Please wipe your feet

The weekly documentary news program CNN Presents discussed the world's oil crisis on Sunday and discovered Canada's oil surplus, investigating what Alberta's land means to the rest of the world... Well, to the U.S.

Not nearly as offensive as most American TV is about Canada, the episode still reaked of the usual jingoism American media is so well known for. Of course, it prompted me to write an email.

My words to CNN:

It would be prudent, I believe, to remind CNN that the network is a global entity and, more specifically, a North American network that needs to remember there are Canadians who turn to it for news as well. While we are indeed honoured that CNN has found a story north of the 49th parallel, let us please not forget that the oil crisis, and Canada's role in assisting, also affects Canadians. So when you raise, on air, the question "how does this affect us?" the attitude plays like the U.S. eating off our plate and saying "oh, were you gonna finish that?" It is a global crisis. The least you could do is portray it as such. And while you're at it, leave out the misguided allusions to my country being some arctic outpost. Americans' views of Canada are already skewed enough as it is.