Those deferential Americans

Pollster challenges the myth that Canadians are the placid conformists compared to those free-thinking Yanks

Saturday, November 29, 2003

Pssst. If you're a budding religious leader wanting to corral a bunch of blindly faithful followers, don't waste your time on Canadians. They're a tough crowd.

But here's a tip: There are all these anxious people south of the 49th parallel looking desperately for a man to believe in.

Canadians and Americans, contrary to conventional wisdom, are growing much further apart in regard to how much they're willing to bow before religious authority.

Americans are becoming more acquiescent to pronouncements from above; Canadians are becoming more skeptical, according to Canadian pollster Michael Adams, author of Fire and Ice: The United States, Canada and the Myth of Converging Values.

That distaste for American obedience to religious prelates is nowhere stronger than in British Columbia, which could be characterized as the worship-free-or-die West Coast.

As head of the large polling firm, Environics, Adams is on a bit of a campaign this year to challenge Canadians' traditional myth they are placid conformists compared to America's rebellious free thinkers.

There might have been an element of truth to it in the 1950s, Adams says. But his pollsters have collected extensive data showing Americans are now more likely to be the obedient ones -- particularly to leaders who are religious and male.

The accuracy of Adams' thesis hit home to me the other day when I heard an American say something about President George W. Bush that it would be impossible to imagine a Canadian saying of any politician:

"Honestly. I think we should just trust the president in every decision that he makes. We should just support that, you know, and be faithful in what happens."

The source of that quote is an American icon -- Christian-rooted, pseudo-innocent sex-princess Britney Spears -- telling Americans how sorry she is to hear people asking Bush, an evangelical Christian, hard questions about the occupation of Iraq.

"There is an extremely close correlation between deference to authority and religiosity among Americans," Adams says, after his firm conducted extensive interviews on cultural values with more than 14,000 Canadians and Americans over a decade.

In addition to noting 40 per cent of Americans attend religious institutions every week, compared to 20 per cent of Canadians, Adams said U.S. believers are much more traditionalist and accepting of patriarchy. (They're also far more likely to trust advertisers.)

Adams argues Americans are more deferential than Canadians because they're more fearful. Americans, he says, are terrified of becoming losers in the country's fierce economic competitions. They're more afraid of violence and murder in a country that has much more of it than Canada. They're anxious their government isn't looking out for them.

"Many Americans do seem to be clinging to traditional ideas and institutions as anchors in an increasingly chaotic world," Adams says.

"Religion is fulfilling a role for Americans that secular institutions do in other countries: Safe haven, community, a place to be with 'people like me,' a refuge from Darwinian competition and conflict in an increasingly dangerous world.

"Churches are one of the few places, if not the only one, where Americans feel truly safe -- where guns are left at home or under the seat in the 4-by-4 or checked at the door."

While Adams gives the impression of being no great fan of organized religion, and may underestimate the positive support it provides millions of Canadians, he's still persuasive in his thesis that the religious attitudes of Canadians and Americans highlight a huge difference between the two countries.

For instance, he makes a revealing connection between the rise of authoritarian religion in the U.S. and his surprising finding, in this era of equal gender rights, that Americans are returning to an era, like in the 1950s, when "Father Knows Best."

In the past decade, the percentage of Americans agreeing with the statement -- "the father of the family must be master in his own home" -- has grown from 42 per cent to 49 per cent.

In Canada, it's dropped eight percentage points in the same period, to where only 18 per cent agree with the father-is-master sentiment.

"It only stands to reason, many Americans seem to be telling us, that if God-fearing men are the superior beings on this planet, then they should certainly be the bosses in their own houses."

If you wanted to get away from these trends to authority, patriarchy and deference --- where would Adams send you? B.C., as mentioned, plus Quebec and New England.

While many Canadian commentators today emphasize how we will inevit-ably mirror the political, economic and cultural values of the United States, these far-flung regions are home to the strongest pockets of resistance -- to people who are more skeptical of leaders, and more open to inward, free-spirited quests.

In that way, Adams suggests, the people of Greater Vancouver join the residents of Montreal and Boston in being less like Americans -- and more like Europeans.

dtodd@png.canwest.com

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