One theme that I've seen get fairly steady play in the conservative blogosphere over the past five years is the idea that Canada is a sucky, liberal country that is too gutless to stand with the U.S. in opposition to terrorism, in contrast to our Anglosphere brother Australia, which is usually portrayed as America's stolid friend and ally, always ready to mix it up alongside Uncle Sam. It's kind of a Australians are from Mars, Canadians are from Venus angle. Here's an example, from star conservative columnist and erstwhile Canadian Mark Steyn.

Now, certainly Australia supported the Iraq invasion, which Canada did not. That's something that many Americans noted with gratitude, regardless of what one thinks of the Iraq invasion. But in the overall 'war on terror,' I'd say Canada is pulling its weight.

Look at Afghanistan. Canada has been in the thick of the fighting for some time, and has lost 40 soldiers and counting since 2001. ON a per capita basis, this is on par with the losses suffered by the U.S.A (338 killed, according to CNN). Even in terms of sheer numbers, other than the U.S., only the British, with 40 killed to date, have lost as many troops as Canada when it comes to NATO countries. The Australians have lost one soldier in Afghanistan and two more in Iraq, according to both CNN and Wikipedia. I have to stress that I'm not trying to say that Canada's efforts are more laudible than those of the Australians. I've been a fairly consistent admirer of Australia over the years. Furthermore, I feel uneasy about citing these kinds of tragic facts as if they represent some kind of scorecard; that's not my intention. It just pisses me off that our own contributions are so consistently ignored, or at best given grudging, cursory mention by the very conservative mouthpieces that claim to honour this kind of military commitment and sacrifice.

Part of it is that media commentators are often all shtick and no sense. When you make your living peddling a world view that's essentially a howling song-and-dance act in which 'liberal' countries are pussies and 'conservative' countries are serious defenders of democracy, any facts that contradict your caricature-based, autopilot rants get ignored or trampled.

Nonetheless, it's bullshit, and I'm tired of it.