Canadian Crossing: Tucker Carlson shows ignorance of Canada by mispronouncing Ottawa

Canadian television and film actor Kaniehtiio Horn taught us earlier this year how to pronounce her name. Horn pointed out the respect to know how to pronounce a name properly.

Fox News host Tucker Carlson hasn't much for respect for Canada. Carlson went out of his way to mispronounce the capital of Canada, putting the emphasis on the second syllable instead of the first syllable.

Carlson was going after Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), the Democratic Party vice presidential nominee, for spending part of her childhood in Montréal. Carlson said that Harris "didn't grow up in this country" meaning the United States. As much as Canada would like to claim Harris, being born in the United States and living there until age 12 is growing up in the United States.

Right-wing pundits also went after Barack Obama for spending a few years in Indonesia as a child. Both Obama and Harris were being raised alone by their mothers. Children generally don't get a say in where families live. Harris' mother was doing cancer research in Montréal and teaching at McGill University.

Carlson said Harris "could probably tell you the capital of Canada." The difference is that Harris could tell you the proper pronunciation of the capital of Canada, a mere 200 km from Montréal.

We tease on the hockey side that NBCSN announcer John Forslund would rarely say Ottawa, but would often say "Canada's capital" instead of saying Ottawa. Even Forslund, who doesn't seem to like Canada, knows how to say "Ottawa."

Articles such as this that point out that Carlson may have stumbled upon the Anishinaabemowin pronunciation of the word where Ottawa is derived is one of the most Canadian things we have seen.

Some right-wing pundits "struggle" to mispronounce the first name of Sen. Harris, another sign of disrespect.

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We view Harris' experience in Montréal as a positive similar to Obama's time in Indonesia. Being the U.S. president and having an understanding of the world should not be mutually exclusive. In case you might think this is partisan, we said the same thing about Mitt Romney's time in Canada and France.

The New York Times took some time to look into the Kamala Harris era in Montréal.

"Ms. Kagan [Wanda Kagan, Ms. Harris’s best friend from high school] said Ms. Harris was largely sheltered from Quebec’s political upheaval when she was at Westmount High from 1978-1981. But she said she believed her friend’s progressive politics were influenced by having come of age in a humanistic country with universal health care and less racial strife than the United States."

We certainly think Americans should ask questions about time spent outside the United States as a child for presidential and vice presidential candidates. Carlson's actions were limited to criticising Harris for moving to Canada when she was 12, a decision she had no power in making. Examine the good and bad objectively.

The U.S. Constitution requires presidential and vice presidential candidates to being a resident of the United States for 14 years when running for higher office. Harris and Obama definitely qualified. The U.S. Constitution factors in that presidential and vice presidential candidates might live in a different country as young people but come back to live in the United States.

If Canada had that rule, Michael Ignatieff wouldn't have been able to run as the Liberal Party leader in the 2011 election. We should also point out the recent death of Prime Minister John Turner, the only modern prime minister to be born outside Canada. Turner was born in London, England but grew up in Canada. Canada does not have a natural born citizen requirement to be prime minister.

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Given the Canada-U.S. relationship, a national leader who understands the other country is a positive trait. In the 2019 federal election, Elizabeth May and Andrew Scheer were party leaders and American citizens. May's status was an open secret; Scheer's status was a shock.

We saw the pictures of Barack Obama and Justin Trudeau in the back table at Liverpool House in Montréal when Obama made a post-presidential speech in 2017. If we see a future picture of Kamala Harris and Justin Trudeau at that same table, chances are the Canada-U.S. relationship will be in better shape than it is right now.

photo credits: Fox News; @ObamaFoundation