Interesting article, but you missed a few things, and were actually dead wrong on others!

I liked the analogy between American ideology and religion (Robert A. Heinlin prophetically--no pun intended--wrote of a future American theocracy in one of his books), but you fail to point out that, just as so few Christians actually emulate Jesus, so too few Americans really live by the ideals that they claim to hold sacred. The same fundamentalists who want the constitution to protect their "right" to display the ten commandments at the state capitol, or whatever, also want that same constitution amended to negate the (correctly) presumed right of same-sex marriage. Utter hypocrisy. So like religion!

I disagreed with your assertion that, at the time of Confederation, there was no "national project" or dream. What about the transcontinental railroad? What about the growth of the west? Like their American counterparts, I'm sure droves of Canadian boys dreamed of going out west to become a cowboy, to mine gold, or to become a lumberjack or a railroad engineer. I don't think the details of the "romance" of that era was so different in Canada, and those dreams did indeed allow the nation to hang together.

But we can't be too smug, can we? Just because the religious right is weaker here, doesn't mean they don't slip one by every once in a while. It still burns my ass every time I have to hear the revised lyric "God keep our land glorious and free" in the national anthem, and frankly, I doubt I've ever made it through that line without choking on it.