There’s an old joke that goes: Why did the Canadian cross the road? Answer: To get to the middle of the road. Likewise (so they say), if you cut the average Canadian open you would find two words engraved on his or her heart. One would be “moderate”. The other would be “nice”.

and also

Stephen Harper didn’t do “nice”. His default setting was “nasty”, and he positively revelled in it. He was a control freak who instinctively tried to hurt and smear those who disagreed with him, and in his government even the time of day was a state secret.

These are from a recent column by Gwynne Dyer