# POLL for politically astute Americans **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 9, 2005, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-for-politically-astute-americans/334813 "2005-12-09T02:43:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2005, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-for-politically-astute-americans/334813/41 "2005-12-11T04:17:14Z")
> [@pravnik](#): > > Forget this Parrish person, what I want to know is…what the heck is this “Canada” everyone’s going on about? 😕 Is it related at all to this “America” thing everyone keeps mentioning? ---
**Author:** ![Lok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e8c25b/32.png) [@Lok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lok)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2005, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-for-politically-astute-americans/334813/42 "2005-12-11T07:49:58Z")
I heard about the original comments she made, but the name didn’t stick and I had no idea about the subsequent events. I do tend to agree with her about the doll though. 😛 For the record, I have been to Canada several dozen times, have enjoyed it a great deal, and am looking forward to going back. But I don’t follow your politics. Ours drive me crazy, and I can at least vote in our elections. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2005, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-for-politically-astute-americans/334813/43 "2005-12-12T04:03:25Z")
Another American checking in to admit I had never heard of Ms Parrish prior to now. I presume her message is more intended for a domestic audience anyway. I think she goes farther than is wise in blaming everyone in a nation for the actions of its current government, but she’s hardly the only person who’s ever done that. As an American, nothing she’s said offends me personally. ---
**Author:** ![Nic2004](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/4491bb/32.png) [@Nic2004](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nic2004)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2005, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-for-politically-astute-americans/334813/44 "2005-12-12T04:17:22Z")
As an American I can say I love Canada and feel like it has closer bonds and friendship to the US than almost any other nation in the world. Current politics and extremist aside, I feel a closeness with the people of Canda. Carolyn who? ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2005, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-for-politically-astute-americans/334813/45 "2005-12-12T05:20:41Z")
> [@Queuing](#): > > trying to say that Canadians have a superior attitude towards Americans, that Americans know it and don’t like it, one example of such is Parrish, and that is part of the reason for the softwood lumber dispute and refusal to take Canadian beef. I would say that your viewpoint is closer to reality than that of the poster whose words you’ve paraphrased. Simply throwing out the name “Carolyn Parrish,” I would not have known her. On the other hand, when you, as a Canadian, ask “Do you Yanks know who this is?” I immediatedly knew that she was the Mississauga MP who declared her “hatred” for the U.S. and then recalled that at the time of her little rant, it was disclosed that she has a penchant for directing off-the-wall insults at lots of people. As to the beef and softwood issues, those are fueled by local political issues. I doubt that anyone outside Georgia or the housing industry even knows that we are having a feud over softwood and the beef issue was a blip that is probably not remembered by most of the people even in the beef industry and is certainly unknown by the typical patron of McDonald’s or Ruth’s Chris Steak House. There are certainly NOT millions of angry U.S. citizens flooding Washington with calls to impose nasty sanctions on Canada over those issues. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2005, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-for-politically-astute-americans/334813/46 "2005-12-12T07:10:10Z")
Never heard of her, and would like to add that being politically astute doesn’t mean knowing about every minor catfight that goes on in a foreign country. ---
**Author:** ![Hometownboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5e9695/32.png) [@Hometownboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hometownboy)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2005, 9:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-for-politically-astute-americans/334813/47 "2005-12-12T09:15:48Z")
Politically astute? Well, I thought so. But though I work at a small daily newspaper, and read several newsmagazines, I’ve completely missed this one. It may be symptomatic at a larger level, though. Just ran a search on the AP wire for the last two weeks on the name “Parrish” and got the following: 12/9/2005 08:02:36 Story z2203 HKN NHL RDP 12/9/2005 06:31:31 Story z2115 HKN NHL RDP 12/9/2005 05:21:26 Story z2027 HKN NHL CAPSULES 12/9/2005 04:23:36 Story z1953 HKN NHL RDP 12/9/2005 00:53:23 Story B1258 HKN NHL RDP - Crosby can already see lack of effort by Penguins teammates 12/8/2005 19:51:28 Story B1160 HKN NHL CAPSULES - NHL Capsules 12/8/2005 15:02:41 Photo NY203 AP S NY USA NY203 HKN ADV FILE ART OF HOCKEY 12/8/2005 12:31:00 Photo NY186 AP S CA USA NY186 FBN FILE UNDERACHIEVER CHAMBERS 12/7/2005 00:44:37 Story B1255 HKN NHL RDP - Flyers, Flames settle scoreless tie in shootout; Thornton scores first in new home 12/6/2005 23:53:27 Story B1239 HKN NHL CAPSULES, 1ST LD-WRITETHRU - NHL Capsules 12/6/2005 20:06:26 Story B1159 HKN NHL CAPSULES - NHL Capsules 12/3/2005 18:28:27 Story B1089 FBC COLLEGE FOOTBALL CAPSULES - College Football Capsules 12/3/2005 13:22:59 Photo FLJR106 AP S FL USA FLJR106 FBC CUSA CHAMPIONSHIP TULSA UCF 12/2/2005 00:46:24 Story O0964 OR STROKE BUSTER - Two Oregon women first on West Coast for anti-stroke device 11/29/2005 21:17:29 Story B1202 HKN NHL CAPSULES, 1ST LD-WRITETHRU - NHL Capsules 11/29/2005 20:33:25 Story B1140 HKN NHL CAPSULES - NHL Capsules 11/29/2005 17:45:28 Story B1105 1000TH EXECUTION, 2ND LD-WRITETHRU - Virginia governor spares life of man set to become 1,000th person executed in U.S. since 1976 11/28/2005 06:11:30 Story z1899 FBN NFL RDP 11/28/2005 04:14:30 Story z1783 FBN NFL CAPSULES 11/28/2005 04:11:00 Story z1769 FBN NFL CAPSULES 11/28/2005 00:24:24 Story B1215 FBN NFL RDP - Missed kicks and victorious backups QBs on Sunday 11/27/2005 20:45:30 Story B1082 FBN NFL CAPSULES, 2ND LD-WRITETHRU - NFL Capsules Page 1 of 1 22 records That’s it - the Parrish referenced in all the NHL stories is The Islanders’ Mark Parrish, the football stories mention Uril Parrish, who had 100 yards and a touchdown for the Golden Hurricane, etc. Apparently sports are more important than stories from Canada, which is a damn shame in my book. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2005, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-for-politically-astute-americans/334813/48 "2005-12-12T14:57:16Z")
> [@Smeghead](#): > > Is it related at all to this “America” thing everyone keeps mentioning? Never heard of either one, frankly…I went to public school in Texas. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2005, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-for-politically-astute-americans/334813/49 "2005-12-12T17:25:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Just ran a search on the AP wire for the last two weeks on the name “Parrish” Her “I hate the bastards” comment was uttered at the time of the Iraq invasion. You’d need to go back a bit further than two weeks–and since she has been booted from her party, she does not make even Canadian news all that often. ---
**Author:** ![saoirse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2005, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-for-politically-astute-americans/334813/50 "2005-12-12T17:28:14Z")
I remember the incident, and had the vague notion that people MPS in ll sorts of countries were still doing this, but it’s only the first one that’s news. > [@Queuing](#): > > The reason I asked this question was because someone in this thread [Canadian election GD thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=346400) is trying to say that Canadians have a superior attitude towards Americans, that Americans know it and don’t like it… I say… Canadians have no such attitude, and that it has nothing to do with the trade disputes… Well you guys are always _up threre,_ you know? Like you’re lording it over us. Maybe if you were a little further south. ---
**Author:** ![Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2005, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-for-politically-astute-americans/334813/51 "2005-12-13T02:10:59Z")
> [@Larry Borgia](#): > > I read the paper every day, and I’ve never heard of her or her comments. Of course not. In the 28 months I’ve lived in New York, I can count on _one hand_ the number of articles I’ve seen that refer to Canada. One of them was this week, about the Montreal Global Warming talks. One of them was about a hockey player getting clobbered in Vancouver. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2005, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-for-politically-astute-americans/334813/52 "2005-12-13T05:54:58Z")
> [@](#): > > In the 28 months I’ve lived in New York, I can count on one hand the number of articles I’ve seen that refer to Canada. Are you living in New York State or New York City? In the city, you’re lucky to see stories about events elsewhere in the United States, let alone Canada. ---
**Author:** ![Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2005, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-for-politically-astute-americans/334813/53 "2005-12-13T06:06:03Z")
The city. And I work in TV news. The only reason I hear stories about my home and native land is because I subscribe to Maclean’s and the Globe & Mail. Frigging _Brazil_ gets more news coverage in the U.S. than Canada. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-for-politically-astute-americans/334813.md?page=2)