Ad for Canadian Club on transit shelter in Chicago, 2008

In today’s Globe and Mail Michael Byers of the University of British Columbia reviews Branding Canada: Projecting Canada’s Soft Power Through Public Diplomacy, by Evan H. Potter, a former civil servant with Foreign Affairs in Ottawa, who now teaches at Carleton University.

The review is headlined “Who do they think we are?” And it starts with: “Evan H. Potter takes a hard look at the way this country sells itself, and finds that we come up short. We’re not putting enough money into promoting our image abroad, and we’re missing important opportunities to shine a light on our achievements, he says.”

Potter raises some good points. But judging from Byers’s review he omits one key to the current Canadian “branding” issue. This is raised by a post from yesterday in the US online magazine Slate. It’s from the “Explainer: Answers to your questions about the news.” And it is headlined: “The Brits Have Taken Over Turks and Caicos. Is Canada Next? Only if the Queen is feeling imperial.”

Even people in other places who know Canada best, that is to say, are confused by our current extremely vague and obsolete relationship with the offshore British monarchy.

Before we start spending a lot more hard-earned tax dollars trying to promote our Canadian image abroad, we should be listening to the 65% who told the Strategic Counsel last month that they want to sever remaining ties to the British Crown, at the end of Elizabeth II`s reign. Or the 55% who told Angus Reid Strategies last year that they want to end Canada`s formal ties with the British monarchy right now!

Then maybe a few others in  the rest of the world will start to think that maybe we actually do have some kind of emerging brand of our own.  And that will be a real beginning, at last.