Sad, but true. By the 50’s, Canada had the third largest air force and the forth largest navy (or was it the other way around?) in the world. Canada’s opinion has never meant much because our Prime Ministers have been, as a general rule, spineless. No one cares what Canada’s opinions are because no one KNOWS what Canada’s opinions are. I was still confused as to Canada’s official stance on the war until a few weeks ago, even though the PM apparently made a statement long before that. Canada’s always been in the position of the peacekeepers, the shock troops, always as an additional arm to the “Big Boys”.
Do I care, as a Canadian? Eh, sorta kinda. It would be nice to have Canada mentioned in international news stuff. You always hear what Spain, the UK, Germany, China, Russia, Italy, Kuwait and Latvia think about the war, but never Canada. On the other hand, international politics has never been Canada’s focus. We focus more of our energy inwards, on our own people, and as a result, have consistantly the top standard of living in the world. But, on the other hand, if staying out of the international sandbox means we sustain that standard of living, I don’t care. I’d take a small military and a soft voice over big tax cuts for the rich and a crumbling education system
I have a hard time wrapping my head around the notion that flag-burning is rude, offensive, or something to get wrung up about. It’s a legitimate protest action that I see as being (at least for the States) pretty fundamentally rooted in patriotic behaviour; its characterisation as something fundamentally unpatriotic or the like feels to me like a position of ignorance.
So in the interest of dispelling same:
The United States has a thing called the “Flag Code”, which is a set of instructions on how to treat the flag with appropriate respect. (Don’t let it touch the ground, don’t let it fly in the rain (except if it’s some new-fangled thing that isn’t subject to having its colours running), don’t fly it at night without a spotlight, appropriate ways of attaching it to a car if one displays it on a vehicle, that sort of thing.) And the way specified in that code for appropriate disposal of a soiled flag is . . . burning it.
The origin of “flag-burning” as a protest in the United States is in reference to that code – to suggest that the actions of whoever or whatever the protestor is protesting have dirtied the flag sufficiently that it needs to be given a respectful funeral.
(I have no sense of patriotism, but I’m big on the Flag Code. Funny the sort of thing upbringing instills, isn’t it?)
How many average Americans did you talk to about this? I had no idea that all my opinions were now coming from the font of all knowledge, the mighty Spit. :rolleyes:
Anyway, I think Canadians burning our flags says the same thing as Americans burning our flags. It’s a cheap, easy and impressive way to say they disagree with what our country is doing. Waving a sign written in French (or any other language that I don’t speak) isn’t really going to affect me.
Once again proving that Alberta is the best province in Canada ( (-: ), at last night’s Oiler’s game the crowd cheered wildly after the American anthem was played.
One fan was asked why he cheered, and he said, “I don’t agree with this war, but only a classless jerk would boo the flag or the anthem of our closest friend in the world.”
I would bet my next paycheck that if we took a random poll of American citizens asking things like “How do you feel about US-Canada relations?”, “Where is Montreal in relation to Vancouver?”, “Should Canadian opinion be used with US policy?”, the majority would say they don’t know, and/or they don’t care.
It is a sad fact that Canada does not garner vast amounts of respect from the average American- It’s just that place up there that has a lot of hockey, guys in red jackets on horseback, and that great tasting beer. Don’t ask me why things are like this because I do not know, but from personal conversations, opinions on this board, etc.; Canadians know a lot more about the US than people from the US know about Canada.
And thanks for calling me by might rightful name- “Mighty Spit”. It pisses me off dearly when you folks don’t give me the kudos I so richly deserve.
Be nice to Sam. He’s an Albertan. Like Texans, Albertans need to be humoured with regards to their beliefs about the superiority of their home province/state. Informing them of the facts just makes them cranky.
Posters who know me know I’m definitely not a with-us-or-against-us zealot; so “yes,” it was intended as an ironic reply to flag burnings – the constitutional right of which is defended by the Constitution of the US. Too many Yanks get their panties in a bunch when furriners practice the same rights we so staunchly claim to stand for. Hope I didn’t offend our friends to the north, and I’ll try to work in a next time.
The flag is just a rag with some stripes on it. Not one person ever died because a flag was burned. Let’s save our outrage for stuff that actually matters in the world.
For historical accuracy, we did the same when y’all invaded New York in that same war. Neither side was very successful at invading the other back then.
Now, the stealthy way y’all occupy Maine every summer is another matter…
Maine? Here’s historical accuracy for you in that same war.
The Americans in Calais (oops, that’s a French name) ran out of gunpowder, so the good Colonists across the St. Croix (oops, another French name) loaned them some. The lot of them had one hell of a fireworks celebration.
My first thought when I read the title of this thread was “I didn’t think Canadians cared enough to go to the trouble of burning American flags.” Americans don’t care what Canadians think; we don’t care much what Americans think, either. We’re separate countries, ya know. We have different rules, customs, wars, etc.
For the record, though, I think Chretien made a huge mistake in not supporting Bush’s decision to go to war. All Chretien had to do was say, “Sure, we’re behind you 100%. We’ll send you all the troops we can” and send out a couple hundred grunts in a boat, and all is hunky-dory with our international relations with our closest neighbour. I don’t think Chretien understands the concept of a gesture (his mentor, Trudeau, certainly did, though).
