BOOK EXCERPT
PASSAGES
The tall poppy syndrome
Andrew Cohen
Canada is afflicted by tall poppy syndrome, where the flower that rises above the rest is
cut down. There is a meanness of spirit about the way we treat our public figures,
writes Andrew Cohen, in this excerpt from his new book, The Unfinished Canadian: The
People We Are. All prime ministers and public officials fall victim to this unhealthy
obsession with their expenses and travel costs, but no one suffered more from this
pseudo-accountability than Adrienne Clarkson during her term as governor general.
Le Canada souffre de ce syndrome qui consiste à rabattre tout ce qui s’élève au-dessus
du lot. Il y a beaucoup de cruauté dans le sort que nous réservons à nos personnalités,
écrit Andrew Cohen, dans cet extrait de son dernier ouvrage intitulé The Unfinished
Canadian: The People We Are. Tous nos premiers ministres et grands serviteurs de l’État
sont ainsi victimes de cette fixation sur leurs dépenses et leurs frais de voyage, mais
personne n’a autant souffert de cette pseudo-responsabilisation que l’ancienne
gouverneure générale Adrienne Clarkson.
O
ver the past few years, Irvin
Studin, a young political
thinker schooled at York
University, the London School of
Economics, and the University of
Oxford, approached dozens of prominent Canadians and asked them to
write essays on the meaning of
Canada. He collected their contributions in What Is a Canadian? FortyThree Thought-Provoking Responses,
which was published in 2006. Studin
was inspired by a similar thematic collection edited in 1958 by David BenGurion, the first prime minister of
Israel. Ben-Gurion asked: “What is a
Jew?” and went to the great sages of
Judaism for answers. To divine
Canada, Studin went to its “sages” in
government, letters, business, and academia. Naturally, as a Canadian, he
tried to strike a geographical, ethnic,
and linguistic balance, and naturally,
as a Canadian, he apologized for
falling short. Studin asked his respondents to open their essays with the
declaration “A Canadian is...” He
asked them not to write prescriptively;
they could not say what a Canadian
should be, but they could say what a
Canadian is not.
Studin puts his contributors into
three classes. The first is idiosyncratic.
They define the Canadian as liberal,
enlightened, diplomatic, tolerant,
polite, generous, complacent, deferential, among positive qualities, or, more
harshly, parochial and prejudiced. A
recurring “circumstantial” trait is
“lucky.” The second class is socio-political. The Canadian is a creation of the
state or an instrument of public policy,
such as the Constitution, health care,
and multiculturalism. For example, the
“Charter Canadians” see their citizenship in the Charter of Rights and
Freedoms. The third class are those
who are alienated from Canada. They
do not see themselves as Canadians at
all but Québécois, exiles within
Canada, who make the distinction
between le Canadien and the Canadian.
Studin suggests a people of infinite
variety (which is flattering, though not
unique to Canada). To expand his
eclectic catalogue of the Canadian, let
us consider some elements of character
that the sages do not address. Classed
loosely, they are the tall poppy syndrome (envy, resentment, jealousy);
moderation (the instinct for the political centre); ambiguity (the value of
vagueness); and civility (decency and
generosity). For examples, let us look
again to our civic culture, where we
find so much of ourselves.
The tall poppy syndrome is not
peculiar to Canada. Some say it came
from Australia or New Zealand, where
the tallest poppy in a garden was cut
down because it rose above the rest.
Some attribute it to Scandinavia,
which has its own finely honed suspicions of success and self-advancement, or Japan, where a proverb
suggests that “the nail that sticks out
gets hammered down.” Wherever it
originates, the tall poppy is as
Canadian as the Maple Leaf. It has
become our national flower.
Resentment, envy, and jealousy
colonize our consciousness, challenging the better angels of our nature.
Examples abound in the political
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Andrew Cohen
PASSAGES
level of consumption “that would
shock most Canadians,” columnist
John Ferguson observed. The reality
was that Mulroney had invited this
kind of scrutiny when he and his predecessors attacked Pierre Trudeau for a
suede couch and fifty-dollar ashtrays
in the waiting room of his office on
Parliament Hill. Or, years earlier, when
the Tories pilloried Trudeau for accepting an indoor swimming
The tall poppy syndrome is not peculiar to Canada. Some say it pool at 24 Sussex Drive
came from Australia or New Zealand, where the tallest poppy
from anonymous donors.
in a garden was cut down because it rose above the rest. Some In the blood sport of politics, the Liberals were soon
attribute it to Scandinavia, which has its own finely honed
asking Mulroney if taxpaysuspicions of success and self-advancement, or Japan, where a
ers were paying for his chilproverb suggests that “the nail that sticks out gets hammered
dren’s food.
culture. On October 14, 1957, Lester
B. Pearson learned that he had been
awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for
having found a way out of the Suez
Crisis. The Nobel committee said that
he’d “saved the world.” When a
reporter called him with the news of
the award, he was incredulous: “You
mean that I have been nominated,”
he insisted. When he learned he had
enough to report that the prime minister’s chef went to Egypt (at a cost of
two thousand dollars!) “to share
recipes” with the chefs of sixteen
other nations “courtesy of the
Canadian taxpayer.” It is also important for the well-informed citizen to
know, figuratively speaking, the bottle of wine the Ambassador to France
served a visiting delegation of bee-
down.” Wherever it originates, the tall poppy is as Canadian as
the Maple Leaf. It has become our national flower.
indeed won, he said: “Gosh!” The
reaction of others was less innocent.
As one legend had it, the very idea
that the bow-tied, lisping “Mike”
Pearson could win the Nobel Prize led
one outspoken woman at a cocktail
party in Vancouver to exclaim, “Well,
who does he think he is!”
When the Bank of Canada asked
focus groups to help it choose
Canadians to put on the back of its
new banknotes, the respondents
called Lester Pearson “a partisan
politician” and complained that Terry
Fox, the one-legged marathoner who
ran halfway across Canada before
dying of cancer, had had “an abrasive
personality.”
T
he tall poppy syndrome thrives in
our political hothouse. We think
politicians are venal, vapid, and vainglorious. When they want a raise, our
instinct is to deny it; really, now, the
nerve of you!
Then we complain about the
quality of our politicians. Our disdain
for public service is spreading. The
antipathy is magnified by governments seeking to be seen as squeakyclean and a media eager to scrutinize
expense accounts and travel budgets
for extravagance or malfeasance.
Newspapers think it is important
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keepers or that the Minister of Justice
took a government plane to attend
the Rotary Club in Lethbridge. Or
that the Conservatives use the government Challenger jets half as much
as the Liberals did. We dine out on a
minister’s expense chits, airline tickets, and hotel bills, which now appear
on the Web. No wonder restaurants in
Ottawa are closing. The mandarins
are afraid to be seen lunching with
the wrong people — or perhaps
lunching at all.
Money matters in Canada.
Canadians look askance at public
salaries, perquisites, and benefits, as if
no politician or public servant could
possibly deserve them. It may be why
the governor general is paid $114,725,
far less than a federal cabinet minister.
The spending of Brian Mulroney, the
mellifluous glad-hander who was
prime minister from 1984 to 1993,
became an obsession. “Closets
designed to hold hundreds of shoes,
including dozens of pairs of loafers, are
among the lavish furnishings of 24
Sussex Drive,” the Canadian Press
reported on April 16, 1987. “Brian
Mulroney’s closet was designed to
accommodate 30 suits and 84 pairs of
shoes, including at least 50 pairs of
Gucci loafers...” This Emperor had too
many clothes. Mulroney had reached a
W
hatever Mulroney’s
personal excesses,
the interest here was odd, even
unseemly; at root, it was about disparaging politicians. We like to do this.
As Hugh Segal said, this idée fixe over
Mulroney’s spending “falls into the
tradition of pettiness with which we
treat people in public life...” Pierre
Pettigrew, no friend of Mulroney,
winced years later when he recalled
this inquisition. As the minister of foreign affairs, who would face questions
on his own spending in office, he said:
“You know, we can be very petty, very
mean in Canada.” We can, we are, and
it demeans us.
Mulroney’s imbroglio made it
politically impossible to renovate 24
Sussex Drive for years after. When
Jean Chrétien moved there in 1993,
he wouldn’t spend any money on the
house; according to a frequent visitor, he proudly declared the curtains
on the windows had been made from
the tablecloths used at the G-7 summit in Halifax. When Paul Martin
arrived 10 years later, he wouldn’t
touch the house, either. Susan
Delacourt of the Toronto Star wrote
that Martin knew “that any move to
fix up the home in a substantial way
— with taxpayers’ dollars — would be
a public relations disaster.”
By then 24 Sussex — a Gothic
revival pile built above the Ottawa
The tall poppy syndrome
BOOK EXCERPT
The Gazette, Montreal
Nothing was too petty to criticize in Adrienne Clarkson. Her clothes, her friends, her tastes, her travel were all fair game. As governor
general, she was the latest victim of the tall poppy syndrome, cut down because she rose above the rest.
River in 1866 — was in grave disrepair.
It was cold and draughty in winter and
oppressively hot in summer. The
kitchen was small and dated, the windows filled with unsightly, dripping air
conditioners, like those in a tropical
tenement. The sunroom was so chilly
in winter that it was wrapped in clear
plastic, which seemed to be taking the
federal energy conservation program a
little far (though Jack Layton of the
New Democrats advised installing
solar panels). When Sheila Martin
opened the house for a charitable
event, visitors walked around and
expressed “disappointment, shock and
embarrassment.” No wonder. The
prime minister’s residence looked like
a tarpaper shack in Appalachia.
W
hen Martin expressed his reservations, the leader of the opposition pounced. Naturally. Stephen
Harper said he was delighted with
Stornoway, the official residence. It
was the best place he’d ever lived;
Martin should stop whining and
worry less about his needs than those
of Canadians. “We have a $9-billion
surplus, and I’d like to see some
money go to taxpayers rather than our
obsession being our personal living
accommodations,” carped Harper.
There it was, then. If we can make
politicians live in genteel shabbiness,
like a déclassé socialite forced into a
homeless shelter, why not? It is as irresistible as soaking the rich. Take ’em
down a peg. That’ll show ’em. Reform
Party leader Preston Manning had
wanted to sell Stornoway — that was
before he lived in it as opposition
leader. Before him, Bloc Québécois
leader Lucien Bouchard refused to
move in. And so on. It was always
about politics, never about ensuring
proper official residences for the
prime minister of Canada and the
leader of the opposition. Not that they
should resemble the Kremlin or the
Elysée Palace. Just dignified, modest
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Andrew Cohen
PASSAGES
or career diplomat. She was articulate,
stylish, refined, attractive, opinionated, and self-confident. Very self-confident. Her husband was all that, too.
straight reportage has an edge: “The
couple arrived — a little late — on
foot, dressed casually, as if out for an
autumn stroll,” said The Globe and
recent illustration of the tall
Mail. A whole book was given over to
poppy syndrome is the pillorying
their foibles and contradictions, called
of Adrienne Clarkson, the broadcaster,
hen Clarkson got to Ottawa,
Mr. & Mrs. G.G.: The Media Princess &
publisher, diplomat, and writer who
nothing was too petty. Her
the Court Philosopher. None of this prewas governor general of Canada from
clothes were too loud. Her friends were
vented Clarkson and Saul from per1999 to 2005. When she left Ottawa
too elitist. Her tastes were too rich. Her
forming their duties — travelling,
after a feverish period at Rideau Hall,
indiscretions and offences were
speaking, honouring, receiving, hostsome called her the finest governor
unending. Clarkson misses the funeral
ing, sponsoring — and a whole mangeneral since Roland Michener in the
of the Lt. Governor of Alberta, a friend
ner of other responsibilities that they
1970s, or Georges-P. Vanier in the
and confidant, and a columnist hisses
carried off with aplomb.
1960s, or the finest in memory,
The drumbeat of criticism
or the finest in history. In six By then 24 Sussex — a Gothic revival
ebbed and flowed but never
years, Clarkson reinvented a
pile built above the Ottawa River in went away. The detractors
dusty, antiquated institution.
1866 — was in grave disrepair. It
resented that the viceregal couWith her husband, John
Ralston Saul, the novelist, was cold and draughty in winter and ple repainted and redecorated
much of Rideau Hall and some
essayist, and philosopher, she
oppressively hot in summer. The
of its outbuildings, displayed
arrived with an idea of herself
kitchen was small and dated, the
Canadian art and furniture
and the office and brought it to
windows filled with unsightly,
from government warehouses,
life. Clarkson brought with her
a record of professional and
dripping air conditioners, like those served fine vintages from the
public service, a term as in a tropical tenement. The sunroom country’s best wineries (promoting Canada’s vintners is
Ontario’s agent general in Paris,
was so chilly in winter that it was
one of Saul’s passions), and
a familiarity with every region
wrapped in clear plastic, which
presented organic, creative
of the country and its history,
food prepared by the country’s
fluency in both languages, and
seemed to be taking the federal
intelligence, energy, and imagienergy conservation program a little best chefs. They clucked when
travelled some 150,000
nation. This is the depth and
far (though Jack Layton of the New she
kilometres a year, often to
experience a governor general
Democrats advised installing solar
small communities in the
should have. Indeed, a reason
that Clarkson was extraordipanels). When Sheila Martin opened North (among the four hundred villages, towns, and cities
nary in the role is that her four
the house for a charitable event,
couple visited over their six
predecessors were pedestrian.
visitors walked around and expressed the
years). Most of all, though,
Roméo
LeBlanc,
Ramon
“disappointment, shock and
they howled when she led a
Hnatyshyn, Jeanne Sauvé, and
visit to Iceland, Finland, and
Edward Schreyer were decent,
embarrassment.” No wonder. The
honourable, successful politi- prime minister’s residence looked like Russia in 2003 accompanied by
a delegation of 59 “Rosedale”
cians. But each was chosen to
a tarpaper shack in Appalachia.
associates. It cost $5.4 million.
repay a debt, confer an honour,
Having asked the governor
or set a precedent. It mattered
general to make the trip, the Martin
little that Hnatyshyn couldn’t speak
that “the nation’s Empress of Excess
government panicked when the critics
French or that LeBlanc was phlegmatwas merrily vacationing with haughty
started bleating. It cancelled the secic, that Sauvé was aloof and that
husband in Paris.” She goes to the theond half of the visit, to Norway,
Schreyer was eccentric. To be the first
atre in Ottawa accompanied by
Denmark, and Sweden, which had
Ukrainian, Acadian, woman, and
Richard Mahoney, who at the time is
been two years in the planning. A parManitoban was enough to make the
running for the Liberals in Ottawa,
liamentary committee even hastily
appointment. Clarkson was the first
and is accused of “cozying up to Paul
summoned her principal secretary
immigrant to become governor generMartin’s pals in the hope of being
from Europe to testify, questioned her
al, having fled Hong Kong as a child
reappointed to her lavish life at Rideau
for an hour, then chastised her for havearly in the Second World War. She
Hall.” She visits skid row in Vancouver,
ing flown home business class.
was also the first governor general who
and she is “degrading” the homeless
Clarkson was rising above her station.
had not been a professional politician
and “exploiting” their poverty. Even
homes, befitting the leaders of a rich,
resentful country.
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The tall poppy syndrome
BOOK EXCERPT
royal visit or the “Team Canada” misThis is a cardinal sin in a resentful
sions, that she pioneered the strategic
country. The governor general should
use of the state visit, that the trip was
not fly to her cottage on Georgian Bay
value for money in publicity and preson a private plane (even though the
tige (as Russian president Vladimir
RCMP insisted on it after September
Putin told Stephen Harper years later)
11). Go commercial.
were sound points.
In 2004, after Clarkson had been
But this was less about reason than
in office five years, it all came to a
resentment. Clarkson’s critics weren’t
bizarre climax. When the politicians
going to give her a break. They would
learned that her budget had risen to
never see her unpublicized acts of kind$41 million from $17 million a year,
they balked. That she was
travelling and entertaining Clarkson was not blameless. She should not have gone on the
far more than her predeces- CBC to answer questions about her spending and said, “I am
sors, including making
above the law.” Rather, she might have said: “Constitutionally,
annual visits to Canadian
troops in Bosnia and my office is above the law and that is why I cannot discuss
Afghanistan, scarcely mat- this.” It was unwise of her to take the large delegation of
tered. In one of those artists, native leaders, entrepreneurs, and industry
exquisite moments of our
representatives on the circumpolar tour, but not because they
nationhood, the Parliament
of
Canada
told
the were not legitimate. She and Saul should have anticipated the
Governor
General
of criticism. That the cost of her trip was about the same as a
Canada that she was spend- royal visit or the “Team Canada” missions, that she pioneered
ing too much. It would
the strategic use of the state visit, that the trip was value for
have to slap her wrist. So, in
a fit of pique, it cut money in publicity and prestige (as Russian president Vladimir
$417,000 from her budget. Putin told Stephen Harper years later) were sound points.
But when pinched parliamentarians learned that her office was
ness, from making bedside visits to the
engagements to avoid any conflict of
planning to eliminate children’s windying to award them the Order of
interest). Rather, Clarkson and Saul
ter activities at Rideau Hall, they
Canada to raising money for street kids
were effete, impudent snobs, high-hatwinced. Joe Preston, a Conservative
in Thailand. Or small acts of protest,
ted and snooty, kicking back on the
MP, said that “it’s always easy to point
such as refusing to shake the hand of
plush sofas and rolling around in the
at the most glamorous things and say
the Ambassador of Burma, a country
thick oriental carpets. Said Martin:
you’re going to make people suffer
notorious for its human rights abuses.
“Frankly, Canadians would like her
because of this.” His colleague, Peter
They could never acknowledge how
even more if there was a little bit more
MacKay, a future foreign minister,
hard she worked, which may have conof the common touch demonstrated
advised: “If they have to cut children’s
tributed to the heart condition for
here instead of an elitist role.”
programming, I would suggest they
which she had a pacemaker inserted in
maybe have to serve less caviar at the
her last summer in office. They would
larkson was not blameless. She
next cocktail party.”
not appreciate, among her other
should not have gone on the CBC
achievements, her establishing the
to answer questions about her spendGovernor General’s Northern Medal
ing
and
said,
“I
am
above
the
law.”
hat was behind all this? Try a
and the Clarkson Cup for excellence in
Rather, she might have said:
culture of resentment. One of
women’s hockey.
“Constitutionally, my office is above
Clarkson’s loudest critics was Pat
No, there remained a lingering feelthe law and that is why I cannot disMartin of the New Democratic Party, a
ing about Saul and Clarkson that she
cuss this.” It was unwise of her to take
peppery populist from Winnipeg who
later ascribed to “malice, ignorance and
the large delegation of artists, native
wanted to reduce Clarkson’s budget by
a certain kind of tall-poppy syndrome.”
leaders, entrepreneurs, and industry
the cost of her circumpolar visit. You
representatives on the circumpolar
might have thought that Martin would
From The Unfinished Canadian: The
tour, but not because they were not
have approved of Clarkson and Saul
People We Are, by Andrew Cohen.
legitimate. She and Saul should have
publicizing the homeless or visiting
Published by McClelland & Stewart Ltd.
anticipated the criticism. That the cost
rural Canada or making the office a
Reprinted by permission.
of her trip was about the same as a
Canadian institution. From dropping
royal toasts at state dinners to rearranging (or removing) some of the royal
portraits at Rideau Hall and ensuring
ceremonial pipers played Canadian
music, they always promoted the country. But Pat Martin and his ilk could not
see Clarkson and Saul as reformers or
exemplars (no one ever mentioned
that not only did Saul not receive a
salary or pension for his work at Rideau
Hall, he also gave up lucrative speaking
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