Chopper

Hey there Groucho.

Well Lee, maybe we'd get our doctors and nurses back eh. Oh wait. They are coming back. :) Nah. I like our flag better. The Stars and Stripes are just too ............ busy. So Jim, you can see why the decentralized nature of this country evolved and why the Provincial Premiers can weild alot of power. Canada and the British North America Act was created out of fear. The BNA Act being, essentially, a mutual defense pact. We joined together out of fear and not because we wanted to be together. Step-Mother Britain was nudging us out of the house to face the great maw of the USA. Upper Canada (Ontario) was not exactly anxious to be part of the US, being 80% ex-American Tories aka Loyalists. Of course there was a faction that did want to join, lead by ........ Irishmen. Quelle suprise. And Quebec (Lower Canada) ...... well ....... Quebec is Quebec. America was still, to them, just a different kind of Anglais, but Anglais just the same. The Maritimes considered themselves people of the world trading more with Boston, Liverpool, Bordeaux and Hamburg than with Montreal and were very prosperous. There was no real or inherent reason to get together. We did because we felt we had to.

You're making me nervous Lee. Don't say things like that.

I think you're right Arch. I wasn't 100% sure if it was John or his dad. I guess I can understand where the Brits were coming from. They already lost alot of territory to the USA for the destroyers and Lease-Lend so allowing more to go was just not on. They had to know that the pro-American faction was very strong. Maybe too strong, so they set the ballet. Canada itself underwent much the same pressure as Nfld. Although Victorian Britain was now officially an empire, the concept of empire never really sat well. By the time Victoria became Queen the Empire was beginning to be a financially bad idea, and the desire to de-empire began. There were 3 main factors in forming Canada as a self governing entity. 1. Britain de-Empiring and desire to shed territory. When the Canadas began to express a desire for increased self determination, Britain went with it, even encouraging it. Then Britain "hinted" to the Maritimes that they should join in. So in 1867 we had the Canadas (Upper & Lower) and the Maritimes (Nova Scotia & New Brunswick) in Charlottetown PEI. Ironically it would not be until 1873 that PEI itself would join when they realized they were not going to get any help from Britain on the issue of absentee landlords. 2. The USA. The end of the American Civil War left the USA as the biggest, most modern and best equipped army on the planet, bar none. The threat to further territorial expansion was felt as very real and Britain, and "Canada", was to have none of that happening. 3. The Fenians. Possibly the last straw, tipping the balance, particularily in the Maritimes, in favour of Confederation. Probably not more than a few hundred Irishmen, battle hardened during the American Civil War, got the idea that if they could not free Ireland from Britain at home, they would take Canada themselves and create a New Eire. It was all the local governors and mayors could do to raise militias to contain them. The key here would be Confederation combined with railroads. The Fenians had tried this before in the 1830's but this time it was getting serious. Pressure from fear of American expansion would continue out west resulting in a rediculously generous offer to British Columbia to join the club which included the vital link of the railroad. They took it. In the middle was the great expanse of the North West Territories, aka Prince Rupert Land, held together by the quasi-military North West Mounted Police, now the RCMP, created as much to hold the USA in check as to bring law and order to the region. This territory would soon divide up. Alberta would join Confederation in 1905. Hey!!! HAPPY 100th BIRTHDAY ALBERTA. Damn near forgot that. oh wait. HAPPY 100th BIRTHDAY SASKATCHEWAN.

Right on.

THAT is a tough call Jim. It's been going on hot and cold since the 70's. Deep down though, at the people level, Alberta is about as Canadian as you can get. I dare say more so than my own home town. When I first arrived there in 75 there was something of a culture shock, with me coming from a nearly American bordertown and going to a region where the only Americans you see were on cable tv, if you had it, or the football players. Like, THIS was Canada. Well, the exception being Calgary of course. Albertans, like the Newfoundlanders, have some legitimate gripes (NEP aka National Energy Policy that produced an almost scary clash between Alberta Lougheed and Trudeau "you can freeze in the dark"). Much of it is political leverage. Although Albertans don't want to separate, if this issues fester, it could mean trouble. Unfortunately I feel greed on both sides are aggrevating things. For the last 30 years we've been in a rotating cycle of "we're gonna leave" between Alberta and Quebec tag-teaming Ottawa. Quebec being the more serious of course, but Alberta is not to be taken lightly. What people need to understand is the nature of Canada. One might be shocked at the near dictatorial power of the PMO, but opposite that, of all the democracies we are the most decentralized, so Ottawa can only go so far. What we have is a Confederation of loosely connected petty kingdoms barely held together by a king with a vague concept of union. Sort of like the Holy Roman Empire. An Emperor/Prime Minister sanctioned by the Pope/Britain holding together numerous Princes/Premieres. It makes the threat of separation an effective tool. :sigh: And now Newfoundland has discovered this tool. What will be will be I guess. Edit: For the record, if no-one has figured it out by now, I am a Federalist.

BTW as it stands now, over a quarter of US oil imports come from Canada, or almost 1 barrel in 7 consumed by the US is Canadian, by far the number one source of imported oil. On top of that, it's subsidized by the Canadians at something like 7 or 8% (rising as oil prices rise), as part of the (not so) Free Trade agreement.

It was the other way around Arch. Indeed, joining the USA was not an option presented, being specifically banned by the Brits inspite of having huge support. In fact the whole process was manipulated by the Brits. Newfoundland had more economic contact with the USA than Canada. In fact, Nfld & Canada were competitors and always trying to one-up eachother. The first round of votes had to choose from: Commissioned Gov't (back to Britain), Responsible (self) Gov't, Confederation with Canada. Second round the Brits threw out one of the first 2 choices, I forget which. I believe ole John Crosby was one of the pro-American faction leaders, but that option was never offered. No wonder he was such an ornery cuss in Parliament all those years eh. I miss him actually, and was almost hoping he was going to run again just for fun. Almost. He was politically not on my side but I respected him and just enjoyed his personality. I think everyone did regardless of political stripe. But no, the US was never an option. Blame it on the Brits. Indeed, Canada was quite suprised at the process and the windfall.

I'd trade in all PF maps for the S.W. Pacific from Guadalcanal to Rabaul to Port Moresby to Darwin. More USN ships. What happened to the Liberty ship? I thought we were supposed to have that long ago. I'm sort of a rivet counter to a point. Combat is just hard work.

Genghis Khan

G'mrnin. Yech. Muggy muggy muggy.

Been a long time since I've seen the insides of a 109.

:sigh:

Right on and cool. Congrats to the family.

Good morning. Shaping up to be a nice day after last night t-storm.

Well, it takes 2 ships to surround something. In this case, the Viking Navy. Anything more would be a waste eh. I mean, we defeated an American army of 7000 with only 750 (French) Canadian militia and Amerinds, so this is a piece of cake. Hell, it's barely a news item here.

Looks good. Thanx for the heads up.

G'mornin. A beauty so far.

Ya, I've heard such grumblings before, so it probably is for real. But China has it's share of morons. Though it's true that things will come to a head between China and the USA, the methodology is insane. Bio weapons are a fools game. Notwithstanding the fact that they can backfire, they are much too slow to kill if a virus or bacteria, or if chemical, much to difficult to predict realistic results. Either way, it'll leave the USA far to much time to react and incinerate China. Given that their population and infrastructure is extremely dense, they stand to loose far more heavily. They won't need more living space. And Russia at there back door ................ ? And then there's the USN. China has a very very long way to go there. Far too far. Any fast build up there will serve as warning. Basically China would be advertising there punch, and I'm not so cynical to believe no-one will see it coming and not react. So far as methodoly goes, this is alot of hot air. Just scoring some political points. By the current rate of economic expansion it has been predicted that in 15 to 20 years China and India are expected to be the dominant powers. But that's at the current rate. India. Now there's a wild card eh. The next big war will likely be economic, not physical.

Oh no you don't. MP's there's some trash to be taken out.

In the squad Ready Room boys. I have a question (poll) for y'all.

Good stormy morning all.

Morning. Kinda rainy.