Is Canada cool?

Is Canada still cool? It was this past weekend, if Peter Stevenson, writing in the New York Times style section, is to be believed. “As (Justin) Trudeau and his wife, Sophie Grégoire-Trudeau (along with their three young children, Xavier, Ella-Grace and Hadrien), create a Canadian Camelot, they are casting light on a wider eruption already in progress.” Something remarkable is afoot, ostensibly. Suddenly Canada has songwriters, rappers, directors, actors, comedians, entrepreneur j ournalists and fashionistas.

Did I use that last word right? People who make fashion, and also their fans? I know little of cool or hip, and I have no idea if Sunday Styles is a reliable arbiter of it. But have you seen Sophie Grégoire-Trudeau singing at Monday’s Martin Luther King Day event in Ottawa? Some think that was meaningfully uncool, and understandably so: if there’s an appropriate moment for a well- to- do Canadian white person to bust out some ropey song she composed for her daughter, King’s 87th birthday isn’t it. But it was certainly uncool in an “oh my God mom stop” kind of way.

Back to the Times: “In the months since his election, Mr. Trudeau, 44, the 6- foot-2 self- described feminist, who has been a television actor, snowboarding instructor and amateur boxer, has assumed the role of world leader with a heart,” Stevenson gushed. “In December, to the delight of the Twitterati, he welcomed a planeload of Syrian refugees with the phrase ‘ You’re safe at home now,’ while helping them into warm coats.”

Indeed, Trudeau and his followers assailed uncool Canadians who thought resettling 25,000 governmentassisted refugees by the end of 2015 was unwise, reckless or just plain unlikely. Remember when Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall wrote to Trudeau after the Paris attacks, suggesting the 25,000- by- year- end deadline might “severely undermine the refugee screening process”? He was swarmed by online hipsters. How dare he insinuate the Paris attacks had anything to do with Syrians? “For the record, I think @ PremierBradWall is right to raise legitimate questions about refugee settlement,” Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi tweeted amidst the backlash. But not even Cool Mayor could dull the roar.

But then, suddenly, Trudeau hi mself admitted the plan had to change because of “the perception that Canadians had.” And golly, would you look at this week’s headlines? “Refugee arrivals to Vancouver ‘ paused’.” “Five- day pause put on Toronto refugee arrivals.” “Several Canadian cities stop taking Syrian refugees.” “More resettlement agencies ask f or a pause in Syrian refugee arrivals.” They’re downright American. And as of Wed- nesday, we had only so far resettled 11,613 Syrians — less than half the original goal, three weeks after the original deadline. Many of them are privately sponsored and thus, in theory, much less of a burden on resettlement services.

And listen to Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale this week: “It’s extremely important that ( refugees) settle well,” he told reporters at the Liberals’ retreat in New Brunswick. “If we, being Canada, are going to maintain our very successful efforts so far at pluralism, at diversity and inclusion … then we’ve got to be among the best in the world at counter-radicalization.”

You would almost think one or two or three Syrian refugees might, in theory, one day pose a security risk. We’ve certainly come a long way from the days when Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne was applauded for warning against “allowing security to mask racism,” as Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard — who proposes to ban women i n niqabs from receiving government services — nodded soberly alongside her.

Is Canada cool? Many Canadians seemed to roll their eyes at the silly Times article, because of course Canada is cool. If it hasn’t always been cool, it certainly has been for many years. But cool people don’t tend to brag about themselves as much as Canadians brag about their idealized vision of Canada, it seems to me. To wit: Twitter was alive with self- congratulation this week, with news that Canada had been ranked the second- best place in the world to live.

We might have been first had we not suffered on a few metrics: 25 out of 100 for “trendy”; 23 for “fashionable”; 18 for “culturally significant in terms of entertainment”; 8 for “great food”; 6 for “influential culture”; and 1 for “different.” Eep.

But we do have a handsome f ormer snowboard instructor for a prime minister, and he has a lovely family. And we have some nice restaurants in our big cities, and we export a fair number of celebrities to the United States and we never fail to remind people those celebrities are Canadian no matter how long they stay in America. And we’re not preternaturally comfortable with airlifting tens of thousands of people we don’t really know anything about to live here permanently. I’d say that makes us a pretty normal country in j ust about every respect, albeit with notable inferiority and superiority complexes. And I’m happy enough with that.

I’D SAY WE’RE A PRETTY NORMAL COUNTRY, ALBEIT WITH NOTABLE INFERIORITY AND SUPERIORITY COMPLEXES.

‘ TRUDEAU AND HIS FOLLOWERS ASSAILED UNCOOL CANADIANS’ — SELLEY