In 1967 as part of Canada’s centenary celebrations, Montreal hosted the
world exposition. I was eleven years old living in Vancouver, thousands of miles away. Montreal was an abstraction, no more real to me than New York City or Paris, but I remember the pride I felt in having the world’s attention focused on my country. At the time, Expo 67 was the biggest event ever held in Canada, only to be eclipsed by the Montreal Olympics nine years later.
Those were heady times for Canada. In Pierre Trudeau we had a dynamic prime minister who broke the mould of the fusty political leaders we were used to. We took pride in the international (US) success of musicians like Gordon Lightfoot, Neil Young and Joni Mitchell. And we celebrated the rising stardom – always in the US – of performers like Donald Sutherland, William Shatner and Christopher Plummer, as evidence that we were as good as our American neighbours.
On the strength of these and other examples of national success it felt as if we were finally emerging from the shadow of the cultural and economic behemoth to our south. And with increased exposure to sunlight our national identity took root and was encouraged to grow through CanCon policies to promote Canadian cultural industries and through public institutions like the CBC. Although to people around the world Canadians talked and acted in ways 
that seemed indistinguishable from Americans, we insisted on our fine points of difference until we finally won the international recognition we always craved: that Canada is not the same as America.
More recently, especially since the election last year of Donald Trump, we seem to have risen even further in the eyes of the world, to the point where Canada is now seen as better than the US. Our top cities rank significantly higher than US cities on international lists of the most desirable places to live. Our national statistics on such broad measures as crime, literacy, longevity and infant mortality are all more favourable than those for the US. Even Americans now look to Canada for examples of how they might improve their society in areas like healthcare and urban planning.
Just over a hundred years ago Canadian Prime Minister Wilfred Laurier declared the 20th century belonged to Canada. Clearly he got that wrong – the US was the dominant nation of the last century. And in spite of efforts to “Make America Great Again,” China is probably the strongest contender for the current one. But then, where would you rather live? For that matter, those Chinese who have a choice have shown where they want to live. And it isn’t in the motherland.