Americans are concerned with being #1. They see everything as win/lose, succeed/fail, good/evil. It's a bit crazy. There is no such thing as second place. (Even an American interviewer will ask a friggin' SILVER MEDALIST "How did it feel to lose the race?")
I'm Canadian. I don't give a shit about being #1 or winning at everything. The loudest duck is usually the first to get shot.
Anyway, if someone thinks they live in the greatest country in the world, they should visit at least 30 or 40 other ones. Otherwise, they're talking out their ass.
If you are Canadian, then it is... uncomfortable that you would presume to make blanket statements about what "Americans are".
I wouldn't presume to tell you about Canada and what all Canadians are. Because I would likely look foolish, and ignorant, having spent only minimal time in Canada, and certainly not enough to feel like I have an insider, native-level understanding of the culture and norms.
I don't care about being #1. I'm never especially interested in the Olympics, and when I do watch, I end to root for the person whose story touches me the most, no matter where that athlete is from. I've already said in this thread that I think the US us flawed in many ways and I don't view us a #1, in the vague, who is the bestest overall, category we are discussing. It doesn't hurt my feelings if the US is #3 in the medal count, or in education (I'd be *thrilled* if we got up to #3, simply for what that would mean about what our citizens would be getting that they now aren't), or in GDP, or in pets per household, or in amount of broccoli consumed, or any other metric. I don't care where we rank. I care whether we are doing right by ourselves. Comparing that to how others are doing is of zero interest to me, other than to show what is possible, in an aspirational way.
One thing that the US might actually be #1 in is diversity of thought. And no, I don't mean that in the "we are the most open-minded" kind of way. I simply mean that IME, (and yes, I have been to 30+ countries and lived abroad), there is less of an "average American" than there is an "average othercountry-ian". We are so large, formed from so many different group of colonizers, so spread out, faced with such varied topography and weather, and so many other factors, that I think there is less uniformity of culture than in most other nations. Which makes statements about what "Americans are", especially from non-Americans (and those who haven't spent a lot of time in a lot of parts of the US) all the more ridiculous.
The quintessential CA girl has surprisingly little in common with the quintessential Texas man. To make blanket statements about them, together, is nearly impossible.
It's like speaking about what "Europeans are". IME, the Southern Italians are pretty darn different than the Schwabish Germans. To to make a statement about what all of them are is going to be pretty much universally wrong.