a criminal, and there is nothing the city, the province, or the federal government can or will do to remove him from office".
"One of the few things that many Americans now know about Canada". Ouch! To exaggerate, the American experience of Canada may be limited to the Iranian hostage situation of 40 years ago, and this is now being challenged by the Rob Ford story. Ouch. We have truly fallen from grace.