CANADIANS' PRIDE IS BACK -- IN A BIG, NEIGHBORLY WAY

They always seemed so quiet, so polite.

Still, America's neighbor to the north has been making quite a racket of late.

Canada was roaring last week. Wild celebrations of Canada Day, a nationwide
birthday bash akin to the Fourth of July, were followed by an even bigger
frenzy when word came down that Vancouver will host the 2010 Winter
Olympics. The maple leaf was everywhere as Canadians hoisted flags at
concerts and parades. Revelers donned red-and-white face paint, and one
local government official shaved a leaf into the back of his head.

All in all, not a bad week for a country that U.S. authorities most
recently branded as unsafe for both tourists and cattle.

With SARS and mad cow disease contained and the media off their backs, many
Canadians now say we are witnessing the birth of a new image. No longer
America's chilly little sister, they say, Canada is coming into its own.

And just like that, it's suddenly cool to be Canadian.

"We're Hollywood North," says Donna Messer, who last week launched a
Canadian pride Web site, WeChooseCanada.com.

The political chasm at the 49th parallel is widening. Go back to March,
when Canada refused to support the war in Iraq. Since then, Ontario has
extended marriage rights to gay couples, and the Canadian government has
promised to legalize same-sex marriage nationwide. Legislation also is in
the pipeline to eliminate criminal penalties for marijuana use.

Naturally, the USA is starting to take notice. There's something different
up north, and many Canadians couldn't be prouder.

"A lot of people have been showing their colors," says Isabelle Des Chenes,
director of communications for the Canadian Tourism Commission. The
country's fresh sense of identity inspired a rowdier Canada Day this year,
she says. Nearly every house on her block bore a maple leaf flag, something
that hasn't happened before.

WeChooseCanada.com, which went live July 1 to coincide with Canada Day, had
more than 1,000 hits and collected 100 stories from patriotic Canadians in
its first 24 hours.

"Canada has been a quiet, polite country that has not really waved its flag
as much as it could," Messer says. "We wanted it to be more American."

The country's liberal politics have won some big fans among American
left-wingers. The latest issue of The Stranger, Seattle's alternative
newsweekly, features more than a half-dozen stories on Canadian politics,
under the headline: "Land of the Free: Why Canada Kicks America's A -- - ."

American activists also are taking notice. The National Organization for
the Reform of Marijuana Laws has been incorporating pro-Canada references
into its literature for years. It's a message that sells, spokesman Paul
Armentano says.

"Changes that are taking place literally across the globe are now taking
place in our own backyard," he says. "That makes it impossible for the
American public and government to ignore."

Longing for "asylum," he says, some smokers have decided to pack up and
move to Canada. And they aren't alone: "I'm ready to immigrate," says Quade
Whitmire, entertainment manager for San Francisco Gay Pride.

Canadians say it's nothing new that their country is more liberal than the
USA. Diversity is prized in Canada, where nearly half of the population
classifies itself as neither Canadian, French nor British. This, some say,
has bred tolerance, but it also has denied the country an identity.

As is happening now, the country shines most when the USA notices it, says
Hannah Sung, a pop culture reporter for MuchMusic, Canada's MTV equivalent.
"If you're the puny kid in high school, you just love the attention," she says.

For now, at least, the attention appears to be good. But what if Americans
decide they don't like their neighbor's new image?

"I guess they'll continue to blame Canada," Des Chenes says.