Canadians are cheap-ass jerks?

Are we really all that bad?

Just a day after I blog about how nice our country is to live in, I find criticism that Canadians need to do more to help out those less fortunate beyond our borders.

According to a poll by the Centre for Global Development and Foreign Policy magazine, we rank only 10th out of 21 rich countries when it comes to helping the poor. But then, when I looked at the actual criteria, the poll suddenly became confusing. It mixed in things like aid and trade policies with which countries we sell high-tech weapons to and environmental policy. I understand the pollsters were trying to get a comprehensive view, but with such a wide range of variables, I'm a little confuses how one would conclude that someone ranked tenth instead of eleventh, much less first or twenty-first.

At the same time, it seems our allegedly parsimonious ways are not really hurting our international image. On the latest Anholt Nation Brands Index (whatever that is...) we have the second-most popular national brand in the world. That basically means that people around the world are more likely to buy our products if they know they were made in Canada than if they were made in, let's say, France.

Now, if only we actually produced something besides oil, maple syrup and beer.

tags: cheap jerks, Centre for Global Development and Foreign Policy, Canadian brand, Anholt Nations Brands Index