OUR VIEW: If we weren’t so nice, we’d be gloating

It’s been a week of spectacle on both sides of the 49th parallel – and that spectacle has gone a long way to driving home the differences in the two countries that share our long and undefended border.

Up here on this side, the spectacle has revolved around a visit from the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (and, of course, their progeny, Prince George and Princess Charlotte). Throw in our own first couple (he of the hair and the killer smile, and his effortlessly chic and effervescent wife) and you’ve got a week of photo ops that just oozed charm and glamour all over the place.

What was most noticeable, however, wasn’t so much the glamour – although any room occupied by Kate Middleton and the Trudeaus certainly doesn’t come up short on that front – but the gosh-darnnicenessof the whole thing. Royals they may be (or, in the Trudeaus’ case, the closest thing we can breed here on Canadian soil), but they’re astonishingly good at making everyone they meet feel that they’re just regular folks.

They shake hands, they admire babies, they exchange brief snippets of conversation that leave the folks they meet feeling all warm and fuzzy about the encounter.

Their ability to identify as “one of us,” with their basic humanity shining through their designer clothes and their innate elegance and poise, is testament to the charm of all four.

Contrast that with the whole mess south of the border. You know, the race for president and the highly anticipated and much-watched Trump vs. Clinton debate.

Up here on this side of the 49th, we take in Trump, with all his unpleasantness, rudeness, vulgarity and bluster – not to mention his complete lack of command of the facts – shake our heads and thank our lucky stars that we’ve got the leader we do.

And we can’t help thinking (in a somewhat self-righteous way) that this is what you get in a land like America – a land that thrives on capitalism and competition and me-first thinking.

Instead of a land like Canada, where politeness and courtesy and cooperation are legendary and where “socialism” is not a dirty word.

Nice guys finish last, you say? Maybe so.

But we’ve got the Trudeaus and the royals, and down south they’ve got Donald Trump.

Kinda feels like we’re winning right now.