America should heed this warning from the north

Once again, a lesson from across the border.

Not universal health care; the Canadian system is a disaster and access to a family doctor is as elusive as a Stanley Cup in Toronto, whose Maple Leafs haven't won hockey's ultimate crown in 57 years. Not euthanasia; the Canadian Medical Assistance in Dying option is a step too far for the United States, a country that can't even agree on when life begins. Not even poutine; a nation where 39.6 percent of adults are considered obese doesn't need to add beef gravy and cheese curds to its lunchtime routine.

Instead: an open letter from Canada's artistic, media, economics, business, religious and educational leaders who say they are troubled that “a growing number of us no longer consider it part of a common Canadian value system to put aside our differences and work alongside those with whom we disagree in the broader interests of Canada.”

The implicit message: Don't let Canada become the United States.

It's a message as old as 1775, when British settlers in what is now Canada looked with disbelief and disdain at the American rebellion against the mother country. Or as old as 1861, when Canada West Reform leader George Brown said, amid the passions and hostilities of the Civil War, “We are glad we are not them.”

More recently, Rob Goodman, a former Capitol Hill speechwriter who now teaches politics at Toronto Metropolitan University, wrote a book titled “Not Here: Why American Democracy Is Eroding and How Canada Can Protect Itself” in which he worried that “the forces that produced Trumpism in America are on the move here, too: the same political vocabulary, the same collective imagination, the same conspiracy theories, the same funding sources.” Goodman spoke of “the same difficulty, among the political class in both countries, in imagining a constructive response to those forces, beyond the sledgehammer of law enforcement.”

The Canadian leaders' statement begins by acknowledging that “whether they are connected to geopolitical events happening thousands of kilometers away or derived from homegrown causes, one cannot deny that tensions are on the rise in our streets and on our campuses.” In a direct response to this worry, it calls on current political figures “to address urgently the rise of incivility, public aggression and overt hatred that are undermining the peace and security of Canadian life” and argues, “This issue is so important that it transcends partisanship.”

The rot now is transcending the boundary.

“It is a style of politics that has been validated by what is going on in the U.S. and is adopted by people who don't seem to have any other way of expressing their thoughts,” said Pierre Martin, a University of Montreal political scientist. “It is present here and amplified because those people have no filter, no shame. American politics has become a circus.”

These Canadian grandees are determined that the circus doesn't become a road show with a permanent presence across the border.

“Canadians appear increasingly unwilling, unable or illequipped to talk to or live peaceably alongside those with divergent views of complex and divisive issues including, as in the current instance, those with significant geopolitical overtones and implications,” they said, adding, “Canadians with different perspectives and lived experiences need to be working together instead of retreating to the familiarity of our echo chambers to lob hurtful tropes