Sorry for being polite

I hear it said, sometimes, that it’s a myth that Canadians are polite. People point out the abundance of bad news coming out of our country — gang warfare in Vancouver, nasty politics in Ottawa, internet scams targeting seniors.

I’m here to argue it’s all a matter of degree. It’s more than just talk that Canadians are more polite than people in other countries. A study of three million tweets showed that the words most used by Canadians in their tweets include beautiful, great, amazing and favourite.

Americans, on the other hand, most prefer words like stupid, hate, hell and less printable expletives.

Our politeness shows through every day, in every walk of life.

If we have more groceries than the person behind us, we let them go ahead.

We buy coffee for the next guy in line at the Tim Horton’s drive-through.

If we have time left on a parking meter ticket we give it to another driver.

We hold the door open for others, and patiently hold the elevator until the last person has crowded in.

We turn off cellphones in movie theatres. No Tommy Texters here.

Though we’ve finally mastered the zipper merge in construction zones, we do it politely, and wave a thank you to the other guy for letting us in.

And we say please and thank you and you’re welcome. Often.

There’s an old joke that asks, “How do you get 200 Canadians out of a swimming pool?” The answer is, “Say ‘please get out of the swimming pool.’”

Our favourite word, though, is “sorry.”  Our mayors say they’re sorry if they smoke crack cocaine. Our prime ministers say they’re sorry if they accidentally elbow an opponent. Our governments apologize for things that were done generations ago.  Gas stations apologize when they run out of regular. We apologize to strangers for asking them what time it is. The Maples Leafs and Canucks say they’re sorry when they have a lousy season, which is often.

Just for fun, count the number of times you hear the word “sorry” spoken in a single day. You’ll be busy. Never having to say you're sorry is definitely not Canadian.

Yet we really have nothing to apologize for. This young country has earned its keep in the grand scheme of things.

We’ve invented duct tape and basketball. We’ve given the world Terry Fox, Captain Kirk, Chris Hadfield, Superman, Celine Dion and Justin Bieber. Well, OK, never mind Justin Bieber.

We’ve given the great gifts of insulin and AM radio and Nanaimo bars, the snow blower, the baseball glove and, wait for it — hockey.

Most of all, we’ve given the world good manners.

This planet could do with a little more politeness. When people are being slaughtered in Orlando and Istanbul and Syria, and people are being told to stay out of the U.S. and leave the U.K.  based on their religion, I’d say the world could do with a little more Canada.

Our country does good work, so stand proud this Canada Day.

Sorry, but I had to say that.

– NewsKamloops.com