In any case, the point is that Quebec DOES have an official language, French, and Canada has two, of which French is one. The United States cannot accommodate either expectation
My reactions to this piece were in this order: 1) No fun!; 2) We don't want you anyway!; 3) If we get Greenland we don't need Quebec; and 4) Yes, of course, a Canadian/US Schengen Area makes a lot of sense and we should work toward that. Thanks for throwing ice-cold water on our imperialistic dreams. ;-)
Not sure how you can rationalize closer integration with a partner that does not honour their own agreements. And revealing that you mention Quebec but not indigenous folks. They are just supposed to do what they are told?
Of a blind spot. Like they just don’t matter. All these minerals and resources are on their land. And by far the fastest growing segment of the population.
The resources on "their" land belong to the provincial Crowns, just like all resources in the rest of Canada, except any resources located on the Reserves themselves, which belong to the federal Crown. Natural resources don't belong to any people individually until they are extracted by people who paid royalties to the Crown for the privilege. Indigenous people are entitled to "consultation" about resource or infrastructure projects that affect their traditional lands but they don't have a veto over what happens. This consultation often consists of rents extracted from resource companies to fix things with trouble-makers who might otherwise harass or molest the project's workers when they enter the Reserve to carry out the work. This is sometimes called "social licence."
And indigenous people are Canadian citizens. Whatever the government decides about relations with other countries applies to them as much as us. They aren't special, except that the honour of the Crown is supposed to apply, whatever that means.
The fact that they are multiplying doesn't matter until they can influence election of MPs in ridings. Then they can have a voice in the House of Commons. But the MP must represent the interests of all his constituents, not just the indigenous ones.
The indigenous are growing faster than the rate of natural increase (births minus deaths.). As in New Zealand, this means that more people are discovering they have some indigenous relatives and report this on census forms. Some of these "discoveries" may be Pretendianism operating.
Here some of my thoughts about America taking over Canada. How about this scenario?
Trump pulls out of European NATO but promises to maintain the American/Canadian pact, with American and Canadian military working together. Obviously America would dominate, and would propose to finance the installation of military bases and garrisons across the Artic.
Trump puts up and endorses a pro-America Canadian leadership candidate with substantial funding and the full resources of American political advisors and media manipulators. This candidate would propose closer economic ties with America to boost exports and jobs, reduce the costs of imports, attract inward investment and increase tourism.
Trump privately tells his oligarch friends he is going to tank the American economy, so they can cash in their American investments, short sell before the crash and watch as the markets collapse. Obviously the Canadian markets and share prices would collapse too.
Then the oligarchs buy everything back at 10cents on the dollar, taking control of all the key American business sectors - they now control the government, the military and all the key industries. They do the same in Canada, ending up with ownership of all the Canadian mining, energy, manufacturing, shipping and food production companies.
90% of Canadians live within a couple of hours of the American border, because that is where their income comes from, one way or another. If Trump imposes strict sanctions and a closed border, and a new pro-American candidate proposes a deal with closer ties, no sanctions and open borders, how many Canadians would reject it?
So de facto, America now controls Canada; its politics, its economy, its border policies, and its military.
nit: the US doesn’t have an official language. nice piece though
Nested nit: many states do, so to the extent that the USA has an official language, English is it
In any case, the point is that Quebec DOES have an official language, French, and Canada has two, of which French is one. The United States cannot accommodate either expectation
My reactions to this piece were in this order: 1) No fun!; 2) We don't want you anyway!; 3) If we get Greenland we don't need Quebec; and 4) Yes, of course, a Canadian/US Schengen Area makes a lot of sense and we should work toward that. Thanks for throwing ice-cold water on our imperialistic dreams. ;-)
Not sure how you can rationalize closer integration with a partner that does not honour their own agreements. And revealing that you mention Quebec but not indigenous folks. They are just supposed to do what they are told?
"revealing"? Of what?
Of a blind spot. Like they just don’t matter. All these minerals and resources are on their land. And by far the fastest growing segment of the population.
You think indigenous people don't matter? and that the resources on their land belong to other parties?
The resources on "their" land belong to the provincial Crowns, just like all resources in the rest of Canada, except any resources located on the Reserves themselves, which belong to the federal Crown. Natural resources don't belong to any people individually until they are extracted by people who paid royalties to the Crown for the privilege. Indigenous people are entitled to "consultation" about resource or infrastructure projects that affect their traditional lands but they don't have a veto over what happens. This consultation often consists of rents extracted from resource companies to fix things with trouble-makers who might otherwise harass or molest the project's workers when they enter the Reserve to carry out the work. This is sometimes called "social licence."
And indigenous people are Canadian citizens. Whatever the government decides about relations with other countries applies to them as much as us. They aren't special, except that the honour of the Crown is supposed to apply, whatever that means.
The fact that they are multiplying doesn't matter until they can influence election of MPs in ridings. Then they can have a voice in the House of Commons. But the MP must represent the interests of all his constituents, not just the indigenous ones.
The indigenous are growing faster than the rate of natural increase (births minus deaths.). As in New Zealand, this means that more people are discovering they have some indigenous relatives and report this on census forms. Some of these "discoveries" may be Pretendianism operating.
Here some of my thoughts about America taking over Canada. How about this scenario?
Trump pulls out of European NATO but promises to maintain the American/Canadian pact, with American and Canadian military working together. Obviously America would dominate, and would propose to finance the installation of military bases and garrisons across the Artic.
Trump puts up and endorses a pro-America Canadian leadership candidate with substantial funding and the full resources of American political advisors and media manipulators. This candidate would propose closer economic ties with America to boost exports and jobs, reduce the costs of imports, attract inward investment and increase tourism.
Trump privately tells his oligarch friends he is going to tank the American economy, so they can cash in their American investments, short sell before the crash and watch as the markets collapse. Obviously the Canadian markets and share prices would collapse too.
Then the oligarchs buy everything back at 10cents on the dollar, taking control of all the key American business sectors - they now control the government, the military and all the key industries. They do the same in Canada, ending up with ownership of all the Canadian mining, energy, manufacturing, shipping and food production companies.
90% of Canadians live within a couple of hours of the American border, because that is where their income comes from, one way or another. If Trump imposes strict sanctions and a closed border, and a new pro-American candidate proposes a deal with closer ties, no sanctions and open borders, how many Canadians would reject it?
So de facto, America now controls Canada; its politics, its economy, its border policies, and its military.
What did I miss?