As a child, I remember summer weekends when we would go to Canada to swim at Sherkston, listen to band concerts at Brock's Monument and watch the ships go through the Welland Canal. We spent so much time there, that I was 8 years old before I realized I wasn’t Canadian.

It’s because I had such affection for Canada and its people that I find it so painful to watch a nation I once loved drift away from the values that made it great.

Since 1945, there has been a pattern of Canadian reluctance to share the burden of defending freedom.

If their shameful lack of responsibility were not bad enough, our neighbor to the north appears, at times, to take delight in subverting America’s attempt to deal with terrorism.

Canadians are justifiably proud of their quality of life without ever acknowledging that they can afford expensive governmental programs because they depend on the United States to spend trillions of dollars to protect them.

In 2004, the U.S. population was 10 times greater than Canada (293 million vs. 30 million) but we spent about 50 times more money than they did on maintaining a viable military deterrent ($420 billion vs. $9.1 billion). America’s per capita spending on the military was $1,433, compared to Canada’s $303.

The armed forces have so long been neglected that they are little more than a parade ground police force that is more suited to protecting food shipments than engaging in real battle.

The refusal of the government to live up to its obligations shifts more of the burden to allies like England who are willing to take part in the struggle to preserve democracy around the world.

I suppose it's natural to leave the fighting to others if you can, but what is particularly galling is the Canadian’s incessant criticism. Americans are used to having to fight everyone else's battles, but if we’re sending our young men and women to die in the place of Canadians, the least they could do is not subvert our efforts.

The following statistics give a clear picture of the discrepancy between the two nations in regards to wartime casualties. Since 1945, the United States has lost 120,000 men while Canada lost 291. America has lost more than 412 times as many men in combat as Canada has in that time frame.

You may recall that last year a handful of Canadian soldiers were killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan. These incidents are an unfortunate side effect of combat, but it certainly is not uncommon. When the Canadian troops died, the entire country was enraged that our President did not drop everything and run to Canada to show our respect,

yet daily, we lose men in Iraq and I have never heard of word of condolence offered by a single Canadian official.

It seems that Canada actually enjoys nipping at America's heals while we are engaged in a deadly struggle with Al Qaeda, whose mission is to destroy us as well as them.

We are frequently reminded that Canada is a sovereign nation which makes decisions independent of the United States. That would be OK, except that everybody knows if it came to a threat, Canada would plead for protection from the military they so readily scorn today.

They take delight in criticizing everything we do while they hunker down hoping that if they’re quiet enough, the terrorists won’t notice them. Better that America be the target.

In typical Canadian fashion, Prime Minister Tony Martin

has said that his country would not take part in developing a missile shield for North America because, "It would militarize outer space."

I suspect the real reason they’ve rejected the missile shield is because they are afraid we might ask them to help foot the bill or maybe they're worried that a missile aimed at Washington might end up hitting Toronto by mistake.

What is most baffling of all is that hundreds of Canadians were killed in the 9/11 attacks,

and Canada was perfectly content to hold a few memorial services for their murdered countrymen and then quietly get back to life as usual.

How can a nation be so devoid of emotion that they are incapable of getting angry enough to at least try to fight back?

Apparently, sending a couple hundred soldiers to Afghanistan is enough to assuage their guilt over the lack of a backbone.

One can imagine the humiliation of Canadian World War 11 veterans who recall an earlier day when their country could be counted on to stand in the breach against the depredations of tyrants in Germany and Japan.

There was a time when Canadians were people you could depend on to cover your back. Whatever happened to that proud nation?