It’s sometimes said that the media hates its readers, and that it wants readers to hate themselves too. Who knows, but the poll by a company called Pollara showing that Rob Ford is better known in the U.S. than David Cameron, prime minister of the United Kingdom, seems a little too easy. It just another way of saying all hope is lost. Those who take it as evidence of the end of Canada’s reputation abroad should remember that Jay Leno can’t find anyone outside his studio most nights who knows that you travel north to Canada, not south. Other programs have found that ordinary Americans can’t name the vice president. Why would anyone think that a poll like this means anything?
