from south of the border, down ole-viriginnie way, comes a bit about Canada from my good friend Gunfighter. Check it out.
And while you're there, you just might want to suggest to him that the ranks of the clergy would benefit greatly from his presence. I worked by way through my undergrad as a bouncer, but this guy was a US Marine. Think of what that would do for your local ministerial breakfast!
Semper Fidelis. See? He's already got the basic 'pastor' shtick down.
3 comments:
First off, the head of our government is NOT the Prime Minister, it is the Governor General. The Prime Minister is merely the "first" amongst her ministers, and is suppose to adviser her as to what is the best course of action and allow her to make the decision from there. That is one of the many reasons we had such a furor when Harper moved to prorogue Parliament: did the GG automatically have to do what Harper advised (which has been the GG's role for most of the last century), or did she have the right to decide on another course of action if she should so choose. A common enough misconception, even among Canadians, however (although I do give kudos for knowing who are Prime Minister is).
Second, people from Maine are going to have very little to do with people from Québec. Leaving aside the entire issue of the fact that the main language in Québec is French and in Maine is English, there is also the fact that the culture of Maine and the New England States was strongly influenced by the Puritans who were the first to land there. Having lived, work with and still have a few friends who are Québecois, the word "puritanical" could only be used to describe them in if you were looking for an antithetical term. Having been to Maine and currently living in New Brunswick, i would say that if you were looking for two who were similar, those two would be the best example. If you were looking to compare Quéec and a US state, Louisiana would be the best example (and not just because of the historical expulsion of the Arcadians to that region).
Third, I do get a little annoyed at people who say "Well, I've been to Vancouver/Montreal/Toronto/Other Canadian City, therefore I know what it is like in the rest of Canada." I don't think most Americans (by the way, I don't know anyone who is prickly about the use of the word "America", we just don't like being called "Americans" since that is how people refer to citizens of the US). I have been to Texas (far to often), Louisiana, Alabama (Mobile, by the way, was as clean as any Canadian city I've been to), Maine and Montana, but I would not for a moment claim to make any generalizations about the US from those states since each one had its own character. Same as with Canada. As he pointed out, we are the second largest nation in the world (right behind Russia).
Finally, I think that Gunfighter has hit upon an interesting point about Canada-US relations. It is the fact that there is the perception that Canada is so similar to the US that we don't need to learn about each other. And this does cut both ways; we have just as many stereotypes about Americans as they do about us (how many Canadians form their views of America by watching Fox News or Talking to Americans).
But since we are having a love-in about Canada, I would like to submit the following article from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, published in 2003. Some of the issues that have been raised have not developed in a satisfactory manner over the last 6 years (yes, we signed Kyoto, but considering how much we've done about it! We would have been better off not signing it and avoided the stamp of hypocrite that has gone along with it).
By the way, Mick. I know I'm taking up a lot of room on your blog...and I really don't feel bad about it.
Cla3rk
You live next door to a clean-cut, quiet guy. He never plays loud music
or throws raucous parties. He doesn't gossip over the fence, just smiles
politely and offers you some tomatoes. His lawn is cared-for, his house
is neat as a pin and you get the feeling he doesn't always lock his front
door. He wears Dockers. You hardly know he's there. And then one day you
discover that he has pot in his basement, spends his weekends at peace
marches and that guy you've seen mowing the yard is his spouse.
Allow me to introduce Canada.
The Canadians are so quiet that you may have forgotten they're up there,
but they've been busy doing some surprising things. It's like discovering
that the mice you are dimly aware of in your attic have been building an
espresso machine. Did you realize, for example, that our reliable little
tag-along brother never joined the Coalition of the Willing? Canada wasn't
willing, as it turns out, to join the fun in Iraq. I can only assume
American diner menus weren't angrily changed to include "freedom bacon,"
because nobody here eats the stuff anyway. And then there's the wild drug
situation: Canadian doctors are authorized to dispense medical marijuana. Parliament is considering
legislation that would not exactly legalize marijuana possession, as you
may have heard, but would reduce the penalty for possession of under 15
grams to a fine, like a speeding ticket. This is to allow law enforcement
to concentrate resources on traffickers; if your garden is full of wasps,
it's smarter to go for the nest rather than trying to swat every
individual bug. Or, in the United States, bong.
Now, here's the part that I, as an American, can't understand. These
poor benighted pinkos are doing everything wrong. They have a drug
problem: Marijuana offenses have doubled since 1991. And Canada has
strict gun control laws, which means that the criminals must all be
heavily armed, the law-abiding civilians helpless and the government on
the verge of a massive confiscation campaign. (The laws have been in place
since the '70's, but I'm sure the government will get around to the
confiscation eventually.)
They don't even have a death penalty!
And yet .. nationally, overall crime in Canada has been declining since
1991. Violent crimes fell 13 percent in 2002. Of course, there are still
crimes committed with guns -- brought in from the United States, which has
become the major illegal weapons supplier for all of North America -- but
my theory is that the surge in pot-smoking has rendered most criminals too
relaxed to commit violent crimes. They're probably more focused on
shoplifting boxes of Ho-Hos from convenience stores. And then there's the
most reckless move of all: Just last month, Canada decided to allow and
recognize same-sex marriages. Merciful moose, what can they be thinking?
Will there be married Mounties (they always get their man!)? Dudley
Do-Right was sweet on Nell, not Mel! We must be the only ones who really
care about families. Not enough to make sure they all have health
insurance, of course, but more than those libertines up north. This sort
of behavior is a clear and present danger to all our stereotypes about
Canada. It's supposed to be a cold, wholesome country of polite,
beer-drinking hockey players, not founded by freedom-fighters in a bloody revolution but quietly assembled
by loyalists and royalists more interested in order and good government
than liberty and independence. But if we are the rugged individualists,
why do we spend so much of our time trying to get everyone to march in
lockstep? And if Canadians are so reserved and moderate, why are they so
progressive about letting people do what they want to?
Canadians are, as a nation, less religious than we are, according to
polls. As a result, Canada's government isn't influenced by large,
well-organized religious groups and thus has more in common with those of
Scandinavia than those of the United States, or, say, Iran. Canada signed
the Kyoto global warming treaty, lets 19-year-olds drink, has more of its
population living in urban areas and accepts more immigrants per capita
than the United States. These are all things we've been told will wreck
our society. But I guess Canadians are different, because theirs seems
oddly sound. Like teenagers, we fiercely idolize individual freedom but
really demand that everyone be the same. But the Canadians seem more adult
-- more secure.
They aren't afraid of foreigners. They aren't afraid of homosexuality.
Most of all, they're not afraid of each other.
I wonder if America will ever be that cool.
Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (PA)
Author: Samantha Bennett
Published: Wednesday, July 30, 2003
Copyright: 2003 PG Publishing
Clark,
that should probably be A-cadians, not Ar-cadians.
wonderful tantrum, by the way. Do you feel better?
It was that sort of pickiness that got the Acadians expelled in the first place, so you had better watch it.
And I was not having a tantrum; I was merely contributing to the discussion. If I had been having a tantrum, it would have looked something like this:
WWWWWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! IWANTITIWANTITIWANTITIWANTITIWANTITIWANTITIWANTITIWANTITIWANTITIWANTITIWANTITIWANTITIWANTITIWANTITIWANTITIWANTIT!!!!! ITS NOT FAIR! WWWWWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!
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