How you think of Canada?

[LF22]

I'm wondering what you think of your northern neighbor. Ally? Neutral? the 51st state? Anyways if it's not so much to ask I'd like to request that this thread be kept free of 5 page news article posts.

[ZippyTheChimp]

Moving to Anything Goes

[Kris]

This section is the dumpster.

I don't like any country that pathologically needs to know what others think of it. Montreal seems charming though.

[ZippyTheChimp]

Since it's about a foreign country, I figured I'd better get it out of politics before someone thought it was subversive and filled it with mind-numbing rants.

Canada has great fishing. I really like Toronto - the US should invade and annex it.

[TLOZ Link5]

We tried that in the War of 1812, Zippy. We captured Toronto when it was still York and burned down half of it. Then the British came and did the same thing to Washington. It would definitely have been a nice big state.

[NYatKNIGHT]

the US should invade and annex it.
Start with British Columbia, so we can attach to Alaska once and for all.

[dbhstockton]

I like Canada. I think of it as U.S light, and I mean that in the best possible way. It's like the U.S., but without the whole rabid Manifest Destiny complex (see above posts for prime examples). Maybe I don't know enough about Canadian history, but it is an alternative model for a North-American democracy with Anglo-Saxon roots (except for Quebec, of course).

Anyway, love your comedians and the bizzare names of your hockey players.

[JMGarcia]

I like Canada too. They are in the enviable position of reaping many benefits from the US's more biligerent tendencies and have taken advantage of them to the fullest. Granted they are sometimes the target themselves but on balance have made out fabulously.

[Jasonik]

Canada is in a pretty good position when it comes to global warming, should be comfortable for at least a few hundred years.

I think their national defense policy is much the same as their 'open door policy' as exposed in Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine.

I was surprised when I told a Canadian employed at the U.N., who was very unabashed in his denunciation of U.S. foreign policy, that his country's optional pacifism was a direct result of living next door to the United States, and he had never thought about it like that before. His position was that if we adopted Canada's sucessful approach to neutrality and got rid of our defenses everything would be great.

The South Park Movie could be coming true! Before you know it we'll all be putting vinegar on our freedom fries. :shock:

[LF22]

wow, invade Canada, eh. Almost as lame as invading... lets say Sudan. It would be pretty futile to resist. If you actually do invade, you'll end up with probably 60 states and three more territories. Especially with free trade and all, economically the US and Canada all are already one country. Trade between the two counrties is over half a trillion dollars a year. And yeah, Canada's environment is quite nice, thank you. Hmmm, national defence policy... I guess you'll just protect us. (from who, I don't know.)

[chris]

I like Canada in regards that every Canadian I've ever met (in person, not online) has been a genuinely nice person. I've only been to Montreal, which was nice but honestly somewhat disappointing in regards to the fact that it was EXACTLY like being in the US. It was completely indistinguishable in every manner and way from any number of midwestern American cities. It reminded me a bit of a smaller version of St. Louis... with more hills. Same chain stores, same fast-food restaurants on every corner, same fashion, kids listening to the same music. It could have been absolutely anywhere-ville, USA. Everyone everyhwere spoke in English pretty well at all times, and not just to the "American Tourists" but to each other as well. The only thing that gave even the slightest impression that you weren't in the US was the occasional French name on a street sign, which I might add you'd be just as likely to see in Louisiana. We share the world's largest unguarded border, and the world's largest trade partnership. In all regards but formality it is part of the US.

It does astonish me (and sometimes irk me) how many Canadians seem oblivious to the fact that they have no national security because the US provides it to them for free. I rarely have the need, unlike Jasonik's friend, to point this out as some other less naive Canadian will usually step up and set the record straight to them first before I have the chance to: Canada enjoys all the benefits of US power without either paying a dime for it, or receiving any of the flack. What a choice position to be in. If their national defense was not subsidized by the US, they wouldn't be able to afford most of their luxurious social services because their tax base doesn't have to support a military. Truthfully, I don't really mind the arrangement. It's not a real subsidy, because the US would spend the money anyway, whether Canada was there or not. It's just a sort of luck of the draw that they get to be the benefactors of geography.

I was quite tickled when, in Quebec's last ditch effort at secession, polls in British Columbia showed 80% to 90% support for petitioning the US for statehood, should Quebec secede. I believe the prospect of being a lone French-Canadian island surrounded by the US on all sides but the ocean finally killed the entire Quebecois separatist movement for good.

[NoyokA]

WOw!

I dont think you visited the same Montreal that I did?

True its only 50 miles from NY State, but IMO its a whole other world away.

[chris]

I will credit you that you're not the first person that has seen a different Montreal... and I didn't dislike the place. I don't mean to slight it. Everyone was quite friendly.

I went to the downtown area where the office buildings were logo'd with the brands of large US companies. We went to the area around a large college campus... We went out to the suburbs and visited a large flea-market in a parking-lot near a high-school. We went hunting for other flea-markets without much luck. We took a walk for a couple of hours or so through a run down part of town with block after block of boarded up two-story buildings and run down out-of-business signs where we found several pawn shops. We searched in vein for an independent record store. People just kept directing us to big American chain stores like Sam Goodies. Eventually we found this one little store that specialized in Latin American dance music, not quite what we had in mind.

Several people have said that we just didn't know where to go (which could be true), and that the college area is very Americanized. Still, we drove all over town and even asked locals for recommendations. All we could see were people indistinguishable from Americans speaking English, eating quarter-pounders and listening to Madonna. If there was a non-American part of town, they hid it very well from outsiders.

By the way, I'm quite fond of St. Louis.

[dbhstockton]

Sounds like you didn't go to the old part of the city (the waterfront), which feels almost European, and has actual francophones living in it. I remember having difficulty finding it when I visited.

http://vieux.montreal.qc.ca/tour/etape8/images/08_p01b.jpg

http://www.marchebonsecours.qc.ca/quart/images/quart-b.jpg

http://vieux.montreal.qc.ca/tour/etape2/images/02_p01b.jpg

http://vieux.montreal.qc.ca/tour/etape6/images/06_p08b.jpg

http://vieux.montreal.qc.ca/tour/etape6/images/06_p02b.jpg

http://vieux.montreal.qc.ca/tour/etape17/images/17_p01b.jpg

And so on. You get the idea.

[chris]

I visited the old city... Like I said, looks like St. Louis.

...and as I said before, that is not an insult by any stretch, I really like St. Louis a lot. I have family there and will be visiting St. Louis next month.

St. Louis had a great fire due to an Earthquake in... 1888(? someone else can verify that date if they care) and the whole city pretty well burt to the ground. At that point they passed a law that no buildings of wood could be built within the city limits. Hence, it shows quite a resemblance to those photos.

[amigo32]

Those photos also show a resemblance to many small and mid-sized towns in Missouri.

[Kris]

Really?

Two Months in Montreal (http://www.urbanphoto.net/twomonths/index.htm)

On the Plateau (http://www.urbanphoto.net/ontheplateau/index.htm)

[dbhstockton]

I've never been to Missouri or St. Louis.

[Bob]

A big THUMBS UP for Canada! I always thought Canada was a great country, but my feelings for Canada were permanently cemented when, in 1979 during the Iranian nutcase revolution, Canadian authorities in Iran whipped up some fake diplomatic credentials for U.S. citizens, passing them off as Canadian nationals. Canada took direct action in defense of American citizens there. Way to go. I was big-time impressed then, and remain so.

Took a trip to the Maritime provinces in 2002, and was warmly welcomed by everyone I met. One of the best vacations of my life. And the scenery and the food were terrific. How about that whopping Confederation Bridge, eh? Makes you pine for the never-built Rye-Oyster Bay bridge.

Sure, Canada has some wacky laws (low speed limits, photo-radar, socialized medicine, etc.), and their government doesn't always play lock step with the U.S., but heck, the country is civilized, clean and safe. It's a fine republic full of fine people. And yes, I would be very happy if the people of Canada decided to add their stars to the U.S. flag. For now though, I respect them as Canadians and admire them for being just who they are.