Moonlight Graham

Well when you spend years dodging bullets from Nazis, the jerk who cuts in line in front of you at the grocery store doesn't seem so intimidating. My country is my home and i'll defend it from foreign or internal actors trying to undermine it or take advantage of it for their own interests. I can't shoot a rifle but I can shoot my mouth off lol.

And thus a country was born, to defend itself. You're saying Canada is a country, but not a nation. Maybe you're right, at least some of the time for some people. You build a soul by having your own flag, your own citizenship, own national anthem, your own army, navy, your own constitution etc. A nation is a family united by common bond. If you want to build a nation, you need to build a sense of common bond. Family members frequently bicker but at the end of the day are united. Let the Quebecois have some control over their own destiny in their province, but also give them a reason to be proud to be Canadian. Defense against the US may have been the main reason for formation but it doesn't have to be the main reason for its continued existence. The US purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867 a few months before Confederation was signed. The remaining British colonies in North America had reason to be fearful. It doesn't so much anymore, as allies. Canadians have other enemies to worry about now. If there's anything that will make a country unite it's a common enemy.

The Americans told King George to shove it. Being a republic isn't british at all. The US didn't makes themselves their own monarchy, they told the dictators to shove it and Washington despite being extremely popular and people urging him to run again said i'm not going to run for a 3rd POTUS term, I won't be like a king for life because monarchs suck. Yes the US founders were expanding mainly on english philosophical foundations, like John Locke, and expanded on many of the rights the Brits had secured for themselves in Britain against the monarchy since the Magna Carta. It's an evolution. Canada might have a british system of governance but that doesn't mean we're british subjects because we're not. Canada was automatically entered into WWI because Britain had been thrown into it. Canada had no choice, and after the war Canadians said eff that, thus the Statute of Westminster. Canada waited a week to enter WWII after Britain declared war, to show their independence. Quebecers don't want to be British and we shouldn't force them, thus we are Canadians with our own flag, and Canadian citizens instead of British subjects, and we patriated our Queen as the Queen of Canada, not the Queen of Britain. I'm loyal to the Queen of Canada because she is the head of state and is the symbolic physical embodiment of the nation, not because I lick the Queen's boots. At this point she's nothing more than a rubber stamp that signs the bills we stick in front of her, except in cases of emergency like a PM/Parliament overstepping their bounds.

The Americans rejected the Crown, they rebelled, and I respect them for that. But I don't feel American, and they don't feel British. Canada didn't have an "independence day" like the US, we have slowly become more independent from British control over centuries, it was a slow process, an evolution not defined by any single date. By nature Canadians are more docile and submissive and agreeable and patient, we lay on our backs and take it up the rump, we don't mind being controlled more than the Americans do, for whatever reason. The French living in Quebec never wanted to be part of the Crown, to be British. They reject it to this day, they're French. I respect them for that. So the Libs et al took away the red ensign from our flag and made us all Canadian citizens rather than British subjects, whether french, english, brits, germans, italians, and whoever. And that's fine, that's how you make a country where everyone feels they belong.

I appreciate the post. I'm not a patriot because I do it for other Canadians, or this or any government, and I don't serve and defend it loyally for them, or anyone else. I do it for my family, to honour their sacrifices, which have ripped my family into pieces over the many decades. Otherwise everything they sacrificed was for nothing. So as I said, i'm all in. My grandfather was the toughest SOB I ever met in my life, and an upstanding person. Honourable, and honest, and decent. He wouldn't talk about the war, but I can only imagine what he went through. I don't have the capacity to serve, I'm not as tough as him. That job is for better men and women like you and others. So I find other ways to defend my country. Like on message boards lol. But if we were invaded by Russia or China or whatever foreign army you can bet I'd grab a gun and kill every last one of the bastards I could that stepped foot on this soil and would keep fighting if I were the last man left. They wouldn't take me alive. But today's enemies aren't on the battlefield. It's the snakes in the grass you don't see, and I'm out to expose them wherever I can. Like those snakes working in the virus lab in Winnipeg. Or the snakes in Parliament trading money for political favours. Anyone who attempts to undermine this country is my enemy. Anyways, thanks again for your service. The government may be filled with pieces of garbage that treat you and others like crap but I honour your service and sacrifices, and I'm not alone. Cheers.

What do you do Dougie? What do I do? You say the Canadian project is doomed and should be burned? My grandfathers fought in WWII to defend our nation, our Crown, and our allies. I'm all in man. I'm a Canadian, many generations back. What am I to do to defend my country? I'm not British or American like you are. This is my home and my nation, I have nothing else. What do I do, except fight for it to survive? I'm a patriot. I go down with the ship, I have no other choice...

We ask new citizens to do this every day. You do realize we live in a constitutional monarchy right? I'm not saying our system is the ideal, but let's face the facts of what it is at least. A monarchy is a monarchy. Hail to the king, baby.

5. Would you call Quebec a shining example of the success of multiculturalism that the world should admire and follow? 7. I've met and spoken to more immigrants than most people on this forum. I'm not anti-immigrant, I have no problems with them. I'm just asking questions, and heeding warnings. My warning is: we need to be very careful, and manage this multiculturalism project properly if it is to work at all, because it could easily blow up into something ugly if we're not careful. I'm not saying it can't work, i'm saying we can't have blind faith that it will no matter what. We need to UNITE as a nation as Canadians, not DIVIDE into sub-national groups opposing one another and in-fighting. You can be a Quebecois and a Canadian at the same time, but if you feel you're a Quebecois and NOT a Canadian then we have a big unity problem. We need to feel we are all a part of a family, which is Canada, and accept one another as a part of that family, no matter how different we seem in other ways. People in Texas vs New York are very different, and have pride being Texans and New Yorkers, and disagree on many issues, but they're all Americans at the end of the day. We need to build/maintain social trust together, and feel we are all apart of a nation where everyone belongs. No in-group out-group stuff. I'm not saying i'd be against a Muslim-majority city or province, I'm asking what would Canadians think? How would we react and adapt to that? 8. Yes Michael we could. But we have to manage the Canadian project in the right way in order to do very well. We have to create a national narrative where everyone is included, and everyone feels they belong and respected and feel everyone else belongs to. This is called "a nation", and ours will be called "Canada". Quebec nationalism is very strong, they're fiercely proud of who they are and extremely protective of that, and good for them! Is Quebec going to be ok with that? Will they feel they belong? How many do now? Would they be ok with tons of Muslims in Montreal, or many english speakers in Quebec City? Clearly not yet. What Quebec is doing is protecting their nation from domination or cultural extermination from non french, non Quebecois. They want to prosper as a culture, they want to control their destiny, they want to remain as a unique francophone society, and have self-determination to control that destiny as Quebecois francophones.

So when a new citizen makes an oath of allegiance to the crown they're serving the Crown? I don't think so. They're joining the nation as citizens under our leader the Queen, who is the physical embodiment of the state, as head of state.

Swearing an oath to the Queen of Canada is perfectly acceptable. The Queen wants you to kiss her feet and be ever loyal to all the domains she reigns over. Bow down and pucker up. Why is it ok for MPs to be required to swear an oath to the Queen of Canada but not citizens when voting? Voting and running for office are both rights guaranteed in Section 3 of the Charter: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_3_of_the_Canadian_Charter_of_Rights_and_Freedoms https://www.ourcommons.ca/procedure-book-livre/document.aspx?amp%2525252525253bsbpidx=13&language=e&sbdid=2AE20CBE-E824-466B-B37C-8941BBC99C37&sbpid=457E8854-C70D-4A8A-B0E0-7AD72D703B65

Some political disagreements can cause civil wars, or referendums calling for separation, or simply a great amount of national disunity. Go ask the aboriginals and Quebecois what that looks like. It's the cancer of a nation. What do you think Canada, or Quebec, will look like in 50 years? And how will that impact national unity? Ask the Quebecois how it's it going so far. I'm not asking this to be ignorant, i'm asking this because I fear for my country. Most people aren't as calm and level-headed as you are Mike. A lot of people don't want to bother listening to what the other side has to say. I'm wondering if humans are able to handle multiculturalism when more than 1 faction grows to a size of certain level of political and social power. When has this ever worked in human history and i'll give you dozens more examples when it ended in violence. It hasn't worked in Canada thus far. The FLQ weren't no joke. Quebec hasn't even signed the damned constitution and aboriginals want to cancel Canada Day. The Balkans didn't do very well did they? Do you know what the term "Balkanization" means? This is what we need to be afraid of. What else would you like besides unconstitutional bills banning religious symbols and non-french speaking? Pitch-folks and torches in the night? Montreal on fire like in Minneapolis? Another referendum? Another FLQ? If you think this can't happen in Canada, it already has. The naive fools who think we'll all sing kumbaya around the campfire and love each other because "diversity is our strength" are damned fools who don't know their history or human nature. There's a difference between wanting an ideal vs if it's likely to occur. Maybe it is possible, for the sake of this country I pray it is.

LOL. Spoken like a true snake. I'd love nothing more than to see you and all the other snakes show up and lie through their teeth like the cowards and traitors you are. Maybe you and Dougie are paid agents of Russia or China...or the Bloc Quebecois lol. God save the Queen.

If this country truly embraces multiculturalism and a secular state, we have to be comfortable with the idea of a possible future where some city somewhere in Canada has a majority of Muslims living in it, the same as Christians, Sikhs, Chinese, or any other cultural/religious/ethnic group. That would mean Muslim mayors, maybe a majority of city counselors who are Muslim. What if an entire province that becomes majority Muslim? With Islamic school boards like we have Catholic boards. A province that is bilingual - english and Arabic? Maybe Islamic-ish laws passed in the province, in the city? Maybe one day BC becomes majority Chinese? Maybe it becomes 55% Chinese and 40% South Asian. Maybe the official languages are changed to english, chinese, and punjabi? If you value multicultural and democracy, this is what we need to be prepared to accept as a possibilty. Democracy means people have the right to representation and self-determination. Nationalism means a nation-state that is dominated and governed by a particular national group. If we think any of this hypothetical diversity would go down smoothy, with no nationalist infighting between white anglos, Muslims, south asians, aboriginals, Quebecois/francaphones... well you're wrong. We're seeing it right now in Quebec with religious symbols laws and language laws. Get your heads out of the sand people. Diversity can be extremely divisive, because different sub-national groups fight for their rights. It's happened with Quebec for hundreds of years. This country was founded on multiculturalism, and those 3 founding groups - anglos, francaphones, and indigineous, haven't been able to get along in Canada's entire history going back to the 1700's and beyond.

In January, Gaudreault’s research paper, titled “The impact of immigration on local ethnic groups’ demographic representativeness: The case study of ethnic French Canadians in Quebec,” was published in the scientific journal Nations and Nationalism. His key findings, based on an analysis of Statistics Canada data, were that: in 1971, ethnic French-Canadians represented 79 per cent of the Quebec population, but declined to 64.5 per cent by 2014 and, given current immigration rates, will fall below 50 per cent of the population by 2042. By 2050, they will make up 45 per cent of the population, a share that will continue to decline. https://financialpost.com/diane-francis/diane-francis-facing-a-demographic-shift-quebec-doubles-down-on-its-language-laws Now, that doesn't mean that the French language itself will decline as a minority along with ethnic French-Canadian population. I don't have those stats. What has happened in the US and the UK and elsewhere is happening in Quebec: people are afraid of becoming a minority. With Quebec, the issue is more complex because language is a big part of their culture and really the cornerstone, within a country that is majority english that has a Charter of Rights with mobility rights that says any Canadian citizen and permanent resident can freely move and take up residence in any province of their choice. It seems Quebec politicians have been very willing to stomp on freedom of speech, expression, and religion rights to enforce their nationalist agenda. I understand their concerns, but the choices they are making a very dangerous, and unconstitutional. The religious symbols law is an absolute joke. They're afraid of hijabs LOL.

Canada, and I think much of the West, has become complacent and naive, more and more. This is the result of decadence.

I propose that before any Canadian citizen casts a vote during an election that they be required to recite an oath of allegiance to Canada and/or the Queen of Canada. In the USA kids recite a pledge of allegiance. We don't do such things in Canada (as far as I know). If you're born in Canada, you don't have to have any loyalty to the country besides following the laws. You can run off and fight for ISIS and return. You can be a dual citizen and have your true loyalty with another country, and vote with those loyalties in your heart. You can be a Quebecois nationalist born in Canada and want the destruction of Canada and never have to declare your loyalty to the country. How about we separate the snakes who are disloyal citizens of convenience from the loyal Canadians. We'd see how many oaths people refuse to take. Even this proposal itself would cause uproar from the traitors. Thoughts?

I guarantee that's not the reason we've never found other humans in the universe.

I'm not against things like this that could help the environment. But the feds and provinces doing a lot to fight climate, which will incur costs on the consumer, while at the same time doing little to fix cost of living problems like exploding housing prices, is some really elitist nonsense and rubs people the wrong way. MP's make close to 200k annually and get a pension after barely serving long. They can't empathize with the single mom making 35k trying to raise kids.

Green technology has to become competitive with fossil fuels. Some environmentalists want to reduce supply of fossil fuels to drive up its price in order to help achieve this.

It does if you feel colonized or subordinated by another culture. It's not so much about "offending". If Anglos lived under a french flag they'd say the same thing.

I think it creates more unity. The French are anti-British. Anything 'British" alienates them, and I imagine many aboriginals too.

The Star sucks but I see nothing inaccurate about that paragraph re: residential schools generally. What they should do is find cause of death with the aboriginal kids that were found, if possible. Most of them probably died of disease as was common, but many probably were neglected and malnourished too.

LOL you're the one comparing them. Yes Alberta and Quebec are very similar in culture. Diversity is our strength bahahaha.

Yes Canadians are smug, and Americans are arrogant, violent, and retarded. Brits are rude and have terrible food. We all got our faults. America invented wokeness, SJWs, microaggressions etc. Thanks for the exports.

Long live Canada. H8ers gonna h8.