United States In the United States, Canada is often a target of
conservative and
right-wing commentators who hold the nation up as an example of what a government and society that are too
liberal would look like. "
Soviet Canuckistan" (full name being The People's Republic of Soviet Canuckistan) is an
epithet for Canada, used by
Pat Buchanan on October 31, 2002, on his
television show on
MSNBC in which he denounced Canadians as
anti-American and the country as a haven for
terrorists. He was reacting to Canadian criticisms of US security measures regarding
Arab Canadians. Buchanan has a history of unflattering references to Canada, having said in 1990 that if Canada were to break apart due to the failure of the
Meech Lake Accord, "America would pick up the pieces." He said two years after that, "for most Americans, Canada is sort of like a case of latent arthritis. We really don't think about it, unless it acts up." In 2005, the year in which Canada refused to participate in an American
ballistic missile defence system and in which
Paul Martin denounced American environmental policies, a new wave of "anti-Canadian" sentiment was reported. Media articles negatively portraying Canada increased substantially, appearing in newspapers such as the
Weekly Standard,
The New York Times, and the
Wall Street Journal. In a December 2005 interview,
Tucker Carlson remarked on
MSNBC that:First of all, anybody with any ambition at all, or intelligence, has left Canada and is now living in New York. Second, anybody who sides with Canada internationally in a debate between the U.S. and Canada, say, Belgium, is somebody whose opinion we shouldn't care about in the first place. Third, Canada is a sweet country. It is like your retarded cousin you see at Thanksgiving and sort of pat on the head. You know, he's nice, but you don't take him seriously. That's Canada. This resulted in "
O Canada" being booed during a
National Hockey League game in
Nashville between the
Ottawa Senators and
Nashville Predators. Mutual booing continued during the
4 Nations Face-Off tournament held in February 2025.
Saudi Arabia Amid a diplomatic row between
Saudi Arabia and Canada, there has been an apparent smear campaign targeting Canada in
Saudi media. An
al-Arabiya segment accused Canada of human rights abuses. (Saudi-owned al Arabiya broadcasts from Dubai.) On August 6, 2018, a pro-government youth group uploaded a controversial photo that depicted an
Air Canada airliner heading towards the
CN Tower with the words "sticking one's nose where it doesn't belong", which was a resemblance to
9/11. The account later deleted the Twitter post and apologized and the
Ministry of Media of Saudi Arabia ordered the account @Infographic_KSA to shut down "until investigations are completed".
Islamic State The
Islamic State's former spokesman,
Abu Mohammad al-Adnani, called in 2014 for loyalists to the organization worldwide to murder the "Disbelievers" from those countries that took part in the
International Action against ISIL, including Canada (which he singled out three times), which was responsible for
Operation Impact.
Brazil Anti-Canadian sentiments have been observed in Brazil. People boycotted Canadian goods to protest a Canadian ban of Brazilian beef imports, reportedly because of fears of
mad-cow disease. A few Brazilians believed the Canadian ban was motivated by a trade dispute between the two nations. Canada's subsidies to aircraft manufacturer
Bombardier and Brazil's subsidies to Bombardier's Brazilian rival
Embraer have been a source of much tension because they are said to interfere with each other's business.
Canada Some hostility towards or criticism of Canada as a nation can be seen within Canada itself, most prominently by
Quebec nationalists, Newfoundlanders and First Nations. Some First Nations refuse to celebrate
Canada Day.
Quebec Anti-Canadianism in the
Francophone province of
Quebec has its roots originally stemming from the resentment since the
conquest of
New France by
Great Britain in 1760, even before the official existence as entities of Canada and Quebec themselves. However, after the
Constitution Act, 1867, which officially made Canada a country on July 1, 1867, with four provinces: Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, which marked the separate existence and de facto independence and de jure evolutionary independence of Canada, these sentiments developed into Anti-Canadianism. Anti-Canadianism is sometimes intertwined with
Quebec nationalism. From the invasion of New France in the 1760s and the formation of Canada in 1867 until the
Quiet Revolution of the 1960s, the
economy of Quebec and its high-ranking positions were controlled by the
English speaking minority in Quebec, who were always a small minority comprising less than 10% throughout Quebec's post–Royal French Canadian history and who used to be mostly
unilingual English speakers, despite the Francophone
Québécois' comprising more than 80% of the province's population. This led nationalist thinkers to denounce a
colonial phenomenon that, as they believed, was at work between Quebec and the rest of Canada; some hold that residuals of this are still there in the present relationship. Journalist
Normand Lester published three volumes of
The Black Book of English Canada detailing events of
Canadian history he saw as being crimes perpetrated by the majority on the minority. Quebec, whose sole official language has been French since 1974, has introduced and implemented laws since the 1970s, especially with the adoption of the comprehensive
Charter of the French Language Law in 1977 that limits the visibility of English on non-official signs. Commercial signs in languages other than French (especially targeting those in English) have been permitted only if French is given marked prominence in size. This law has been the subject of periodic controversy since its inception. While the architects and advocates of the Charter of the French Language Law argue that it was adopted to promote and protect the French language, critics argue that it is anti-English Canadian in its purpose by rooting out the English language from all spheres in Quebec. One of the charter's articles stipulates that all children under 16 must receive their primary and secondary education in French schools, unless one of the child's parents has received most of their education in English, in Canada, or the child themselves has already received a substantial part of their education in English, in Canada. Access to elementary and secondary English language schools by non-anglophone immigrants have also been limited by this law.
Lucien Bouchard said that Canada wasn't a "real country", sparking outrage across Canada. He later apologized for the remark.
Newfoundland and Labrador Many in
Newfoundland and Labrador harbour an ambivalent attitude towards Canada. Many blame the federation for economic difficulties experienced since the dominion joined the confederation in 1949. Some Newfoundlanders perceive a disrespectful attitude toward them from the rest of Canada, and
Newfie stereotypes and
ethnic jokes that depict Newfoundlanders as stupid or lazy are a source of ire. Former Newfoundland premier
Danny Williams notably ordered all Canadian flags removed from provincial buildings during a dispute with the federal government in 2004. Williams was personally popular in Newfoundland, at times receiving as much as 85% support in polls.
Political accusations Sometimes Canadians accuse each other of being anti-Canadian: For example,
Manitoba Premier Gary Doer (
NDP) accused the governments of
Ontario and
Alberta of being "anti-Canadian" due to their dislike for
equalization payments. ==Anti-Canadianism and humour==