posted 10-17-2016 03:26 PM                  

Some Canadians watching as American politics have hit rock bottom again and again in recent weeks decided that the United States needed a cross-border pep talk. Thus was born a social media campaign called “Tell America It’s Great,” complete with a hashtag, a Twitter account and a series of YouTube videos. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stGhjokq57U&list=PL6_yoGnItQ11QvyDnkSDHdDFNfLvmJQq1

It was the brainchild of the Garden Collective, a creative agency based in Toronto, and in the videos, a diverse and polite group of Canadians earnestly recite all the things they like about the United States.

“Sometimes friends just need to look out for each other,” Shari Walczak, a founder of the agency, said on Sunday.

“Hey, guys!” says one cheerful man in the campaign’s main video, which was filmed on webcams and smartphones. “We’re just up here in Canada talking about how great you guys are down there, and we thought we’d just send you a little bit of a love note.”

His testimonial is followed by two dozen more Canadians warmly praising the United States for things like its diversity, its space program and for being the birthplace of Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur.

“You guys are great,” one woman on the video says. A second woman, sitting besides her, agrees: “You really are great.”

To a jaded American eye, it may all look like the most Canadian thing ever.