In an open letter sent to media outlets and politicians, Holly Chabowski said she and a girlfriend had “the most incredible adventure and met the most wonderful Canadians,” during a five-week visit this summer.

But then she slagged Canada for “12 lane high ways, rammed packed with huge SUVs, with people going no where (sic),” urban sprawl, gigantic parking lots, inadequate bike lanes and skimpy sidewalks.

“Streets that prioritize cars over humans are bad for business, bad for health (mental, social and physical), unsafe and break down communities.”

Chabowski quoted a number of anonymous citizens lamenting their fate and their fat.

“I am obese,” she reports that one Levis, Que., resident told her. “My children are overweight and most of the people who live around here. I am surrounded by fast food chains, car parks and highways. I would live to ditch the car. My neighourhood doesn’t even have sidewalks.”

Chabowski wrote we should, “Take radical steps to transform Canada into the happy, healthy and sustainable country we were expecting.”

Now, pontificating about the defects of a country and its people is not polite behaviour for a visitor.

In fact, it seems archetypically American, the type of boorishness that Danes no doubt complain about in those who whine that their hotel rooms are too tiny and the Big Macs taste different.

And presuming to identify a country’s flaws and have the answer’s to its problems after just a short visit does seem rather haughty. That old saying about glass houses comes to mind.

So I figure Chabowski was fair game for most missiles launched in the direction of Denmark on social media after news of her letter broke. I’ll add a few of my own.

Yes, Denmark is a land of avid bicyclists, many of whom pedal everywhere they go. And I can testify that they jingle their bells impatiently at tourists who stray onto the many bike paths.

But the fact that Denmark means “flat land” certainly makes utilitarian cycling more feasible than it is in much of Canada. So to does the fact that nine Denmarks would fit into Northern Ontario alone.

Northern Ontario, where it snows. In Copenhagen, snowfall is occasional and short-lived, with average maximum temperatures above freezing during all winter months.

It’s possible to cycle in Sault Ste. Marie in January. But it’s anything but pleasant. A daily commute in Denmark might turn into an extreme sport here.

And consider that despite Denmark’s 180 per cent registration tax to discourage car ownership, the number of vehicles has increased 45 per cent over the past 30 years.

As well, Copenhagen’s metro system extends runs about the same number of kilometres per person as Toronto’s laughable TTC.

Danes are also notoriously fanatical about a healthy lifestyle. Yet Canada ranks 12th in the world in life expectancy, at 82.5 years. Denmark is 37th at 79.5 years, below the other Nordic countries.

Denmark’s ranks 32nd in the world in cigarette consumption to Canada’s 63rd, almost doubling our smokes per adult.

Still, I’m not among those who might advocate strapping Chabowski to her 10-speed and sending her blindfolded down snow-packed Montreal River Harbour hill in January.

I think her letter sprung from well-intentioned concern for what she found to be “a nation of the most fantastic people.”

And I suspect her first impression of Canada was the same as mine when I returned from a European vacation in June: Look at all the fat people.

Canada has an obesity crisis. Part of it results from our car culture. Chabowski was not mistaken in pointing that out, although having us all slip and slide through blizzards on bicycles might not be the solution.

I’ve found Europeans love to eat and drink, and a lot of it is far from the healthiest stuff. Yet they seem slimmer than Canadians.

Perhaps the fact that they do so much walking, and that they aren’t slugging back soda pop and digging into bags of chips while doing so, is part of their slimming secret.

I’d say Europe has a lot to teach us about healthy living, and some positive aspects of its lifestyle might transfer to North America more readily than abruptly ending our auto dependence.

Chabowski’s lecture might have been delivered in a clumsy way, but we could still learn a few things from it.

Email tom.mills@sunmedia.ca to contact Tom Mills. Comment at saultstar.com.