Thanks for another excellent read. An additional theme that sits behind your entire analogy is the strong belief that the object wants or secretly longs to accept the advances because the suitor is so wonderful.
This is a reflection of self-delusion (a very widespread human trait) and something we saw often during diplomatic assignments overseas when autocrats were clearly certain that without their inspired leadership the whole national project would fail. Of course, every country gives greater weight to its historical virtues than its reality but US tendencies in this area seem particularly acute. Faith in American exceptionalism is amazingly strong. Recall the backlash to this opening scene from Sorkin’s The Newsroom. https://youtu.be/VMqcLUqYqrs?si=48Pev2ld6S2j0Wuj
Love this! U.S. citizen here who, for the 937th time this year alone, apologizes for my fellow citizens who not only elected Trump (again...) but have no perspective on history, the the rest of the world, or indeed anything not spoon-fed to them by Fox/Newsmax/Mein Kampf. It is my sincere hope that we can all get through the next four years much as a family over a long weekend puts up with that one drunken abusive obnoxious uncle. P.S.: LOVE all your fresh water and oil sands - would never dream of stealing them though.
Yeah, no one in Canada is interested. No one affiliated with any political party has said ‘well maybe we should explore this.. what are the terms, the timelines, how would it work, etc.’ No serious Canadian has any interest in signing up to join the dumpster fire of discord that is the United States in 2025.
I object to the jokey comment early in the article re soldiers leaving with the “clap” from canadian girls. It should read “leaving canada with fresh doses of the clap”
I am so sick of women being the ones usually blamed for spreading STD
They are usually the victims of slutty men
I know this may seem somewhat trivial given the state of the world, but that really pisses me off
A very worthwhile read/screed which I will share widely. Thanks Dan and yes, don’t stop writing these long pieces. You raise the monarchy in this piece. I have been wondering whether, given Trump’s soft spot for royalty, if our King should invite him for a sit down and a spread and a talking to. Annexing Canada would mean one less State dinner for the orange blob.
America is more like the super-skilled mechanic who covets the rusting shell of a 1968 Shelby in his neighbour's garage. "What a waste! With a bit of work, I could turn that into a gorgeous, high-powered classic again!"
A rising tide lifts all boats. If Canada weren't such a lazy, house-bound laggard, we could produce all kinds of valuable stuff that would make Americans better off through trade. You can only use so much cheap crap from China; Chinada is not needed, except for oil and electricity. But a revitalized Canadian economy, exploiting American capital and know-how, would be a 51st state America could benefit from yugely. And that isn't even to take into account the real worry of a defenseless Canada becoming the launching pad for America's future enemies.
There's an old joke: Canada could have been the best country in the world, with French cuisine, British democracy, and American know-how. Instead, we have British cuisine, American democracy, and French know-how. That's been the tragedy of Canada for a long time.
It’s interesting how people that share your opinion commonly fail to recognize two facts:
1. Things are not objectively better in the US. Actual objective measures consistently indicate that Canadians have a much higher quality of life. Almost always top 5 in the world whereas the US is never top 10 and usually not top 20.
2. Most Canadians would not be willing to do what it would take to gain the few “advantages” that the US has - because they are just not that valuable to us.
Are some of the criticisms of Canada fair and based in fact? Absolutely. No country, or human system, is perfect. Ever.
You can insult Canadians and fail to acknowledge our preferences but I think it’s unlikely to cause us join your way of thinking.
Bill, things are not "objectively better" in Canada. "Quality of life" is an inherently subjective measure; and since it is usually calculated by left-wing organizations, the factors taken into account are weighted against America. That's why Bhutan typically ranks among the top on the "gross national happiness" index.
The best measure of doing "objectively better" may be net migration. People move to where things are better. My quick google searches suggest that 10 times as many Canadian residents have moved south over the past decade or two than American residents who have moved north. If you take into account that there are 10 times as many Americans who *could* move north, the net migration measure actually favours the USA over Canada 100:1.
Global migration shows the same trend: America is a *far* more desired destination than Canada is. What is true is that there is more variability in a lot of measures of well-being in the USA than in Canada, although that difference is rapidly diminishing, too. Have you checked out the growth in tent cities everywhere in Canada since the time of covid or the reign of Trudeau II?
People tend to be "conservative;" they tend to like what they are familiar with from having grown up in the culture. A former university colleague of mine from Bangladesh told me that when he goes home to visit childhood friends, they tell him they don't understand why he moved away from the greatest country in the world in the first place.
Gun violence in the USA is mostly contained to the poor parts of Democrat-run cities. I read a while back that only a handful - maybe a dozen - counties in the USA (out of over 3,000) account for the entire difference between homicide rates in Canada and the USA. If you move to the USA, it is pretty easy to avoid the hot spots.
Please note also that gun violence in America is worst in cities where guns are most restricted - just like in Canada. John Lott Jr. has done some very good work analyzing gun laws on a county-by-county basis throughout the USA, and he has found that easier access and higher conceal-carry rates are correlated with lower incidents of gun crime.
Fair point that the measures are not fully objective. Most utilize both objective and subjective data. They may be the closest achievable metrics we have for such things though. They are definitely not all left wing sources. There are left, right, and some considered not to lean either way. I believe that they are much better than buying into the emotional (and whiney) “Canada is broken” narrative - or equally absurd (and delusional) - that Canada can’t be improved.
Net migration from Canada to the US is not an indicator of quality of life in either country. Other variables are much more important. Being a 10 times larger country means there are simply more opportunities. Canada will never have that but the fact that it’s relatively easy for Canadians to move there if they so choose also speaks to the opportunities Canadians have. Of the 45,000 people per year that make the move from Canada to the US (on average - including dual citizens) there are likely very few that would say they are doing so for general quality of life. It is much more likely associated with a specific opportunity. The most popular reason outside of that is the weather. Not variables we control.
On tent cities etc.: The poverty rate is twice as high in the US. Homelessness is two to three times as high per capita. The murder rate is 3 to 4 times higher. Canadians, on average, have 5 more years of healthy life. Can we still learn lessons from them? Sure, they’re big and have 10 times the scenarios to draw from. They do lots right. So do we.
As for Trudeau. I’m not a fan, nor am I a great believer that the PM (or a ruling government) always makes a difference in the economy. In Canadian economics they often have little or no short-term (i.e. can be measured while they’re still in office) impact. That said, if you wanted to tie these things to Trudeau; the poverty rate is lower now than when he became PM.
Is the US more successful at business and more innovative? It would appear so. There are a number of theories around that. Most are not that complicated. While it matters, it’s not enough of a difference for most people to consider it a better place to live - or a place to emulate. To play with your metaphor: With Trump, the US is turning it’s shiny mega mostly-friendly and cooperative multi-bay garage, located next door to our much smaller but much more reliable and even more cooperative (and effective in it’s specialties) garage into a place that most would only take their car to under duress. In the next few years no one is going to like dealing with the US. There will be much duress. And they will erode or erase much of the goodwill that exists toward them. The world’s positive view of the US took a serious dive (measured by those left, right and centre) during the last Trump administration. In my view, it is poised to be much worse this time.
Cling to your delusions, Bill. I taught at a university, so I know how utterly broken our education system is. I practiced law, so I know how utterly broken our legal system is. I read the news, so I know how utterly broken our sick-care system is - in every province regardless of the political orientation of the Premier. Canada pays some of the highest prices in the world for banking, air travel, eggs milk poultry, telecommunications, etc. etc. - because we are a country of government-created monopolies and cartels.
There is no reason that the per-capita number of opportunities should be greater in a country with a larger population. Otherwise everyone would be trying to get into India and China. Highly productive Canadians have always been attracted to the USA because they can keep more of their money. If you don't think incentives matter, you are the typical problem with Canadians.
A large part of the problem with America is that Democrat Presidents have opened the southern boarder to undocumented immigrants for decades. When I lived in Tucson, AZ, in the 1980s, there wasn't much of a problem with crime or poverty.
"The poverty rate is lower" under Trudeau. Now you are citing long outdated Liberal talking points, Bill. Look outside your window - or maybe your car window if you live in a gated suburb of Ottawa. Kids in their 30s with university degrees can't afford houses. For the first time in history, they are worse off than their parents. $62billion deficits have an immediate impact on prices and investment; draconian and arbitrary environmental regulations have an immediate impact on investment decisions; DEI policies have an immediate impact on labour force productivity; legalizing and handing out free narcotics has an immediate impact on all kinds of things; etc. There have been radical changes in all of these factors under Trudeau, and they have ruined the Canadian economy and much of society - which now ranks lower than the poorest American state.
I bet the Germans wish they had listened to Trump when he told them not to become reliant on Putin's energy. I bet the EU wishes they had taken Trump's advice to beef up their military spending before Putin invaded Ukraine... Yeah, America's reputation worldwide has taken a big dive - because nobody wants to hear, "I told you so."
I can’t read your whole note. Sorry. I got to “per capita opportunities” and then realized we have too many intertwined conversations. Clearly on that one you’re not following the logic but I’m sure I’m missing some too. My points are not to say everything is great or perfect and it’s certainly not to support Trudeau or his government’s record. It’s simply to point out that the notion that the US is objectively better than Canada is not supported by the facts - or, at best, is debatable and not settled fact.
“Broken” is a meaningless term unless you either 1. Have an agreed, and sufficiently detailed, definition for the present context or 2. are advocating for a political position. Its emphatic use, I believe, also belies a lack of familiarity with systems. These are all complex systems we’re referencing and to have a clear and comprehensive view of them may be impossible. So, we reduce them to some measures. Some are helpful. Some are not. But if your feeling is that, in the immortal words of Bob Dylan “everything is broken” at the same time that others (say… that also teach university, present as an objective expert witness, have been analyzing systems for decades) believes none of it is actually “broken” - then perhaps there is more ‘perspective’ involved than objective right or wrong. Either way, thanks for the exchange. All the best.
Bill, you were the one who introduced the notion of "objectively better." I replied by saying there is no such thing; all preferences are subjective. The best a person can do for comparison purposes is add up subjective preferences, e.g. by considering the direction of net migration. Money isn't all that is important to people; but it is second to whatever is because it can be exchanged for most things people want and need. That is why GDP per capita is a reasonable measure of better and worse economic systems.
You claimed that Canadians go south because there are more opportunities because the USA is a bigger country. But there are more people in the USA competing for the same opportunities, so that doesn't make sense. The reason more Canadians move south is that there are more opportunities for everyone there - more "per capita." If Canada had one-tenth the opportunities and one-tenth the population, then there would be no point moving south for more opportunities.
Lots of people who have never had an original idea knocking around in their head are happy with state censorship. Lots of people don't want to think for themselves, and want to be told what to think. Lots of people feel "unsafe" when confronted by unfamiliar ideas. A system of state censorship will not feel broken to any of these people; but to me it is badly broken. To which camp do you belong, Bill?
In my opinion, pretty much everything in Canada is just barely limping along, at an exorbitant cost. Nothing is working well. If you say nothing is broken, maybe I just have higher standards and higher expectations than you do. Maybe you are fine with crap public policy leading to crap outcomes - when Canada should have the finest of everything in the world given our privileged history and geography.
As Elon Musk recently observed, the line dividing East and West Germany was entirely artificial. Yet on one side you had Mercedes, BMW, and Porsche, while on the other you had the Trabant. A similar story can be told about the 49th parallel. The difference isn't in the people, or even the geography, but in the "operating system." I have been arguing my entire post-undergraduate life that Canadians are too damn stupid to up-grade our operating system. We keep the old socialist systems and don't even invest in anti-virus software to clean out the bugs from time to time. Maybe being ravished by Americans would wake us from our dogmatic slumbers and do us some good.
I have long wished that that were true, Dave. I've spent 4 decades trying to educate Canadians about our economic folly (among many other things), but we have only gotten stupider and more self-destructive over that time. Still to this day at least half of Canadians think Trudeau's endless $62billion deficits are better than Poilievre's "cuts, cuts, cuts." A quarter of Canadians don't think Trudeau has gone nearly far enough in ruining Canada in a dozen different ways at once. They would vote NDP, Green, or Bloc.
I've become first and foremost an Alberta separatist, because there is still a modicum of hope for Alberta outside of the big cities and woke universities where the Eastern-Canada immigrants tend to congregate. I hold out a faint hope that Trump will so shock Canadians that we choose a different path.
True story: When I was in grade 8 (not 8th grade) in 1971, I wrote a history / social studies "essay" arguing that Canada's mistake in 1867 was not joining the USA. It was mostly just to be cheeky, but the points I made then are still true today.
As I've said elsewhere, the U.S. can have Canada when you pry it from my cold, dead hands. I moved here from the U.S. 21 yrs ago, and have no plans to go back except to visit family and take the occasional Star Trek Cruise. I'm a minority in QC, yet I have a good job, a great doctor, a new car, and a nice house. Possible in the States? Sure, but with all the headaches that come from that lack of universal healthcare and proliferation of idiots with guns. No thanks. I'm staying put. Additionally, it was nice to see Jean Chretien speak out against Drumpf's sudden obsession with us.
Triggered — Defence Scheme #1. I did my BA thesis contrasting the personalities of Buster Brown (UEL) and Andy McNaughton (soldier-scientist). James Eayrs had just published his somewhat overblown take on Buster, but Charles Taylor had an interesting chapter on him in “Six Journeys”. Also related — my good friend Chris Bell died before his time last year.
All those personal deets aside, there is much logic to a stronger economic and defence union between Canada & the USA (ie the logic of NORAD and the original FTA) and a return to the pre-9/11 open internal border. But 51st state? That’s looney-tunes on so many levels.
Great piece as always but when you mentioned Theodore Roosevelt I could not help but think of Charles Bonaparte, Roosevelt’s attorney general from 1906-1909, it just happened that his grandfather was Jérôme Bonaparte, brother of Emperor Napoleon. But as Canadian Neil young once said, “keep on rockin’ in the free world.”
This is where I troll two countries simultaneously. The 4th of July is an English holiday because English settlers defeated a German Kaiser and his German Mercenaries.
Thanks for another excellent read. An additional theme that sits behind your entire analogy is the strong belief that the object wants or secretly longs to accept the advances because the suitor is so wonderful.
This is a reflection of self-delusion (a very widespread human trait) and something we saw often during diplomatic assignments overseas when autocrats were clearly certain that without their inspired leadership the whole national project would fail. Of course, every country gives greater weight to its historical virtues than its reality but US tendencies in this area seem particularly acute. Faith in American exceptionalism is amazingly strong. Recall the backlash to this opening scene from Sorkin’s The Newsroom. https://youtu.be/VMqcLUqYqrs?si=48Pev2ld6S2j0Wuj
Well done. Enjoyed the bite-sized historical Timbits throughout.
Love this! U.S. citizen here who, for the 937th time this year alone, apologizes for my fellow citizens who not only elected Trump (again...) but have no perspective on history, the the rest of the world, or indeed anything not spoon-fed to them by Fox/Newsmax/Mein Kampf. It is my sincere hope that we can all get through the next four years much as a family over a long weekend puts up with that one drunken abusive obnoxious uncle. P.S.: LOVE all your fresh water and oil sands - would never dream of stealing them though.
Yeah, no one in Canada is interested. No one affiliated with any political party has said ‘well maybe we should explore this.. what are the terms, the timelines, how would it work, etc.’ No serious Canadian has any interest in signing up to join the dumpster fire of discord that is the United States in 2025.
Except crazy Randy Hillier.
https://bsky.app/profile/charlieangus104.bsky.social/post/3lflb5yazrc2i
I object to the jokey comment early in the article re soldiers leaving with the “clap” from canadian girls. It should read “leaving canada with fresh doses of the clap”
I am so sick of women being the ones usually blamed for spreading STD
They are usually the victims of slutty men
I know this may seem somewhat trivial given the state of the world, but that really pisses me off
A very worthwhile read/screed which I will share widely. Thanks Dan and yes, don’t stop writing these long pieces. You raise the monarchy in this piece. I have been wondering whether, given Trump’s soft spot for royalty, if our King should invite him for a sit down and a spread and a talking to. Annexing Canada would mean one less State dinner for the orange blob.
America is more like the super-skilled mechanic who covets the rusting shell of a 1968 Shelby in his neighbour's garage. "What a waste! With a bit of work, I could turn that into a gorgeous, high-powered classic again!"
A rising tide lifts all boats. If Canada weren't such a lazy, house-bound laggard, we could produce all kinds of valuable stuff that would make Americans better off through trade. You can only use so much cheap crap from China; Chinada is not needed, except for oil and electricity. But a revitalized Canadian economy, exploiting American capital and know-how, would be a 51st state America could benefit from yugely. And that isn't even to take into account the real worry of a defenseless Canada becoming the launching pad for America's future enemies.
There's an old joke: Canada could have been the best country in the world, with French cuisine, British democracy, and American know-how. Instead, we have British cuisine, American democracy, and French know-how. That's been the tragedy of Canada for a long time.
It’s interesting how people that share your opinion commonly fail to recognize two facts:
1. Things are not objectively better in the US. Actual objective measures consistently indicate that Canadians have a much higher quality of life. Almost always top 5 in the world whereas the US is never top 10 and usually not top 20.
2. Most Canadians would not be willing to do what it would take to gain the few “advantages” that the US has - because they are just not that valuable to us.
Are some of the criticisms of Canada fair and based in fact? Absolutely. No country, or human system, is perfect. Ever.
You can insult Canadians and fail to acknowledge our preferences but I think it’s unlikely to cause us join your way of thinking.
Bill, things are not "objectively better" in Canada. "Quality of life" is an inherently subjective measure; and since it is usually calculated by left-wing organizations, the factors taken into account are weighted against America. That's why Bhutan typically ranks among the top on the "gross national happiness" index.
The best measure of doing "objectively better" may be net migration. People move to where things are better. My quick google searches suggest that 10 times as many Canadian residents have moved south over the past decade or two than American residents who have moved north. If you take into account that there are 10 times as many Americans who *could* move north, the net migration measure actually favours the USA over Canada 100:1.
Global migration shows the same trend: America is a *far* more desired destination than Canada is. What is true is that there is more variability in a lot of measures of well-being in the USA than in Canada, although that difference is rapidly diminishing, too. Have you checked out the growth in tent cities everywhere in Canada since the time of covid or the reign of Trudeau II?
People tend to be "conservative;" they tend to like what they are familiar with from having grown up in the culture. A former university colleague of mine from Bangladesh told me that when he goes home to visit childhood friends, they tell him they don't understand why he moved away from the greatest country in the world in the first place.
I usually send off friends travelling to US “safe travels! Don’t get shot!”
Gun violence in the USA is mostly contained to the poor parts of Democrat-run cities. I read a while back that only a handful - maybe a dozen - counties in the USA (out of over 3,000) account for the entire difference between homicide rates in Canada and the USA. If you move to the USA, it is pretty easy to avoid the hot spots.
Please note also that gun violence in America is worst in cities where guns are most restricted - just like in Canada. John Lott Jr. has done some very good work analyzing gun laws on a county-by-county basis throughout the USA, and he has found that easier access and higher conceal-carry rates are correlated with lower incidents of gun crime.
Fair point that the measures are not fully objective. Most utilize both objective and subjective data. They may be the closest achievable metrics we have for such things though. They are definitely not all left wing sources. There are left, right, and some considered not to lean either way. I believe that they are much better than buying into the emotional (and whiney) “Canada is broken” narrative - or equally absurd (and delusional) - that Canada can’t be improved.
Net migration from Canada to the US is not an indicator of quality of life in either country. Other variables are much more important. Being a 10 times larger country means there are simply more opportunities. Canada will never have that but the fact that it’s relatively easy for Canadians to move there if they so choose also speaks to the opportunities Canadians have. Of the 45,000 people per year that make the move from Canada to the US (on average - including dual citizens) there are likely very few that would say they are doing so for general quality of life. It is much more likely associated with a specific opportunity. The most popular reason outside of that is the weather. Not variables we control.
On tent cities etc.: The poverty rate is twice as high in the US. Homelessness is two to three times as high per capita. The murder rate is 3 to 4 times higher. Canadians, on average, have 5 more years of healthy life. Can we still learn lessons from them? Sure, they’re big and have 10 times the scenarios to draw from. They do lots right. So do we.
As for Trudeau. I’m not a fan, nor am I a great believer that the PM (or a ruling government) always makes a difference in the economy. In Canadian economics they often have little or no short-term (i.e. can be measured while they’re still in office) impact. That said, if you wanted to tie these things to Trudeau; the poverty rate is lower now than when he became PM.
Is the US more successful at business and more innovative? It would appear so. There are a number of theories around that. Most are not that complicated. While it matters, it’s not enough of a difference for most people to consider it a better place to live - or a place to emulate. To play with your metaphor: With Trump, the US is turning it’s shiny mega mostly-friendly and cooperative multi-bay garage, located next door to our much smaller but much more reliable and even more cooperative (and effective in it’s specialties) garage into a place that most would only take their car to under duress. In the next few years no one is going to like dealing with the US. There will be much duress. And they will erode or erase much of the goodwill that exists toward them. The world’s positive view of the US took a serious dive (measured by those left, right and centre) during the last Trump administration. In my view, it is poised to be much worse this time.
Cling to your delusions, Bill. I taught at a university, so I know how utterly broken our education system is. I practiced law, so I know how utterly broken our legal system is. I read the news, so I know how utterly broken our sick-care system is - in every province regardless of the political orientation of the Premier. Canada pays some of the highest prices in the world for banking, air travel, eggs milk poultry, telecommunications, etc. etc. - because we are a country of government-created monopolies and cartels.
There is no reason that the per-capita number of opportunities should be greater in a country with a larger population. Otherwise everyone would be trying to get into India and China. Highly productive Canadians have always been attracted to the USA because they can keep more of their money. If you don't think incentives matter, you are the typical problem with Canadians.
A large part of the problem with America is that Democrat Presidents have opened the southern boarder to undocumented immigrants for decades. When I lived in Tucson, AZ, in the 1980s, there wasn't much of a problem with crime or poverty.
"The poverty rate is lower" under Trudeau. Now you are citing long outdated Liberal talking points, Bill. Look outside your window - or maybe your car window if you live in a gated suburb of Ottawa. Kids in their 30s with university degrees can't afford houses. For the first time in history, they are worse off than their parents. $62billion deficits have an immediate impact on prices and investment; draconian and arbitrary environmental regulations have an immediate impact on investment decisions; DEI policies have an immediate impact on labour force productivity; legalizing and handing out free narcotics has an immediate impact on all kinds of things; etc. There have been radical changes in all of these factors under Trudeau, and they have ruined the Canadian economy and much of society - which now ranks lower than the poorest American state.
I bet the Germans wish they had listened to Trump when he told them not to become reliant on Putin's energy. I bet the EU wishes they had taken Trump's advice to beef up their military spending before Putin invaded Ukraine... Yeah, America's reputation worldwide has taken a big dive - because nobody wants to hear, "I told you so."
I can’t read your whole note. Sorry. I got to “per capita opportunities” and then realized we have too many intertwined conversations. Clearly on that one you’re not following the logic but I’m sure I’m missing some too. My points are not to say everything is great or perfect and it’s certainly not to support Trudeau or his government’s record. It’s simply to point out that the notion that the US is objectively better than Canada is not supported by the facts - or, at best, is debatable and not settled fact.
“Broken” is a meaningless term unless you either 1. Have an agreed, and sufficiently detailed, definition for the present context or 2. are advocating for a political position. Its emphatic use, I believe, also belies a lack of familiarity with systems. These are all complex systems we’re referencing and to have a clear and comprehensive view of them may be impossible. So, we reduce them to some measures. Some are helpful. Some are not. But if your feeling is that, in the immortal words of Bob Dylan “everything is broken” at the same time that others (say… that also teach university, present as an objective expert witness, have been analyzing systems for decades) believes none of it is actually “broken” - then perhaps there is more ‘perspective’ involved than objective right or wrong. Either way, thanks for the exchange. All the best.
Bill, you were the one who introduced the notion of "objectively better." I replied by saying there is no such thing; all preferences are subjective. The best a person can do for comparison purposes is add up subjective preferences, e.g. by considering the direction of net migration. Money isn't all that is important to people; but it is second to whatever is because it can be exchanged for most things people want and need. That is why GDP per capita is a reasonable measure of better and worse economic systems.
You claimed that Canadians go south because there are more opportunities because the USA is a bigger country. But there are more people in the USA competing for the same opportunities, so that doesn't make sense. The reason more Canadians move south is that there are more opportunities for everyone there - more "per capita." If Canada had one-tenth the opportunities and one-tenth the population, then there would be no point moving south for more opportunities.
Lots of people who have never had an original idea knocking around in their head are happy with state censorship. Lots of people don't want to think for themselves, and want to be told what to think. Lots of people feel "unsafe" when confronted by unfamiliar ideas. A system of state censorship will not feel broken to any of these people; but to me it is badly broken. To which camp do you belong, Bill?
In my opinion, pretty much everything in Canada is just barely limping along, at an exorbitant cost. Nothing is working well. If you say nothing is broken, maybe I just have higher standards and higher expectations than you do. Maybe you are fine with crap public policy leading to crap outcomes - when Canada should have the finest of everything in the world given our privileged history and geography.
As Elon Musk recently observed, the line dividing East and West Germany was entirely artificial. Yet on one side you had Mercedes, BMW, and Porsche, while on the other you had the Trabant. A similar story can be told about the 49th parallel. The difference isn't in the people, or even the geography, but in the "operating system." I have been arguing my entire post-undergraduate life that Canadians are too damn stupid to up-grade our operating system. We keep the old socialist systems and don't even invest in anti-virus software to clean out the bugs from time to time. Maybe being ravished by Americans would wake us from our dogmatic slumbers and do us some good.
Canada does not need to join another country to reform economic policy.
I have long wished that that were true, Dave. I've spent 4 decades trying to educate Canadians about our economic folly (among many other things), but we have only gotten stupider and more self-destructive over that time. Still to this day at least half of Canadians think Trudeau's endless $62billion deficits are better than Poilievre's "cuts, cuts, cuts." A quarter of Canadians don't think Trudeau has gone nearly far enough in ruining Canada in a dozen different ways at once. They would vote NDP, Green, or Bloc.
I've become first and foremost an Alberta separatist, because there is still a modicum of hope for Alberta outside of the big cities and woke universities where the Eastern-Canada immigrants tend to congregate. I hold out a faint hope that Trump will so shock Canadians that we choose a different path.
Let’s see what a Poilievre government does.
Shut up! No ravishing! We also have a lot fewer guns and murdered school children among many other benefits
The rampant greed and terminally capitalistic condition hopefully won’t metastasize to canada
You will die clinging to your socialist delusions, won't you Witham?
True story: When I was in grade 8 (not 8th grade) in 1971, I wrote a history / social studies "essay" arguing that Canada's mistake in 1867 was not joining the USA. It was mostly just to be cheeky, but the points I made then are still true today.
Thank you! Havn’t laughed that hard in a long time. Bloody hilarious and timing is perfect. Excellent piece.
As I've said elsewhere, the U.S. can have Canada when you pry it from my cold, dead hands. I moved here from the U.S. 21 yrs ago, and have no plans to go back except to visit family and take the occasional Star Trek Cruise. I'm a minority in QC, yet I have a good job, a great doctor, a new car, and a nice house. Possible in the States? Sure, but with all the headaches that come from that lack of universal healthcare and proliferation of idiots with guns. No thanks. I'm staying put. Additionally, it was nice to see Jean Chretien speak out against Drumpf's sudden obsession with us.
https://www.montrealgazette.com/news/article671131.html
Triggered — Defence Scheme #1. I did my BA thesis contrasting the personalities of Buster Brown (UEL) and Andy McNaughton (soldier-scientist). James Eayrs had just published his somewhat overblown take on Buster, but Charles Taylor had an interesting chapter on him in “Six Journeys”. Also related — my good friend Chris Bell died before his time last year.
All those personal deets aside, there is much logic to a stronger economic and defence union between Canada & the USA (ie the logic of NORAD and the original FTA) and a return to the pre-9/11 open internal border. But 51st state? That’s looney-tunes on so many levels.
Great article, thanks.
I am still offended to be called an Alien upon entering the US 👽
Fabulous! Keep the "through the looking glass" perspectives coming.
Great piece as always but when you mentioned Theodore Roosevelt I could not help but think of Charles Bonaparte, Roosevelt’s attorney general from 1906-1909, it just happened that his grandfather was Jérôme Bonaparte, brother of Emperor Napoleon. But as Canadian Neil young once said, “keep on rockin’ in the free world.”
This is where I troll two countries simultaneously. The 4th of July is an English holiday because English settlers defeated a German Kaiser and his German Mercenaries.
Thank you, Dan. I still say we should remodel the White House again.
This was refreshing and smart, thank you, including for making me laugh. The best fuel.