It isn't just a "Canadian" problem. You see that all over the USA too.
Also, why the hostility? I've never met a Canadian that expressed a sense superiority about not being part of the USA. I've met plenty who are proud of their national identity, and there's nothing wrong with that. It's quite admirable too, in my opinion. Nation-building isn't easy.
I am not the parent but the comment does have some merit (and I say this as a Canadian). For a lot of things we simply gloat that we’re better than the US and then end up thinking that our work is done.
Classic case is health care (‘look, we spend less than the US and have free healthcare’) where instead of looking up to countries with better healthcare outcomes than us, we look down on America and act smug. Other cases include our climate record, and post secondary education.
I am yet to meet a fellow Canadian who hasn’t complained about our health care system. It seems to be one of the main discussions around provincial elections.
> Classic case is health care (‘look, we spend less than the US and have free healthcare’)
Who is saying this, other than low-information Americans on social media hung up on the word 'free'? Every Canadian knows that the reality is much more complicated with capacity shortages since Covid, and an opportunistic provincial government in Ontario doing its very best to push further privatization.
A very large part of Canada's national identity is "not being the US". The two countries are so similar, that Canadians hold on with their fingernails any marginal difference and any criticism is responded to with "it could be worse, we could be like the US".
I don't know. I heard this narrative a lot more during the trump era, and I rarely hear it now. I have a pet theory that it comes up in popular Canadian culture when a republican is in office and dies down when a democrat is there.
Maybe it’s changed, but the “Canadian identity” has long been this amorphous thing many Canadians quietly fret over because nobody is quite sure what it is but they're sure it exists.
Since US and Canada are so similar, a lot of the discussion of identity are around the differences, which to me is a weird way to talk about a national identity.
It also comes up a lot when someone mentions something positive about the US that Canada struggles with, say economic growth - then it becomes a common refrain of “yes, but at least X is better in Canada than the US”.
It’s also used commonly in discussions in healthcare - any change is described as “Amerification” of the healthcare system even those the change would just make Canada more like European systems.
Maybe it’s unavoidable being right next door to the US, I don't know.
Also, why the hostility? I've never met a Canadian that expressed a sense superiority about not being part of the USA. I've met plenty who are proud of their national identity, and there's nothing wrong with that. It's quite admirable too, in my opinion. Nation-building isn't easy.