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(Since Trump vs Trudeau/Carney is pure culture war, this counts) Every now and again there are throwaway lines in comments here about how Canada is a bad ally, or incompetent, or just generally bad-and-should-feel-bad. And believe me, lots of us do. But those Canadians who disapprove of the direction the country has taken usually do so for internal political reasons (Justin Trudeau, immigration, house prices, indigenous rights-gone-wild, virtue-signalling gun laws, etc). The comments I'm talking about are usually hinting at foreign affairs, but even the most self-hating Canadian usually believes Canada is internationally respected. Please offer below your critiques/complaints about Canada from a foreign affairs/relations standpoint.
Fine.
If the US didn't exist we wouldn't be having this conversation; if you're a competent Roman, you move to Rome, because that's where the persistent investment is. If no Rome, we'd have to actually get off our asses, but if we did the investment and capital required to do that would turn us into America.
Actual, real, civil minded sacrifice to develop the country in some way (be it industry or otherwise) just isn't there; we can't keep it, and our culture reflects that, though whether the chicken or egg came first is an open question. And from a Western perspective, fuck Ottawa and Montreal, there's zero logical reason they should be making laws for me. I would be OK with sacrificing for an Alberta-based Western government, but the difference is they're not foreigners; Easterners are just as foreign to me as Americans (and even moreso under certain circumstances re: the things you mentioned).
I honestly don't think they think about us at all outside of occasional peacekeeping missions, but we (nor anyone else) have done much of that since the late '90s. I don't think about them either, really; we live on the same island as the Americans do and that means outside of maybe French tourists we don't get too much in the way of international exposure, both the threatening and the non-threatening kind.
To be honest, I'm not even sure how I'd like other nations to think about Canada, and I think that is the average Canadian's viewpoint. Part of that is that decisions that would generate distinction are made by the Empire- British before 1970, American after that.
But we don't have many foreign policy accomplishments or even know where to begin apart from "the Empire is doing this, and we're along for the ride". We accomplish the Empire's objectives far better than they do, but at the end of the day they're still the Empire's objectives. And I think most of the world sees that; and I think Canada is treated less seriously as an international partner because of that.
"Competent, with an asterisk."
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