Canadians want Americans to know they're already great

The World

Canadians are by reputation very nice. They're polite. They don't easily engage in harsh talk. But they've been hearing a lot of it lately. Three-quarters of Canada's population live within 100 miles of the border with the US, and that puts them within the media reach of the American presidential campaign.

And the Trump-Clinton mano a mano depresses them. 

"Even though we're up here in Canada, we're inundated with the same bouts of negativity, over and over again, and the craziness," says Shari Walczak of Toronto-based creative company The Garden North America. Morning-after watercooler chatter at her agency eventually turned into a question: "Is there any way just to inject a little bit more optimism and positivity?"

Their answer: a social media campaign with the hashtag #TellAmericaItsGreat.  

Walczak says the #TellAmericaItsGreat campaign was not originally a response to Trump's "Make America Great Again" mantra. "It didn't really start with that in mind," she says, adding that it was her colleague who came up with the idea. "Instead of blaring on with all this negativity, why don't we think about sending a bit of a love note," was the suggestion that came up. 

And then, of course, the "great" idea became obvious. "But it was actually our own discussion," says Walczak. "We were thinking, why are they being told they're not great? There are so many amazing things about America and Americans today. Not just the past, but today."

But do Canadians really want to spend their time praising the behemoth to the south who's a global attention-grabber and sometimes, well, a downright pain? Walczak admits a wee bit of Canadian pride. "Well, it certainly can be a bit of a national pastime for us to poke fun or comment on the US, as a way to prop ourselves up." But in the end, the nastiness of the campaign moved them to be a helpful neighbor. 

"I don't [know] if Americans realize how much the rest of the world is looking at this election and all of the antics around it coming from all sides. And it's pretty depressing."

And the response? "It literally has been overwhelming."

And it hasn't been a one-way street. "I think what was most amazing for us was that it was coming from both sides of the border," Walczak says, adding that their initial hope was to get Canadians to start tweeting and to get their friends to tweet. "But the response from the US was overwhelming and it was the gratitude."

"I don't mean to be schmaltzy or cheesy, but we started reading the feed, and some of it made us laugh, and some of it made us teary-eyed, and we realized, wow, we've hit a bigger chord that we maybe even realized."

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