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Saturday, June 25, 2005
The Canadian identity?
I love this country -- Canada's got so much going for it as one of the world's great trading nations, one of the oldest and most stable constitutional democracies, a generally thriving, regulated market economy well-positioned with abundant energy and a large industrial capacity, a lively cultural community, and, and, and. But . . .
Canadians really do need to get over themselves with respect to an identity defined "in the negative."
Surely to be pro-Canadian need not mean being anti-American?
Posted by Russ Kuykendall on June 25, 2005 in Canadian Politics | Permalink
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"Pro-Canadianism" and anti-Americanism are two sides of the same coin in the pocket of the corporate elite of Toronto.
The difference between the two is how they make money. According to their arguments, buying Canadian goods is the path to Heaven - they are perfect in every detail. Buying American, on the other hand, is a hellworthy trespass and treason. It is in their economic best interest to sponsor racial bigotry.
Canadian "patriotism" is manipulated by the corporations to protect themselves from foreign takeovers. Whenever a US company attempts to enter the Cdn market, the paid shrills like Maude Barlow scream like Banshees over the "americanization" of Canada. A good example: Target's proposed takeover of Zellers, or Future Shop being purchased by Best Buy. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But anyone who supports these things is denounced as a traitor. It is a petty, juvenile way to protect the "right" of rich Ontarians to make money.
This is why (white) Ontarians will never accept a non-Ontarian in power. White Ontarians are united by the need to remain supreme over all others in the economy. Once racially pure, they now branch out to many religions and creeds (but woe to any Italian or Black to dares marry into it!).
They believe that non-Ontarians, like me and other Albertans, have no loyalty to them and will disrupt their supremacy. *Hey, when they're right, they're right!*. This is why Ontarians use racial epithets like "redneck" or "frog" or "lazy Maritimer" to describe non-Ontarians. There is a huge divide in Canada and it is getting wider.
My solution is simple: don't buy Canadian goods. Insist on quality and buy American. If a Canadian calls you a traitor, say "Thanks! Better to be a traitor to your country than a corporate slave." I can only speak for Alberta, but I encourage others to dissent from corporate rule, which can only be enforced with cooperation and compliance. Remove it, and the feds will have to resort to military occupation to enforce corporate rule. Soon their resources will be drained and they will be forced to make the changes we demand. Remember: the thing the rich fear more than anything else is becoming poor.
Posted by: Scott | 2005-06-25 4:17:43 PM
Hmm, must be the full moon.
Posted by: Tony | 2005-06-25 4:22:14 PM
Think of it this way: Canadians were quite literally the British subjects that didn't want to become Americans (during both the American revolution and the war of 1812)... is it any surprise that we define ourselves that way (since it is our defining characteristic).
Posted by: random | 2005-06-25 4:59:38 PM
random: that definition applies only to Ontarians. What about the rest of us?
Oh yeah, that's right. WE DON'T MATTER!
Alberta secedes. Better off as a state.
Posted by: Scott | 2005-06-25 5:06:34 PM
There are two kinds of people, those who try to stand on the shoulders of history, and those who try to stand the past on our shoulders.
Technically, I'm Canadian, because I was born here, which denotationally means I'm native and indigenous, since I still live here. But pragmatically I'm Tony, I owe no allegence, I signed nothing. (That does not apply to you if I have a legal contract with you or I've promised you something.)
I like the Magna Carta. I like the 10th amendment. I like my home and native land. Who am I?
People who know no history are condemned to repeat it. So are people who study it too much.
Posted by: Tony | 2005-06-25 5:18:39 PM
The "Canada = Not America" thing was kind of dictated from the east by the same people that have defined our values as liberal values... so yeah, Ontario and Quebec (aka Upper and Lower Canada). And I agree, Alberta would be better off if it seceded (and got Harper or King Ralph as our president... or even joined the US), or at least seriously put it on the table to get some better treatment out of Ottawa (Kyoto should be the deciding factor, since it *will* break Alberta much like the NEP did).
Posted by: random | 2005-06-25 5:50:06 PM
Robert -
I'd like to say your posts are improving, but sadly your comment "Right on. So when are you right whingers going to stop your anti-American Democrat bashing?" betrays the usual misunderstanding that characterizes your droppings on this website (and I'm being charitable in my characterization).
For instance, moderate american Democrats find the greatest idealogical consistency with the conservative party of canada. You mistake the moonbat fringe of the democrats as representative of the democratic party (think N Pelosi, H Reid, D Durbin, Dennis "Dept of Peace" Kucinic, J Kerry)-while they're often quoted in the press given their increasingly outlandish statements, but anyone with even the most modest sensitivity to US and Cdn politics would hold moderate democrats only at home within the conservative party (the overwhelming preference of commenters on this site). Outside Berkley, delusional parts of New York City (I know, I live there), Boston and hippy dippy Vermont and those radically Islamicized areas of Michigan and Illinois, a moonbat democrat has proven simply unelectable.
Here's the test - where do MODERATE democrats stand on free trade, abortion, capital punishment, the war on terror, gay marriage and taxation. Now compare to the CPC's policies. They match. Note Hilary Clinton's attempt to impersonate a "move" to the center, for otherwise she unelectable on a national level in the US.
So where would they fit within Cdn politcs? Be honest. Moderate democrats would fit within the conservative party. The moonbata are at home largely withi the Liberals or increasingly, the NDP. Could it be that the NDP and Liberals are extremists? Better not consider the question, you might end up questioning the entirety of your conventional statist received wisdom leading to a really theatrical breakdown...
ACCORDINGLY, there's no "democrat bashing" here, only occasional, fact based criticism of those radical (moonbat) democrats, when they erupt (let their guard down) and say something absurd - a condition your comments betray that you sadly must share...
More generally - nice try building traffic to your blog (i'd say pathetic but can't find any reason to visit and confirm)- your comments here are invariably glib / silly attempts to goad and provoke, loaded with invective but entirely absent rational argument or so much as supporting fact. Why would anyone visit your Blog if they can get the same thing from the Cdn MSM - who needs your debased echo chamber blog? You don't merit the attention at all...
Posted by: SEchappe | 2005-06-25 5:51:10 PM
Oh, was Robert here? Funny, I must have missed him.
Posted by: Tony | 2005-06-25 5:59:20 PM
Is there an echo in here?
Posted by: Tony | 2005-06-25 7:29:49 PM
I use the notion of rhetorical economy in a dual sense; firstly, that of constituting an economical—that is, efficient-- system of signification—a sort of a linguistic shorthand if you like, that works as symbolic stand-in for much larger and more complex schematics of entangled fears, theories, rumuors, concepts, suppositions, epistemologies, etc.
Secondly, I use rhetorical economy also to refer to the dynamic interaction, sociality and materiality associated with the idea of an economy. This is to say that these speech acts and verbalisations have historically specific modes of production, spatially elaborated realms of circulation, and are consumed according to complex trajectories of desire, in this way, constituting an economy.
madkenyanwoman.blogspot.com
>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<
Very relevant to the situation in Canada. Very.
Posted by: maz2 | 2005-06-25 7:55:22 PM
And here it is, right on time, the 01:55 post-modernist linguistic deconstruction express.
Conductor! Excuse me, I have a seat in the smoking car. Thank you sir.
Aren't trains fun?
Posted by: Tony | 2005-06-25 8:08:05 PM
Did you know that the comments view/post server is running GMT but the Shotgun server is running MDT? See, you learn something new every day.
Posted by: Tony | 2005-06-25 8:11:17 PM
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Recruiting now in Canada.
Screw the Gun Registry.
First, we take Toronto... (L. Cohen)
Zen, we take North York...
Posted by: maz2 | 2005-06-25 8:23:11 PM
I don't know, but I think it's an automaton. What do you think?
Posted by: Tony | 2005-06-25 8:30:41 PM
Where is Leonard these days?
Leonard holds the record for levitating. 14 seconds GMT.
Posted by: maz2 | 2005-06-25 8:34:25 PM
The reference to not meriting attention was in respect of your "blog'. But I can't help but notice your pathology - you never answer the question and always avoid the issue with some pathetic attempt to distract.
Quite Weak.
Posted by: SEchappe | 2005-06-25 8:44:17 PM
Aunty Americanism is a symptom of our shared cultural dislocation, not the cause of it.
“Have-nots” tend to lash out at the “haves”; it's human nature. If anything, Aunty Americanism is the result of the realization that, unlike us, our southern cousins have not spent the last forty years chopping away at the foundations of their civilization (or have at least managed to resist it better than we have).
Maybe that’s why we hate it when Americans brag.
They still have something to brag about.
http://www.rightthinkingpeople.blogspot.com
Posted by: maz2 | 2005-06-25 8:57:54 PM
In order to be anti-American, one would think that one would have to have traveled the length and width of that land and interacted with many of her people, before forming an opinion on a group so large and diverse. Since, I doubt that is the case with the average Canadian, I personally like to simplify it all down to inferiority complex on the part of many Canadians.
Frankly, I am fond of the hundreds of Americans I’ve met because of one overriding characteristic, which is their propensity to call a spade a spade and usually leave no doubt as to where they stand. I personally don’t like the Canadian tendency, which is just the opposite; dodge, duck, dip, dive, dodge, then have a ten minute tantrum. Far too many Canadians, being the trite little socialists that they are, are willing to bare their bottom and let old Unc’ Paul give it to em right the keester, with hardly a grimace. With Unc’ Paul and his band buggering the country so completely, no wonder Canadians distract themselves with anti-American rants… it makes them feel better.
Posted by: Debris Trail | 2005-06-25 10:10:32 PM
Can I just point out that reality is not a Venn diagram, if anything it's much closer to a Mandlebrot set. Americans, Canadians, give me a break. I see 350,000,000 individual human beings. I try to treat each on the basis of their merit or lack thereof, to me, as I see it (for who am I to judge otherwise), pace their collectivist taxonomical labelling du jour.
Posted by: Tony | 2005-06-25 10:37:01 PM
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