In recent days and weeks, many of us have been writing about backlash in Canada — backlash against the words and actions of President Trump and his administration. Yesterday, the backlash took expression in an election.

I thought of Kristi Noem, who, amazingly, is the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. On January 30, she visited the Haskell Free Library and Opera House. It straddles the U.S.-Canadian border, between Derby Line, Vermont, and Rock Island, Quebec. The Haskell family built the structure on the border because they wanted Americans and Canadians to have equal access. Throughout the building, there is a thin black line, indicating the border.

Secretary Noem hopped from one side of the line to the other. On the American side, she said, “U.S.A. No. 1.” On the Canadian side, she said, “The 51st state.” She did this repeatedly.

(To read a news article on the matter, go here.)

When you really are No. 1 — the top dog — you don’t have to crow about it. You don’t have to beat your chest and rub it in. You certainly don’t need to insult Canada — as good a neighbor as a country can have. We Americans won the lottery when we got Canada as a neighbor.

The Ukrainians, certainly, wish they were so lucky.

Decades ago, Dinesh D’Souza had a good line about the merry band at The Dartmouth Review. (He was the leader of the band.) He would say something like this: “They accused us of behaving sophomorically. In our defense, we were sophomores.”

But the United States government?

Other people have patriotism too — Bill Buckley stressed this point. Americans aren’t the only ones with a sense of national pride or national dignity. This is natural to all people.

(Bill married a Canadian, by the way.)

What’s more, there’s a big difference between patriotism and jingoism — an honest love and appreciation of country, and chest-thumping, muscle-flexing, boobish idiocy.

All of this is elementary. But the elementary needs to be reviewed, from time to time.