Zeitgeist

When I see this, I want Canada to become the 51st state: Canada to Compel Banks, Insurers to Disclose Diversity Membership for Boards The decision is in contrast to what has been unfolding in the U.S., as some of America’s biggest companies are retreating from DEI By Paul Vieira Follow Feb. 14, 2025 at 3:40 pm ET Officials said formal rules are required about the disclosure of minority representation at the executive ranks of Canadian banks because such an initiative would “promote greater diversity” over time. PHOTO: CARLOS OSORIO/REUTERS OTTAWA–Canada said it would compel banks, insurers and other financial institutions to disclose minority representation on their boards of directors and within their senior management ranks. The decision, disclosed in the official Canadian government newspaper on Friday, is in contrast to what has been unfolding in the U.S.

So maybe it’s worth entering into discussions about what we could keep that we value if we entered into a form of statehood. I don’t see it as a dire option because I see big gains along with some sacrifices. I don’t think the Canadian public is ready for that. I also think if it was seriously entertained, the Yanks would take issue. Even economic union seems unrealistic right now given the current antagonism. So basically we need to restore what we had under Harper, but the Yanks are throwing down obstacles to gain concessions.

I don’t know if the Canadian public could handle that kind of bloodbath today, even figuratively. Harper is at least being honest about what true commitment to sovereignty means. Knowing how mindlessly unquestioning and reliant on the ideological nanny state we’ve become, this would be a radical shift for Canadians like we haven’t seen in many decades.

Trump is a reminder that independence has a cost. How much of our social safety net could we afford if we paid the realistic cost of defending our country and keeping ourselves from becoming economically dependent on one export market that is culturally and economically very integrated with Canada? He’s being harshly self-interested about it, but he can be and we should’ve been prepared for this. Was it responsible of our government to send cheques to everyone and implement free child dental care and $10 daycare when we’re not keeping up with our NATO commitments? You can’t have your cake and eat it too. It’s not just that we increased the size of government and program spending as our debt almost doubled, it’s that we also behaved very recklessly by agreeing with anti-Canadian narratives and inquiry recommendations that no sane responsible government would ever agree to implement. Basically our leaders were irresponsible and now we’re vulnerable to a staunchly protectionist and aggressive US administration. First off, our government needs downsizing and program reduction, including all the unconstitutional anti-free speech and discriminatory DEI hiring and admissions policies. Secondly, we need a military powerful enough to destroy any attacker, at least at the level of mutually assured destruction. The UK has had that capacity for decades and there’s no reason we shouldn’t have it at our current size. We have some of that gear already and our Air Force will have its F-35s. Our navy needs serious expansion and upgrading, including our subs. We should also have massive armed forces recruitment campaigns, including reserves. That much is clear and I’ll leave the details to the experts. Finally, why the hell are we importing oil as we export almost all the oil we produce? Why are we having our oil refined in Texas? Why is our aluminum being turned into cans in Ohio? We should be creating the finished products based on our raw materials and shipping what we don’t consume to multiple markets. If we made the mistake of relying too much on exporting to the U.S., we have also clearly relied too much on imports, especially from the U.S. We can’t even buy Canadian in a meaningful way when we simply don’t produce certain products domestically. What we don’t produce domestically we should be able to acquire from multiple countries, not just the U.S. We need to diversify both our export markets and the source countries for our imports, so that we’re never economically beholden to one foreign country. We can’t even pump our oil across the country without going through US states. Unless and until these conditions change, we can’t be truly independent. Canadians need to get past the bravado from leaders on both sides of the border and think seriously about what that entails. There’s been no serious cost/benefit analysis of the options between total independence and 51st state, looking at ramifications across multiple metrics. Economic union with ironclad assurances against imposition of tariffs is probably where both countries should be in terms of both countries’ interests, but we can’t get to that kind of mature conversation. It all feels very dated and foolish, very 19th century, but Canada has to respond to the tariff war with strength.

Harper was a steady, responsible hand. He understood the depth of Canada’s culture and value. If he or someone like him had been at the helm the last decade, we wouldn’t be in this bind. Trudeau is at least standing firm. He won’t make the necessary reforms to shrink this bloated ideologically-captured mess of government bureaucracy and regulation, because his government created the mess. Carney is cut from the same globalist stakeholder capitalist cloth, albeit with more smarts. For true independence, Canada is going to have to become far more self-sufficient and get on an economic war footing, by the end of which we produce a lot more finished products from our raw materials, and consume a lot more of both domestically. Right now all exporters to the U.S. should be looking for alternative markets and the federal government should be signing trade agreements in rapid succession. I wouldn’t cave into any demands from Trump anymore because fulfilling them won’t remove the threat of tariffs. What he has demanded publicly (action at our border) isn’t what he really wants, which is to take economic advantage of other countries. This is the time to close ranks. We need to commit to that pathway before entering into any discussions of revised trade agreements or economic union with the U.S., so that we’re bargaining from a position of strength. We must always be prepared to raise the drawbridge and go it alone. We have the greenhouses and energy. We have the diverse economy. We can expand the military. We can form new alliances and trade relationships. We can look to our many other partners in Europe, the Commonwealth, Francophonie, etc.

Unfortunately Canada is lost right now. Much needs to change in Canada, and it goes deep, right to the ideologically-captured justice system. I just accidentally came across a racialized-only job at CAMH. That the courts in Canada don’t see job discrimination on the basis of race as unconstitutional is another example of how weak and meaningless our constitution is. Frankly, I can’t support the country being run this way. I’d prefer to live in the 51st state than a country that no longer understands or upholds basic rights. The influences of China and cartels are just more manifestations of the same fundamental irresponsibility.

I’m really sorry to hear that. I hope she’s okay.

That’s about where I’m at. If Canadians have become so soft and dependent on big government that they aren’t willing to assert Canadian culture and make the sacrifices to defend it, let the Yanks run it. It might be better than the current arrangement. We can’t even win at men’s hockey anymore. WTF?!

Basically if Canada refuses to step it up by making the sacrifices necessary for independence, including having a formidable military, it’s better off folding itself into the U.S. The nanny state has been expanded to breaking point, such that there’s no room left to provide the essential conditions of sovereignty, including a strong defence, a resource and industry-friendly regulatory climate, and a tax system that encourages entrepreneurial spirit and rewards innovation and productivity, and that makes business activity the heart of the economy rather than government employment and spending.

Well let’s see if we can get an upgrade on the subs. Poilievre was in top form actually.

I’m all for ensuring that every Canadian has as much opportunity as possible. I just don’t support divisive identity politics that assumes that some groups are inherently better or more deserving than others, nor do I support a political ideology that takes power and opportunity away from individuals while expanding government power and bureaucracy. I also don’t support any rhetoric that depicts Canada as genocidal or oppressive. Well, we got a glimpse of government oppression in Canada during Covid, and it was the leftist dingbats who made it happen, the same ones who brought you the Residential Schools you condemn.

You’re regurgitating radical left nonsense that exemplifies why we’re in this mess with the U.S. Canada is in no position to pay off the possible descendants of people who were possibly wronged by the excesses of colonial settlement 400 years ago when the government can’t pay its bills or defend the country. Moreover, we’ve seen more “settler colonial” immigration under the current government than at any time in our history, but somehow that’s good for Indigenous? French Canada and Chinese Canadians have moved on from their grievances. The Loyalists gave up on retrieving stranded possessions in the U.S. The Irish aren’t demanding reparations for not having voting or property ownership rights hundreds of years ago or for suffering bias up until about 40 years ago from Orange Protestant Canada. The grievance industry has clearly worked on people like you and our federal government, which has essentially enshrined a hemorrhaging of tax dollars to designated groups. Again though, this is all rearranging deck chairs on the federal government Titanic. Worry about microaggressions and your revisionist histories and see how far it gets you and your family. See how much good it does to support Canadian independence. Far as I’m concerned, if you ninnies are running the show in Canada, I’d far rather see the country become 51st state to put an end to your Marxist dreams for good.

Be careful what you support, because that future might remove property from future generations of your family. You don’t seem to understand what’s at stake. It really is all about that. Money and land. There’s an illusion that there was an original tribe with the deed of deeds, though historical records indicate that Indigenous were invading each other’s territories with regularity, the ones that stayed in one area for more than several years after the soil was degraded, which was mostly the coastal settlements. They were also the wealthiest and most brutal, enslaving tribes from the south. Anyway, treaties were signed and people are free to bring their land claims to court. If you want more claims and reparations for the deeds of people living centuries ago, that’s your choice. I would estimate that if too much of that happens, the younger generation paying the price for your foolishness will happily turn the country over to America to release Canadians from these millstones.

Oh yeah, so you would choose to live like the 17th century natives right? None of that colonial European bourgeoisie lifestyle for you. So why don’t you do it? It’s never too late. Who needs literacy either, right? You’ve clearly attended your equity training and swallowed the radical nonsense. It’s attitudes like yours that put Canada in its current position of weakness. Seriously, why would you want to be part of this “settler-colonial genocidal” state? Indigenous are also part of Canada’s story, good and bad. They were no better than the settlers and had fought and enslaved each other. People are people. Indigenous ideas contributed to the culture along with many other groups.

You can’t like Canada no matter how hard you pretend to be patriotic, unless it involves getting free stuff through redistribution of wealth. Can you explain what you like about Canada? Genuinely curious.

It was founded over millennia, because the founders imported personal family histories and institutions based on a thousand year old parliament in Britain, which was itself based on Roman administration, the German assembly, and other distant precursors. It’s exactly this misunderstanding that makes revolutionaries think they can and should erase history and impose their flavour of the month.

You come across as uninformed. Your position would truly cause suffering, because you don’t seem to understand the millennia old origins of our social order. You mention the devil but don’t seem to understand the basic lessons of history explained in the testaments.

I don’t disagree. But where is our King? Where are the Loyalists? Are there enough of them to make the case for Canada? As Chrétien said in the last referendum on Quebec separation, “Who will speak for Canada?”

Should anybody be able to enter your home, take your things, rape your wife/children simply because they want to or perceive themselves as needing to? Protection of property is a condition of respect for the individual and sanctity of the person. Without it you have no real rights, because your stuff can be taken, including your dignity, in the service of anyone else’s interests. You don’t make distinctions between legal and illegal immigrants, nor do you understand that a country’s citizens decide who can enter the country for the sake of the safety of the citizens. Self-determination, a condition of any democracy, requires this.

Good thinking. Make an immediate assertion of hard power to protect our sovereignty. That solves multiple problems at once, including meeting NATO commitments. Without thinking on the level of the power over life and death, as well as our economic strength, tough words are meaningless.

Incorrect. The highest form of democracy is the most local and based on the idea of subsidiarity. It starts with respect for the family unit and the local community. The members of that community must have as much political control over their community as possible to ensure that the people have the greatest level of self-determination. What do you think the Indigenous beef with Canada is all about? Self-determination. A local community is a jurisdiction with its own voters. Jurisdictional self-determination is the origin of the border, because polities must protect their interests. It goes back tens of thousands of years, before the Mesopotamian cities that protected their interests no differently from today. Communities come together to form regional higher levels of government such as states or provinces, and on it goes to the level of the nation states. Self-determination is at the heart of social organization, and a healthy liberal democracy respects that, which is why healthy democracies don’t subjugate citizens of any countries.

I know you always give preference to the British Protestant foundation of Confederation over the Vatican-influenced side of the Canadian equation, though Britain enshrined Catholic rights in the British North America Act of 1867. Sadly those foundational forces have been weakened and essentially walked away, relinquishing authority to something outside both of those cultural forces. I’d call it Cultural Marxism, the idea that the state is the ultimate authority and has the right to tell you what to think and how to live. It’s what has filled the cultural vacuum created by Post-National State, China’s heavy influence, and a capitulation to radical left woke ideology. Constitutionality protected Catholic education in Canada is one of the last vestiges of protecting Canadian values and culture, and it too is being attacked at the highest levels of the Vatican. Where are the royalists? Where are the Churchillians? Where are the Catholics? Where are the Protestants? Where are the Canadians? The leftist posters on here don’t understand where the strength of Canada dwells.

It doesn’t matter what radical views you have, the population decides. Your views are essentially Marxist. No working person who has saved to buy a home and a small piece of the American Dream (or Canadian for that matter) will accept having to give that up in the name of property redistribution or high taxation to pay for the upkeep of new arrivals. The new arrivals have to bring something to the table unless there’s some extreme instance of injustice they are fleeing, in which case they can claim refugee status. Most people are willing to give up some of their earnings and property to help people who are desperate and fleeing a situation thrust upon them, against which they have no recourse. That’s not what is being questioned here. It’s the rapid and illegal immigration or the government supported mass immigration without clear purpose that people are justified in questioning. Otherwise the purpose of the nation state as a polity operated by the citizens for the citizens falls apart. No rational person would take the risk of supporting your free for all, which essentially amounts to anarchy and redistribution of property at gunpoint based on whoever wields the most power, because public safety requires social organization, collection of taxes, electoral jurisdictions, and borders.

Yeah and democracy ends so that oligarchs with big egos can play a giant game of Risk against the will of entire populations. Sounds like a recipe for progress and success. Sarcasm. Trump isn’t coming across as wise or strategic in this trade war that he started, because he can quickly lose the middle swing voters for the sake of fairly meaningless concessions from countries with but-hurt populations looking to take their business elsewhere. Strong relations are built on trust and goodwill. Bad relations are built on coercion. Basic human nature.

Yeah Trudeau is your saviour. Set up an alter with his photo entitled dictator for life. The Trudeau Liberals have achieved the seemingly impossible by being both soft and naive AND oppressive. They overspend and tell weak-minded people how they should think, which is basically to embrace false anti-Canadian equity rhetoric. It’s gross and irresponsible and you love it.