Vestal_Flame said:
This week's coverage of Carney's relationship with Trump, as reported by the WSJ, is profoundly interesting on a couple of points. It is worth reading. Trump appears to have asserted to Trudeau that Trump could cause Canada to unravel by simply disavowing the 1908 boundary treaty.
Personally, I believe that a strong and stable Canada is vital to America's interest. My position is that our strength is enhanced by the strength of our allies. I also think that Trump seems perennially to underestimate the ease of destroying or displacing a government.
That said, the naturally occurring fissures in Canada are very real. I have read that only 13% of Montreal speaks English as its first language. On the streets of Quebec City, my wife complains to me that she is greeted with contempt for the fact that she does not speak French. My daughter, who does speak French, comments that Quebec City and Montreal are LARPing life in Europe. She is not wrong.
Toronto is a different culture from Quebec and Montreal, and Calgary is another planet. I have also visited Victoria, but I wasn't on the ground long enough to form an opinion of the locals.
Quebec is still walled and garrisoned. We ought to think about that. In America, Washington does not keep a barracks of infantry in the center of a state capitol, even in Richmond or Columbia. Ottawa does, and they are wise to do so. There was armed insurrection against English rule in the 1830s. The fort is right across the street from the (very Mansard) parliament building. The fort fires a cannon at noon, just in case anyone forgets that the army is there.
And all of that is to say nothing of the actual separatist political activity within my lifetime. When I was a fish in engineering, Quebec came within 2% of voting in favor of secession in a popular referendum.
For me, the "aha" moment came when I walked past the Musee des Beaux-Arts de Montreal for the first time. Out in front of the old main building, there is casting of Rodin's Jean d'Aire. That statue is a rich man's symbol of revolt against the King's government. I was shocked to see it. I took the time to explain the story to my daughter, right there on the sidewalk.
East to West, the cultural fissures in Canada are more profound than anything that we have experienced in America, at least in living memory.
I frankly don't see how this is necessarily true. Canada doesn't do anything and provides almost nothing to global society that couldn't be done if they were simply another US state (which I am not remotely advocating!!!). They are the weakest they've ever been because of their own far left wing policy and immigration practices.
Canada only has 42M people of whom almost half live in just five cities. And then 90% of the population lives within 100 miles of our border. It's a bedroom community of the USA more or less especially with more and more of their business coming here and leaving there.
Agree on Montreal. It feels nothing like any other city in the US or Canada. LARPing life in Europe is a great way to describe it. Toronto is just a big city. Vancouver is beautiful but they are ruining it with third world immigrants.
