August1991

Canada is a federal state. At the federal level, we have two languages. Some of our provinces have two languages. Canada has no official cultural. ==== This geographic place called "Canada" is merely a place on the map. Rocks, trees, rivers, lakes and people who have lived here. These rivers and rocks, this place, will exist long after we Canadians, Russians, Finns, various others have likely moved north, or south - according to glaciers.

If Quebec and Alberta (northern BC) decided to separate, Toronto would become Buffalo/ Detroit. Ontario would become Michigan. ==== And Quebec would become Norway.

With that posted, I recall a world when a Quebecer could say to Newfoundlanders: "It's all yours. You own it all. Every penny. But that's not Canada. " Heck, I remember when a federal PM sarcastically asked:: "Should I sell your wheat?" Indeed, should the State sell your wheat.

I think that she's on the right track. ===== Iceland is a small rich country, sustainable for millenia. Alberta and northern BC could be a country, access to the sea. ==== This current Canada is not permanent. Our flag dates from 1965, Liberal colours. Our constitution dates from 1867 - sort of. But the rocks and trees of this place will remain whatever these politicians do.

I reckon that the Albertan Premier is on the right track So too, the US Supreme Court for abortion - leave it to the local jurisdiction. ==== As Trudeau Snr infamously said, the State should not dictate your breakfast cereal: if you don't like it, turn it around.

This post troubles me but it is true. Buddhists don't enjoy life. Neither do Muslims. (You can't sing or dance.) Catholics at least allow singing. Lutherans sadly restrict singing. Baptists make it required.

Disagree, reason10. ==== Mozart? No Buddhist would ever be an Einstein, a Jew. We in the West accept difference. And we enjoy music, life.

Myata, I have also thought about this. ===== Unless we screw this up, a society like Canada (America) is the future. Japan (China) is not the future. In the future, more people will travel, transact. More women will meet men, and men meet women. No foreigner wants to live permanently in Singapore or Dubai. They want a US or Australian passport.

In Canada, we have a long history of French Catholics voting for an English Protestant politician -rather than voting tribal. Obama? You Americans voted tribally. About 95% of Black Americans voted for Obama. In Canada, we don't do that. ==== What does it do? I think we Canadians have a more civilised society than you Americans. On average, true, you are richer, have more stuff, better health care. But I like the change of seasons.

Russians invading Canada? Slavs invading? ==== Ukrainia - the mere name is the tell: at the border. There was once a Kievan Rus.

No I mean some Protestant English Canadians voted for a Catholic French Canadian. Left-handed Canadians voted for a right-handed Canadian - even if a left-handed politician was on the ballot.

Perhaps. But I have thought about this. ==== I was born here. Then, travelled abroad. What we have in Canada is remarkable. America is remarkable. I admire the US Constitution. But we Canadians fundamentally accept difference.

IMHO, the world does not lack for people. If anything, the world has too many children. Our problem is a lack of educated, civilised children. ===== We Canadians are good at allowing people - foreigners - to become civilised. The Scandinavians (Swedes, Norwegians) can't do this. The Europeans can't integrate people. The Prussians force them. The Finns are clueless about foreigners. Americans and Australians are good. But we Canadians are best. We Canadians somehow make most - if not all - foreigners civilised. Ask any foreigner.

Only Liberals? ==== Canada is a country with much space. People here now love more people - it makes our house price go up!

I am tired of fake Americans, Americans trying to be otherwise: Clinton, any Bush, George Clooney, most current Hollywood actors... Don't try to be what you're not. ==== I am a Canadian. But I know an American when I see one. I miss Jimmy Stewart.

You Americans had a chance in the 1990s. The world could have been a peaceful place for a century, or more ===== But you progressive Americans - Clinton - f^cked it up.

I know nothing about local Arizona politics. But I saw both Lake and Hobbes on video. Lake was clear, smart. Hobbes not. ==== You Americans now have a fu**-up system for voting. For the rest of us in the civilised world, please fix it.

According to smart people in the 18th century, everything is predictable, it has a counterweight. Nowadays, it is quantum. It just happens. ==== Imagine a US Constitution written today.

In the 18th Century, the framers understood counterweights. They knew that the Dutch and Swiss had managed a State - Republics - without a monarch. ==== In the 1700s, the idea of a central bank was too weird. IMHO, a mistake. Hamilton aside.

A civiliised society, a language, can survive for centuries. Bulgarians did it -under the Ottomans. In Canada, so did the French under the British. ==== Please understand my broader point: California? It's CGI. Canada? It's real.

IMHO, Legault and Putin are beginning to understand life. ==== Clinton, US Dems are clueless. ========== Trudeau Snr got it.

The freedom to say what you want is not the same as an individual's right to have a nuclear weapon. The Second Amendment has a proviso. The First Amendment does not IMHO. this current Supreme Court has guts. ==== Let's see what happens.

In Canada, each province has jurisdiction over language and education. Recently, the US Supreme Court made the question of abortion an issue at the state-level. ==== In any society, how we all get along is a difficult question. While I admire the American constitution, I like the Canadian federal system. I note that we Canadians have a tendency to vote across tribal lines. In the US, the first Roman Catholic was Kennedy. In Canada, we've had many Catholic leaders - elected by Protestants. But far more significantly, in Canada, people in the minority are willing to vote for a majority candidate - even when a fellow minority candidate is on the ballot. In Canada, minority Protestants in Quebec vote for a Catholic, minority French-speaking in Ontario vote for an Anglo - even when they have someone of their language/religion on the ballot. And we in Canada have done for this for over a century. ==== How many black Americans voted for McCain or Romney when Obama was on the ballot? How much are Norwegians willing to sacrifice for fellow Europeans?

Well said!

Newfoundland, with some 500,000 people nowadays, has existed for some 500 years. ==== To survive and be civilsed, Quebec doesn't have to have more people. Canada doesn't need more people. People like Trudeau Jnr think of progress as getting bigger, growing, having more. === Very soon, the world's population will start to fall. We are seeing it now already. Places like Iceland and Bulgaria are sustainable for centuries.