So, is finger-wagging at the USA a hobby for just some Canadian Dopers or does it have nationwide popularity there?
Speaking for myself, no problem, come on up and bring your target shooting stuff with you!
It’s a popular sport in Canada
Germany?
There’s **much **less finger waving up here in Canadia cuz you Americans are too busy (ruling the world?) to pay attention to us to make that worth it; however it’s more like causal smugness. Schadenfreude with a hint of arrogance mixed in for good measure. That’s much of our attitude to the daily polices/crisis that is America. 
Maybe you can chill out from your hate and name calling and enjoy the Stanley Cup playoffs, which will once again be celebrated in the good ole U S of A. Just don’t hit your head, you may die from shoddy Canadian medical care like Vanessa Redgrave’s daughter.
A few years ago, a Canadian friend of mine (from Ontario, IIRC) told me that he felt the best idea for Canada would be to let Quebec secede, and then let the U.S. take the Maritimes. His reasoning was that the Quebecois really didn’t want to be in Canada anyway, and the Maritimes (save for fishing) were a drag on the rest of the Canadian economy.
The Confederation Bridge has been open since 1997, but it’s very very close to the Nova Scotia border. The route to the bridge from Nova Scotia is very rural, and in this kind of situation, assuming Nova Scotia and PEI had remained on friendly terms, it’s almost unthinkable to assume New Brunswick would withhold access. I would imagine that Nova Scotia would ask for that chunk of land, which is pretty damn small considering the rest of the land space, in return for another piece of Nova Scotia, probably somewhere along the border.
Although certainly the Wood Islands ferry, which runs a seasonal service between Wood Island, PEI, and Caribou, NS, would see a huge boom in business and possibly extend its service out-of-season contingent on being able to afford icebreaker ferries.
You seem positively terrified of Americans.
In another thread, you actually said, not kidding around but totally seriously, that allowing too many American tourists across the border would cause Canada to lose its multicultural values. Your evidence for this was the claim that the United States doesn’t hold events like Caribana. (Though, of course, it does, as even the most casual Google search would easily reveal.) You further claimed that the influence of American tourists would be to make Canadians start shooting each other.
Pot, I’d like you to meet the kettle.
But, then Canada would have no East Coast. Do Canadians really want to give that up?
I’ve read that “America: Threat or Menace?” is your favorite perennial talk-radio topic. America seems to be the only thing that frightens Canadians. (Not unreasonably – who else has ever threatened you or invaded you?)
Newfoundland and Labrador were originally colonies of the UK- I believe they did not become part of Canada until after WWII. Would they be adverse to leaving?
1949. (Actually, Newfoundland-and-Labrador was one colony, the Dominion of Newfoundland; now it is one province, called “Newfoundland and Labrador”, which is a bit confusing when you’re trying to count off the names of all ten provinces.)
Not sure what kind of hate and name calling you’re seeing here, but anyway, here is some factual information:
- Of the 4 teams remaining in the playoffs, here is the breakdown of nationalities on their rosters:
Canadian: 54
European: 30
US: 29
- In terms of healthcare, it’s probably best not to rely on individual anecdotes, as these are rarely useful. Instead, you could look at overall indicators of how the healthcare system is working for the population, such as infant mortality rate, maternal death rate, longevity, cancer treatment success, etc. Hint: the Canadian system does not give shoddy medical care.
Purely anecdotal, but I attended the 2003 World Science Fiction Convention in Toronto, and attended a panel discussion (forget the topic) and the subject of Canadian health care came up, and I asked the panel, “Are there any downsides to the Canadian health-care system?” Based on criticism I’d encountered on this Board and elsewhere, I was expecting a heated debate. But all the half-dozen Canadian panelists shrugged, and said, “No.” “No.” No." And seemed rather surprised at the question. Now, granted, the kind of people who will appear as panelists at an SF con are not a representative cross-section of Canadian or any society; generally, they’re smarter and more sophisticated than average.
And there was a crowd of at least a hundred at that panel, and not a whisper of dissent did I hear.
To be honest, that sounds like something you might have read decades ago. It’s painfully 1979; it’s like me asking if the favourite topic in the USA is how the Carter admiistration is doing.
Canadian existential angst is as dead as Pierre Trudeau. There is still a lot of weird anti-American sentiment but it’s just xenophobia, not a serious concern about the future of the country. That’s yesterday’s news.
Say, what’s New Brunswick like, anyway? Is it a lot different from Maine?
Actually, I read it in a Spider Robinson (Yank-born naturalized Canuck, he is) novel published in 2004.
Good to know.
Obviously they’re geographically similar, and have similar economic activites at similar levels of wealth. They seem similar as you drive through them. Neither has any large cities of note and have very widely distributed populations, with no particular urban center. The largest city in Maine, Portland, has only 65,000 people in it, while NB’s largest city, Moncton, has about 70,000. Maine has almost twice as many people but, honestly, you’d never notice, they’re so spread out. (Maine’s a little bigger in area, too.)
The major difference: New Brunswick is much more French than people realize; there is a reason it’s the only officially bilingual province. The aforementioned Moncton’s got to be a third French, at least, as is the province overall. There are separate English and French public school systems, a major French university, the works.
Maine is actually the most French of all states, even more than Louisiana, but it’s not remotely comparable to New Brunswick in this manner.
New Brunswick’s economy is strongly, strongly tied to a certain few industries–namely, the fishing industry, and the Irving and McCain family corporations. The Irvings control a gigantic proportion of New Brunswick land for the pulp and paper industry, which employs huge numbers of New Brunswickers, as well as transportation and shipping and shipbuilding, along with Irving Oil and all its subsidiaries, and the Kent chain of stores. The Irvings also control every newspaper except one French-language newspaper in the province. McCain is the second biggest business in Canada, and is headquartered in New Brunswick.
Having only been to Maine a couple of times, I have no idea about its economic situation. But New Brunswick’s is mainly driven by: the Irvings, the McCains, the fishing and pulp/paper industries, and to a much smaller extent, the military.